Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus

"Worship of the Eucharist and its sacredness"

Cycle C

Reading: Lk. 9: 11b - 17

In the first reading, after bringing out the bread and wine and Melchizedek blessing him, Abram "gave tenth of everything."  (Gen 14, 20)  Now I am fully convinced that giving "tenth of everything" is equated with life itself and unless we do that, we haven't lived at all.

Today, as we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus, in last year's homily of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he verified this truth that The Eucharist is intimately linked with life itself, like the tithe. "Lest we recognize Christ in the Eucharist, we risk removing His presence from the rest of time and space," the Holy Father said.

The theme he gave last year was: "Worship of the sacrament and its sacredness" which I shall also use in my reflections.

First, worship - celebration and adoration are linked with the life of the Church: "The worship of the Most Blessed Sacrament is the spiritual “environment” in which the community can celebrate the Eucharist well and in truth."

Second, Sacredness - is none other than Jesus himself: "He did not abolish the sacred, but brought it to fulfillment, inaugurating a new worship, which is, yes, fully spiritual but which however, so long as we are journeying in time, makes use again of signs and rites, of which there will be no need only at the end, in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will no longer be a temple." (cf. Revelation 21:22)

Sacredness is also linked to being church: "The experience of being church – listening to the Word of God, singing, approaching together the table of the Bread of life. Communion and contemplation cannot be separated, they go together."

Thus, adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and living out his will give life to us individually and communally.  The result is communion, our intimate union with him and with one another, the true picture of heaven on earth.