The body of the Lord. The Blessed Sacrament of Presence and Communion

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Father Gabriele
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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE BODY OF THE LORD. THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENCE AND COMMUNION

"In truth, verily I tell you: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day"

 

Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

 

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Dear Friends and Readers of The Island of Patmos,

in the great feast of The body of the Lord Jesus definitively offers himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Word tells us that in those days, while the inhabitants of Capernaum listen to his words, they are knocked out by a big announcement: «I am the living bread, came down from heaven" (GV 6, 51). Words that initially cause some confusion in them, to the point of raising protests. They almost seem to expect a God who is a bit’ more understandable, compared to those words in which Jesus expounds what is the great mystery of the Eucharist. With words that at first can only stun, outlining a great and tremendous mystery. Jesus, the incarnate son of God, choose to become that piece of bread and that sip of wine. In the Eucharistic species, Christ in body is present at every Holy Mass celebrated, blood, soul and divinity. Those Eucharistic species become for us the bread and wine for the path of eternity. They become the new hidden manna, the food that allows us to obtain the lifeblood of grace to walk in holiness and justice every day of our lives.

As we more or less know from the Catechism, the real presence of Jesus is possible because during the Holy Mass, at the time of consecration, through the words of the priest recited on the Eucharistic species the miracle of transubstantiation. The substances of bread and wine, while maintaining the same look, they are converted into the substance of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before the announcement of this mystery the Capernaites are scandalized, because they don't understand it, partly because you lack the tools to understand, partly because they have a somewhat hard heart locked up in pharisaic formalisms and memorized formulas which, however, do not have a concrete development in charity. So here Jesus offers them two explanations:

"In truth, verily I tell you: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day" (GV 6, 53).

Jesus explains that assimilate his body it means that the Father has sent him as a new and eternal manna from heaven that completes the manna that was given to the Jews in the desert. So Jesus is the one who in that manna, in that bread, he makes himself present because God the Father makes him present through a miracle, this is in synthesis the discourse that he presents to the listeners; and makes it present because through his bread Jesus arrives in full and strong intimacy with those who welcome him. The body of the one who receives the new and eternal manna becomes the temple, the new home for the Lord.

This shows on the one hand the real presence, as we said at the beginning, in which the believer is purified and transformed by God to be in imitation of Christ. In a sense, as the Greek Fathers say, the assumption of the Body of Christ makes him similar to us: because the Eucharist is the Sacrament that offers all of us the grace of the presence and imitation of Jesus in our concrete daily life.

Like this, imitating Jesus, all of us can fellowship with others and climb a path of holiness. To be holy means to operate the charity and love of God, therefore to let our neighbor enter a path of eternity. Jesus himself tells us so: the love of Christ in the Eucharist leads us to eternal life and the resurrection of the body.

As well as then, as I read these eternal words I wonder: the great mystery of love truly present in the Eucharist, scandalizes perhaps even today? Perhaps our sanctification also passes through this. Be Eucharistic witnesses, because first of all we are the first to be eucharistized, that is, we are poured out by the grace of the real presence, and its effects of joy and satisfaction can be authentic witnesses of the beauty of its presence. Show the joy of being in communion with Him, thus it leads us to make communion with the whole Church and witnesses with all humanity.

We can draw from this joy every time we approach the embrace of Eucharistic adoration. We lay our hearts, our existential wounds on the Eucharistic heart of Jesus and we will be poured out by a great love.

Amen!

Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 11 June 2023

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