The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 

Gen 14:18-20; I Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11-17

Today, we celebrate the greatest gift Jesus left to us--the precious treasure of His Divine Presence. He left us His own Body and Blood as daily nourishment for our souls, love to warm our hearts, courage to share our daily crosses. Today is the feast of Corpus Christi. We believe in the “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist because 1) Jesus promised it after miraculously feeding the 5000. 2) Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist during his Last Supper. (Both with the same kind of action. Jesus "took, blessed, broke, and gave" the food on that hillside, just as He would later do in the Upper Room. Jesus commanded his disciples to repeat it at the last supper. 4) This is real because “Nothing is impossible for God.”

We explain the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist by: “transubstantiation” which means that the substance of the consecrated bread and wine is changed to the risen Jesus’ glorified Body and Blood by the action of the Holy Spirit, and its accidents (like color, shape, taste etc.), remain the same. 

Substance is not in what we can always see. What we can see and taste and smell are accidents of a thing. We see changes taking place by changes in the accidents. Take for instance our own human growth. See your changes from a baby to this day. What did really change in you ? Is this your substance or accidents ? Only your accidents. Your nature, your genes, blood group or your finger prints all remain the same, but your cells multiplied and your size grew and color changed…which are all really accidental changes. In some cases God did some miracles by changing even the accidents. Two weeks ago I, along with 5 others from here visited a place called Santarem in Portugal where a Eucharistic miracle took place in the 12^th century.

Today’s first reading describes how the priest-king Melchizedek offered a thanksgiving-sacrifice of bread and wine to God for the welfare of the patriarch Abraham, and shows how the event prefigured the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Priest-King Jesus. Melchizedek was not a Jewish priest. He is the first priest mentioned in the bible. Bible does not say anything about his genealogy. He just appeared and disappeared. That is why he is called eternal priest. But he offered sacrifice of Bread and wine for Abraham and Abraham gave him ten percent of what he had in return. And thus the gifts brought by Melchizedek became Abraham’s, by right.  (History of our tithing, I think, goes back to this). We do offer the same here at the Mass too. The priest offers bread and wine and you offer your gifts and thus the bread and wine become yours to offer on your behalf. When the priest offers the bread he says this prayer: Blessed are you…We have this….fruit of the earth and work of human hands. (Fruit of the earth is what you did not labor, what you got as a gift… and work of your hands…what you labored.)

Whatever we offer the Holy Spirit transforms them into divine presence. The offering to become ours we need to offer ourselves along with the bread, in the bread. If we feel nothing has changed in us after the Mass, that is primarily because we did not really offer ourselves at the Mass.

Jesus took the five bread and two fish from the boy, rather than taking bread out of thin air. God wants our everything and multiply that as he did at the multiplication of the bread.  If we hold back anything, that is just ours, God will not take a share in that.  Think a moment, what does he want us to put into his hands so he can bless and transform it?

Ordinarily, when we eat some food that is absorbed by us and becomes part of our bodies. But when we receive the Eucharist, it absorbs us; it makes us into more and more mature, living members of Christ's body. In the holy communion, we do not eat Jesus, rather he eats us. As St.Augustine says: Always the superior principle eats the lesser principle. A lion eats a deer, a deer does not eat a lion. A deer eats grass, grass does not eat a deer. Grass absorbs minerals, minerals don’t absorb grass. God is the superior principle and not the human beings. If God is superior then he should eat us and not we Him. Though in physical reality it does not look so. When Jesus eats us we become part of him and we grow in Him. We become more and more like him not vice versa. As John the Baptist said: we become less and less and he becomes greater and greater in us. So the more you receive the Holy Communion worthily it is going to transform us.

St Francis de Sales preached to the people, “When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage, welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.” Leaving the church without even giving a thanksgiving to the Eucharistic presence that just came to us, is a dishonor to him. Would we dare to leave a wedding party as soon as we eat the food, without even saying a thanks to the host ? How dare we do that dishonor to the Lord.

I can understand people coming late to the Mass, but what I can’t understand is people habitually leaving soon after the communion, as if what is done here after the communion is of no importance. They are not dishonoring the priest or the people staying till the end, they are dishonoring the host. Who is the host here…Jesus.

We need to develop a devotion to the self emptying presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. The Missionaries of charity spend four hours a day praying with Jesus in the Eucharist. That is where Mother Teresa got her strength.

She used to say: "The Mass is the spiritual food that sustains me - without which I could not get through one single day or hour in my life."

"Spend as much time as possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament and He will fill you with His strength and His power."

There are several opportunities at this parish for spending time with the Lord before the Eucharist. Every Tuesday from 8.30 till 10.00 pm we have opportunities for that. Every first Friday from 10.30 till Saturday 4.00 pm we have Eucharistic exposition. Eucharistic chapel is open till 5.00 pm every day. Make your appointment with the Lord on a regular basis. Tomorrow at 2.00 pm. there is Eucharistic Procession at Cathedral meant for the whole diocese. Join if you can. Our Choir is privileged to sing at this function too.

Today, as Jesus comes to us again in Holy Communion, let's thank him for the great gift of his presence, renew our commitment to be faithful to him and honor him.