Solemnity of Corpus Domini - The Eucharistic Mystery is the real sign and presence of Jesus, nourishment of joy for the Christian

Father Gabriele

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE EUCHARISTIC MYSTERY IS THE SIGN AND REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS, NURSING OF JOY FOR THE CHRISTIAN

 

Receiving Eucharistic Bread and Wine helps us to become “little” Jesus and to live every day with joy and spontaneity. So, from intimacy with him in the Eucharist, Charity arises, which Jesus himself describes in the Gospel.

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

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Dear Readers of The Island of Patmos,

tthe Dominican singers of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva perform the Eucharistic hymn composed by St. Thomas Aquinas

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi it shows us that at the Last Supper Jesus gave us the sacrament of his presence and deepest intimacy: the Eucharist.

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Let's imagine one of the last dinners which we did together with friends: their jokes, their jokes, also their many stories that often gave us joy and serenity. Here then is the Lord, at his Last Supper, he gives us his whole person, all his joy, serenity and grace. This last supper is presented to us from San Paolo, in the oldest account of the institution of the Eucharist:

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"Brothers, I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, he broke it and said,: “This is my body, that's for you; Do this in memory of me". In the same way, after dinner, also the cup, saying: “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; do this, every time you drink it, in memory— of me "".

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Of that Holy Supper we know, from the evangelical chronicles and from the apostolic letters that Jesus and the apostles are gathered in a banquet to share food. This important moment is intertwined in their journey of faith with the Lord. They are officiating a Jewish dinner, that of Easter, still known today as order (seder), in which Jesus inserts two new elements: bread and wine. Elements of the fields and the fruit of human labor. The Lord blesses this bread and this wine that he has taken with him.

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Jesus blesses God for the gifts of the fruits of the earth. On the contrary, Adam and Eve had stolen the fruit, instigated by the snake: they had taken that food without blessing God and indeed almost cursing it. In this way, Adam and Eve created division between them and God. Jesus, on the contrary, bless that new food, reversing the perspective of sin: bread and wine become elements of communion between men and God.

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For this the Lord immediately offers the bread and wine to the apostles, changing its material and visible substance into His Most Holy Body and His Most Holy Blood. To be honest, I don't know how immediately the apostles themselves understood what was happening. At the end of the dinner they sang the hymn, the psalm 135 in which it says «Give thanks to the Lord for being good, because his mercy is eternal ". After consuming Jesus Bread and Jesus Wine, the apostles have a new heart: therefore only at the end do they intuit the great miracle that happened at the Last Supper.

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This miracle it is presented to us again every time when we participate in Mass. Every time we receive the Eucharist we assimilate Him, who at the same time assimilates us to him. It makes us full of new strength, bursting, Divina, with which no impediment can hinder us. Receiving Eucharistic Bread and Wine helps us to become “little” Jesus and to live every day with joy and spontaneity. So, from intimacy with him in the Eucharist, Charity arises, which Jesus himself describes in the Gospel.

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We ask the Lord the grace of today to make Holy Communion and to walk in the eternal paths of the love of Charity and to inflame the whole world with its grace.

Amen.

Rome, 18 June 2022

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Father Gabriele

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