Sunday, May 29, 2005
Body and Blood of Christ

1st Reading: Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16
A food for a people in need

Moses said to the people, "Remember how Yahweh, your God, brought you through the desert for forty years. He humbled you, to test you and know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He made you experience want, he made you experience hunger, but he gave you manna to eat which neither you nor your fathers had known, to show you that man lives not on bread alone, but that all that proceeds from the mouth of God is life for man.

"Then do not let your heart become proud and do not forget Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. It is he who has led you across this great and terrible desert, full of fiery serpents and scorpions, an arid land where there is no water. But for you he made water gush forth from the hardest rock. And he fed you in the desert with manna which your fathers did not know."

2nd Reading: 1st Corinthians 10:16-17
One bread, one body

Brothers and sisters, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion with the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ? The bread is one, and so we, though many, form one body, sharing the one bread.

Gospel: John 6:51-58
Real food and real drink of life

Jesus said to the crowds, "I am the living bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh and I will give it for the life of the world."

The Jews were arguing among themselves, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" So Jesus replied, "Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live with eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

"My flesh is really food and my blood is drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. Just as the Father, who is life, sent me and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me. This is the bread which came from heaven; unlike that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."

Commentary

THIS is the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, of Eucharist in liturgy-the work of the people. But it is also the mystery of Jesus' teaching, of the Word made flesh that dwells among us in the Scriptures. We feast on the word, chew on it and swallow it, internalizing it so that it becomes part of us. We stand on our words in the creed, and offer our bodies and lives to God with the bread and wine. And God transforms the bread and wine into the presence of the Risen Lord, the Body and Blood of Christ and transforms us into the Body and Blood of Christ, the Church in the world, as food and justice, hope and peace for all. We eat what we have proclaimed and become what we eat, becoming God's presence in the world for it is life and salvation. We eat the Bread and the Word and we will live forever, even here, we will taste everlasting life in God, our Father, Jesus the Risen Lord, and the Spirit who binds us together.

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