God is always new, always challenging. Each new circumstance of our life should lead us to a new understanding of His goodness and love. As we grow older, God should become younger for us. What does God see when he looks into our minds and hearts, and lives? Does he see evidence of our oneness with one another? Or does he see a complacent routine of old habits repeating themselves mechanically? Does he see signs of change and growth?
Jesus calls his followers to a radical conversion from the natural but disastrous tendency to be self-centered to a new kind of life where the concerns and needs of others become a major factor in all one’s decisions. Jesus himself modeled this ideal by giving his life for us. Small wonder then that the central sacrament of the Eucharist, representing his Body broken and his Blood poured out for others, should be the very heart and soul of Christian teaching and ritual.
The Eucharist is a gift, not just to be adored and reverenced but also to be consumed, digested and lived by every Christian. What were once the simple gifts of bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood of our Savior - the new covenant between God and mankind. It is not a private gift, but a communal one. When Jesus says, " This is My Body… this is My Blood ", he is also saying, "You Are My Body... You Are My Blood!" Jesus gives us his Body and Blood so that He might live in us and so that we, then, might become life for the world.
We are called to be a community that gathers around the table in a meal of solidarity and service.
There is much to reflect upon today as we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ. We remember the unselfish love of Jesus, poured out and transformed in the simple gifts of bread and wine. And we acknowledge that our oneness in faith and love – our becoming Eucharist for one another - is the strongest evidence of Jesus and his Spirit working within us to bring all people together into the peace and justice of God's kingdom.
And this is the challenge of the Eucharist. For unless we are willing to gather with all who make up this "holy people" - saints and sinners, rich and poor, traditional or progressive, seekers, doubters, dissenters and all seeking to discover God's will for each of them - then what we eat and drink becomes a judgment against our very selves.
The feast of Corpus Christi is a witness to this. Our oneness in faith and love is the strongest evidence that Jesus and his spirit are in fact working among us to bring all people together in the peace and justice of God's kingdom. It is the testament of a shared "communion" in which we are all aware of our commitment to "be" the body and blood of Christ in all we do.
