The first reading presents
a significant scene from the Book of Exodus. This is the people’s acceptance
the Covenant of the Law of God, the Covenant of the Ten Commandments. A sacrifice was used to seal the
covenant. Young bulls were
slain. As a sign of the people’s
acceptance, all the people were sprinkled with the blood of the bulls, the
blood of the sacrifice. Strange, but significant. The people were not to be mere observers. They were to be intimately involved in the covenant.
This
reading is presented as prophetic foreshadowing of the Blood of the New
Covenant. We share intimately in
the sacrifice offered to the Father by Jesus on the Cross. Instead of
witnessing a sacrifice, we receive the sacrifice within ourselves. We eat His
Body. Instead of being sprinkled
with the Blood of the Sacrifice, we drink the Blood of the Lord.
When
we receive communion we reaffirm our acceptance of the New Covenant with
God. This is more than just
saying, “I agree.” Communion is an
intimate sharing of the presence of Christ conquering evil on the Cross. We are
not just stained with blood. We
take the blood of the Lamb within us. We don’t just offer young bulls for
sacrifice. We take the sacrifice within us. The sacrifice is the Body of
Christ.
The
Church gives us the Solemnity of Corpus Christi to remind us of as adults of
what we are doing and whom we are receiving which we approach the Eucharist.
The original celebration of the Body of Christ was begun in the thirteenth
century and promoted by one of our spiritual ancestors named St. Juliana of
Liege, a visionary and an Augustinian nun. Soon after this the pope, Pope Urban IV, asked the great
theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, to prepare a Mass to celebrate this new feast. We
still sing some of the hymns that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote for this Mass,
particularly the Tantum Ergo, and the
O Salutaris Hostia.
The
Eucharist, a word that means thanksgiving, is the way that we thank God for life we have received. We thank God for uniting us to the
community of salvation. We thank
God for the many ways that we experience his love in every aspect of our
lives.
The
Eucharist is the mystery of commitment and strength. The commitment is to do
the work of the Kingdom. We are a part of the Grand Adventure, the Great
Quest. When we receive communion
we reaffirm our role in the battle to transform the world into the Kingdom of
God.
The
Eucharist is also the mystery of strength. The strength that we need for the Great Quest is the very
presence of Jesus within us as Church and as individuals. We are not in this battle alone. We carry the Lord, our strength. Do we have a difficult decision to
make? We ask Jesus within us
for guidance after we receive. Do
we feel that our lives are falling apart?
We ask Jesus to keep us together.
Are we searching for a way to serve the Lord? We give ourselves over to the Lord within us. Are we sick, gravely sick, even
terminal? We ask Jesus within us
how we can use our sickness to fulfill our part of the Grand Adventure. Do we feel alone? We stop and pray after communion and
realize that we are never alone when we are with the Lord.
There
are so many reasons why we pray when we have Jesus within us after we receive
communion. All of them are
valid. Every petition is heard by
the Lord, particularly when he is within us.
Today
we pray for sincerity. We pray
that we might be sincere in the commitment we make every time we receive
communion ■
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