Reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Gospel. Jn. 6: 51-58

 “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot possess eternal life within yourselves. For us Christians, when we read this passage we will immediately imagine that Jesus is talking about the Eucharistic celebration. But at the time of Jesus, there was no Eucharistic celebration. That’s why the Jews argued with each other. What does Jesus really mean when he says these words? In order to understand the words of Jesus Christ, it is important to know about the ancient sacrifice. In the ancient times, animals were sacrificed to God. An animal was not burnt fully but partially although the whole animal was offered to the god. Some meat was given to the priests and some were given to the worshippers to make a feast among themselves. At that feast, they believed that the god himself was present as a guest. Moreover, they believed that God himself had entered into the meat. Therefore, when the worshipper eats the meat, he was literally eating the god. When people rose from such a feast they went out as they believed that they are filled with God. By doing this they believed god shared their sorrows, grief, joy, and happiness of his people. We may think of it as idolatrous worship, but it was the custom of ancient people. In some parts of India people still sacrifice animals for god. They believe that God is their guest.  

Now, what does Jesus mean when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood? The flesh of Jesus is his complete humanity. John insisted that we must grasp and never let go of the full humanity of Jesus, that he was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. What does this mean? Jesus, as we have seen, again and again, was the mind of God become a person. This means that in Jesus we see God taking human life, human problems, battling with our human temptations, working out our human relationships. Therefore it is as if Jesus said: "Feed your heart, feed your mind, feed your soul on the thought of my humanity. When you are discouraged and in despair, when you are disgusted with life and living--remember I took that life of yours and these struggles of yours on me." Jesus knows our struggles, He understands our problems because he himself faced them in His life. To eat Christ's body is to feed on the thought of his life until our own life is strengthened and cleansed.

Jesus said we must drink his blood. In Jewish thought, the blood stands for life. It is easy to understand why. As the blood flows from a wound, life goes away; and to the Jew, the blood belonged to God. That is why to this day a true Jew will never eat any meat which has not been completely drained of blood. "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood" (Gen.9:4). "Only you shall not eat its blood" (Deut.15:23). When Jesus says "You must drink my blood--you must take my life into the very center of your being--and that life of mine is the life which belongs to God." When Jesus said we must drink his blood he meant that we must take his life into the very core of our hearts. We must go to him; and then we will have a real life." When he told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he was telling us to feed our hearts and souls and minds on his humanity, and to revitalize our lives with his life until we are refilled with the life of God. If we want life we must come into contact with the love and the life of Jesus Christ.

What can we learn from today’s feast? The Eucharist, (the Body and Blood of Christ), teaches us the importance of community. The Eucharistic celebration brings us all the Catholic Christians together. However, we cannot be in communion with the Lord without being in communion with one another. When we avoid the Eucharistic celebration, we avoid the community aspect in our life. Every Eucharist ends with a Sending on Mission. ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’.  We have to carry the message of the Eucharist into the world. Just as Jesus has become our Food, giving himself completely to us, so too we must give ourselves for the sake of the world.  We are challenged to live the love we have experienced. We must become sources of nourishment for the world as Christ has become a source of nourishment for us.
A man came to a priest and wanted to make fun of his faith, so he asked, “How can bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Christ?” The priest answered, “No problem. You yourself change food into your body and blood, so why can’t Christ do the same?” But the objector did not give up. He asked, “But how can the entire Christ be in such a small host?” “In the same way that the vast landscape before you can fit into your little eye. ” But he still persisted, “How can the same Christ be present in all your churches at the same time?” The priest then took a mirror and let the man look into it. Then let the mirror fall to the ground and broke it and said to the skeptic, “There is only one of you and yet you can find your face reflected in each piece of that broken mirror at the same time.”