Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We see how in the gospel according to Luke, the Lord fed the crowd with five loaves and two fish. He is the Lord who has come to satisfy our hunger. He is the great provider.
According to Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, “the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
The Lord gives us his body and blood that we may be strong to bear him witness. To proclaim his death is to testify to the ransom he paid for our salvation.
The Lamb who freely gave himself at the last supper is the shepherd who felt the agony of the cross and passed through a moment of resistance. But for the love he has for humanity, he yielded to the will of his Father, our Father. A shepherd, knowing the danger of tending his sheep in the wilderness, goes ahead for the love he has for his sheep. In Jesus, we see how “Why has though forsaken me” swiftly transitioned to “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Hence, a eucharistic life is a life ready to live like Jesus through sacrifice.
However, it is easy to say yes to the Lord during our liturgical ceremonies, yielding to him through the crosses of our daily lives requires special grace. Being a communicant, one who receives the body and blood of Jesus everyday is not enough, we must put on his life, tracing the path he took while on earth.
The invitation to eat his body or to drink his blood is a call to draw strength from him so that we can bear effective witness to him by our lives.
May our lives be lived as libation poured as participation in the life and death of Christ. As we received his body and blood daily, may we always channel the strength we received in service to humanity, just as he did. Amen.
Listen to my latest benediction songs in Yoruba Language
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