Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
There are times in history when a person, a people, a community, or a nation stands in the in-between time; a time when our past and a future confront us, all at the same time. It is a crucial time. It is a critical time. It is a blessed time. In between time - that is where the people of Israel found themselves in today’s first reading (Deut 8:2-3, 14a-16b). They had completed the forty-year wandering in the desert and were about the enter the Promised Land. Today’s reading begins with Moses recalling the past – freedom from slavery, the wandering in the desert, the Lord’s direction on their journey, the people’s constant infidelity, their struggles, and the Lord’s enduring fidelity. Now as the people stand in-between their challenging and checkered past and the cusp of a new begining, Moses speaks to them. He asks them to never forget the past and yet move forward as a people of faith. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we too stand in the in-between times. Whether it is COVID-19 or the struggle for racial equality, we stand in hope between our past and the future. Like Moses to his people, today, I too am suggesting that we do not forget the past. But having learnt from our past, that we move forward as a people of faith.
I would like to use today’s three readings to reflect on three points.
1. Every challenge is An Invitation. At first reading, the words of Moses to the Israelites in the passage from Deuteronomy (8:2-3, 16b-18a) does not evoke the most positive emotion. We read about the Lord testing the people in the desert to determine their intentions and their capacity for steadfastness and fidelity. Does a people that endured slavery for centuries really need to be further tested for forty years in the desert? We hear about the people’s hunger and thirst, and their journey amidst serpents and scorpions. Yet, a deeper reading of the text gives us fresh insights. Every test, every challenge brought on by hunger and thirst, serpents and scorpions, was in fact an invitation. The invitation was to intentionally be God’s people rather than become their own god. The invitation was to allow God to form them rather than form themselves. The invitation was to serve God rather than their own selves. On the feast of Corpus Christi, the year 2020, you and I as individuals, our families, our nation and indeed the entire world face challenges like we have never done before. A global pandemic and the voice of a people crying out for racial equality present unprecedented challenges to us. These challenges, however, are also an invitation. They are an invitation to not forget the past and who we have been. They are an invitation to a create a just, equitable, peace-filled, safe, and healthy future. We have the opportunity now to create a new world, a world that honors the dignity of every human person irrespective of race, religion, gender, or nation. We have the opportunity to create a world where violence, oppression, inequality, poverty, and misery can be erased. This is the moment, when we as the people of God, learning from our past are invited to move forward as a people of faith.
2. One God, One People. The second reading from 1 Cor 10 is invaluable as we find ourselves in these in-between times. Let me begin with the conclusion Paul draws in his first letter to the Corinthians. He says, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (I Cor 10:17). Paul strived to present the cup and the bread as the one Body of Christ in which the many participate. Paul’s entire discussion of the Eucharist in the letter to the Corinthians was initiated by a community torn apart by factionalism. The Jewish-Christian and Gentile-Christian differences endangered all the Pauline communities, including the Corinthians. When the Corinthians gathered to break bread, often the rich went ahead and ate, leaving little food for the poor who came later. Even the charisms of the Holy Spirit became the grounds for contention and competition. Paul reminds this fractioned community about the unifying function on the one bread and the one cup. Participation in the one bread and one cup must make them one people. One God, one people. As Catholics, we participate in the one Cup and participate in the one Bread. This is an awesome privilege and a humbling responsibility. After participating in the one loaf and the one cup, if we then go forth and ferment division, disunity, factionalism, racism, oppression, injustice, and inequality, then we are guilty of breaking, fractioning, destroying the very Body of Christ. Let us be cautious of how we conduct ourselves in these in-between times. May we allow the One Bread and the One Cup to lead us to our future!
3. The God Who Remains. Let me change the mood of this homily from caution to comfort. In all the three readings, amidst the challenge that comes from living in the in-between times, we are assured of God’s enduring and real presence. As Moses reminds the Israelites, God “fed you with manna” (Deut 8:3). The manna became a symbol of God’s care, God’s nourishment, and God’s presence for the people. The greatest event in human history, the incarnation of the Son of God was the testament of God’s fidelity. But Christ takes it even further. He gives us his Body and Blood as "true food and true drink," so that, “Whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood remains in him and he in them.” Yes, God remains with us in these in-between times. What we are promised today is not merely manna, but the Body and Blood of Christ. What we are promised is not merely a Promise Land but eternity itself. In these in-between times, let us be comforted by the reality of God’s presence in the Body and Blood of Christ. Especially as a Church reopens for public worship, many Catholics are receiving communion for the first time in months. May the Body and Blood of Christ be our comfort, our unity, our healing and our peace.
As we find ourselves in these in-between times, may the Body and Blood of Christ, bring us to a just, united and peaceful world, and ultimately to eternal life. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph