Corpus Christi 2020

The WORD today reminds me how blessed I am with our faith. 

As we commemorate the Feast of Corpus Christi, or the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (especially that it is alive in the Holy Eucharist) we are reminded how blessed we are in our faith. 

In the second reading, we see how Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist. He said the bread is his body, and the wine is his blood. We are reminded to do it in remembrance of Jesus. We are reminded that as we partake of Him, so should we proclaim him as well. 

There is a story of a protestant and a catholic talking. The protestant asked the catholic: "is it true that in your religion, you believe that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ?" To which the catholic answered yes. Then the protestant said: "wow. If that were the case in our religion, I would do anything to receive him everyday!"

This story struck me. Sometimes we actually do not realize how blessed we are in our belief in the Holy Eucharist. As Catholics, we believe that it is the actual Body and Blood of Christ, not just a representation of it! Even if Jesus is not physically with us anymore, he is till very much alive and real in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. That is what God wants us to have. This is how God makes his presence alive and real in our lives. Isn't that amazing?! Isn’t it enough reason to want to receive him daily?

Everytime we attend mass, we have the opportunity to partake of it. To be one with him. As we consume the Holy Eucharist, it is actually God who consumes us. If we are in the proper disposition as we receive it, God will slowly transform us and consume us. We can slowly be transformed to become more and more like Him. We just need to make the decision to accept him and allow him to transform us. 

For months now, at least for a lot of us, we have not been able to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We have not been on an actual mass. I envy relatives in the province who were able to have actual mass already. However, even if we cannot receive him physically, we still have faith in him and his power. He is still with us. He is still guiding us. And we should just continue and do our best to live pleasing to him, so we can prepare ourselves for the time we can receive him physically again. 

What is the significance of the Holy Eucharist for me? Do I believe that it is the actual body and blood of Christ? Do I make the most out of it? Am I willing to accept Christ in my life and allow him to take control of my life? How do I prepare myself to receive Him?

May we have a renewed love for the Holy Eucharist, and may we do our part to spiritually prepare ourselves as we receive Him, so it will be easier for him to change us and to consume us. 

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another Sunday. Thank you for sending your only Son to die for me. Thank you for loving me however unworthy I am. Thank you for a very beautiful gift of the Holy Eucharist. I am sorry for not making the most out of it. Sorry for being contented to receive you only on Sundays. Sorry for not preparing myself to receive you. Awaken me Lord. I pray that I would always remember the importance and power of the Holy Eucharist. May I always do my best and prepare to receive you each time I hear mass. Give me the heart and the desire to always be thirsty for you and make the most out of the Eucharist. As I receive you, I ask that you consume me and transform me to become more like you. Since it has been months since I received you, help me live right as I prepare myself to receive you again once things are better. Amen.

Blessed Sunday!

In Christ,

-g-

June 14, 2020

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ; 

St. Andrew Fournet

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 8:2–3, 14b–16a

Moses said to the people:

“Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. 

“Do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Psalm 147:12–13, 14–15, 19–20 (12)

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. or R. Alleluia. 

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. 

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. or R. Alleluia. 

He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat he fills you. He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs his word! 

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. or R. Alleluia. 

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation; his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia. 

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. or R. Alleluia.

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 10:16–17

Brothers and sisters:

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

SEQUENCE 

Lauda Sion

Laud, O Zion, your salvation, 

Laud with hymns of exultation, Christ, your king and shepherd true: 

Bring him all the praise you know, He is more than you bestow. Never can you reach his due. 

Special theme for glad thanksgiving Is the quick’ning and the living Bread today before you set: 

From his hands of old partaken, As we know, by faith unshaken, Where the Twelve at supper met. 

Full and clear ring out your chanting, Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting, From your heart let praises burst: 

For today the feast is holden, When the institution olden Of that supper was rehearsed. 

Here the new law’s new oblation, By the new king’s revelation, Ends the form of ancient rite: 

Now the new the old effaces, Truth away the shadow chases, Light dispels the gloom of night.

What he did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, His memorial ne’er to cease: 

And his rule for guidance taking, Bread and wine we hallow, making Thus our sacrifice of peace. 

This the truth each Christian learns, Bread into his flesh he turns, To his precious blood the wine: 

Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives, But a dauntless faith believes, Resting on a pow’r divine. 

Here beneath these signs are hidden Priceless things to sense forbidden; Signs, not things are all we see: 

Blood is poured and flesh is broken, Yet in either wondrous token Christ entire we know to be. 

Whoso of this food partakes, Does not rend the Lord nor breaks; Christ is whole to all that taste: 

Thousands are, as one, receivers, One, as thousands of believers, Eats of him who cannot waste. 

Bad and good the feast are sharing, Of what divers dooms preparing, Endless death, or endless life. 

Life to these, to those damnation, See how like participation Is with unlike issues rife. 

When the sacrament is broken, Doubt not, but believe ‘tis spoken, That each sever’d outward token doth the very whole contain. 

Nought the precious gift divides, Breaking but the sign betides Jesus still the same abides, still unbroken does remain. Lo! the angel’s food is given To the pilgrim who has striven; see the children’s bread from heaven, which on dogs may not be spent. 

Truth the ancient types fulfilling, Isaac bound, a victim willing, Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling, manna to the fathers sent. 

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us, Jesu, of your love befriend us, You refresh us, you defend us, Your eternal goodness send us In the land of life to see. 

You who all things can and know, Who on earth such food bestow, Grant us with your saints, though lowest, Where the heav’nly feast you show, Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.

ALLELUIA

John 6:51

R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL

John 6:51–58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”