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| Body and Blood |
| Today
is Trinity Sunday. Our faith tells us there is but one God, and in thy
one God there are three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The
three persons are really distinct: the Father is not the Son, the Son is
not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. |
| That
kind of gift, my friends, is beyond deserving. The only thing a person
can do is quietly and humbly and gratefully accept it. Jesus thought of
His death in terms just as real as that. He was sacrificing Himself in
order to save others, and faced with that kind of gift, only one
response is appropriate: we can do nothing except receive it. That is
all Jesus asked His disciples to do. |
| You
see, Jesus is not only someone we try to follow. Above all, He is a
gift to be received. The night before He died Jesus was faced with a
problem: He knew He had to leave us, but He wanted to stay. The solution
is unbelievable, a solution only God could think of. He takes bread and
wine and transforms them into His body and blood. Again, He gives
himself. |
| This
is so amazing that we only believe because Jesus told us. As someone
once said, if God Himself has told us, who would dare to question? And
so, just as Jesus fed those people in our Gospel today, He feeds us at
every mass not just with bread and wine, but with His own body and
blood. |
| This
is not something between me and Jesus, not just a solitary supper or a
private party. Yes, this is a precious moment, but it also forms
community. St. Paul phrased it beautifully: “Because the bread is one,
we though many, are one body.” For we all partake of the one bread. The
Lord who locks Himself in the tabernacle of my body is none other than
the Lord who nourishes my next door neighbor, the same Christ who feeds
the Lebanese, the Japanese, the African and the Cuban. Christ is not
divided, Christ is multiplied! There is one and the same body, one and
the same Christ for all. In His flesh, we are one. |
| The
presence of Christ in me should at least make me think about my
attitude towards the rest of the body of Christ. Do I ever think about
that person who lives alone? The neighbor who is sick or elderly? Do I
ever shop for them? Call them? Do I take time to listen when others need
to talk? Does the presence of Christ in me make any difference to the
way I live? Do I spread scandal and gossip, ruining people’s
reputations? |
| While
I receive the One who said, “Judge not and you shall not be judged,” do
I use and abuse others either emotionally or physically? While I
receive the One who said, “Love others as you would love yourselves,” do
I embody love? |
| In
other words, does the Eucharist make a difference in our lives, or is
it something that has become common place? Something we do every Sunday
whether we want to or not? Jesus is a gift to be received, but how do
we receive Him? When we come forward to Holy Communion, do we come
forward because everyone else does, or do we come forward because we
want to receive God, want Him to be part of our lives? |
| When
you have a visitor, you prepare, shower, and dress. Do you ever think
to prepare for receiving Holy Communion by prayer or confession? Jesus
wants to be part of you, and for you to be part of Him so He invites you
to receive Him at every mass. When we realize that, we begin to
understand what He meant when He said, “I am with you always, even until
the end of the world.” And we begin to understand what the Psalmist
meant, hundreds of years before Jesus, when he said, “Take and see the
goodness of the Lord.” |
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