Corpus Christi

“This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). These are the words that our Lord Jesus Christ said at the Last Supper. We celebrate the Eucharist not only as the memorial of what Jesus did before He suffered for us on the cross, but we are living that sublime moment in union with the disciples. Jesus’ power surpasses all the limits of space and time; therefore, each time we celebrate the sacrifice of the Eucharist, we are eyewitnesses of passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is not any question about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus said that the bread (or host) and wine that we see is now His body and blood. Jesus Christ is offering Himself for the forgiveness of our sins. He is present in the Eucharist. Pope Francis, in his homily about the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ on June 6, 2021, says, “To celebrate the Eucharist, we need first to recognize our thirst for God, to sense our need for Him, to long for His presence and love, to realize that we cannot go it alone, but need the Food and Drink of eternal life to sustain us on our journey.” For this reason, we celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. We recognize that we need Jesus’ presence in our lives. When we receive Holy Communion, we are not only receiving a host or piece of bread, but we are receiving Jesus Himself. Because Jesus loves us very much, He wanted to stay with us in a piece of bread. We eat His body because we need His strength. The body of Christ is our spiritual food that we need for our journey. Therefore, God is a priority for us.

We need God. Corpus Christi reminds us that Christ gave Himself because He loves us, and we need to receive His love which is present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. The Eucharist is the most beautiful gift that our Lord gave us. We cannot deny ourselves this wonderful gift. Nevertheless, we need to be well prepared to receive it. If we are not, we have another wonderful sacrament: Reconciliation. We experience the mercy of God in this sacrament.

Pope Francis also says in the same homily, “In celebrating and experiencing the Eucharist, we too are called to share in this love. For we cannot break bread on Sunday if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters. We cannot partake of that Bread if we do not give bread to the hungry. We cannot share that Bread unless we share the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in need. In the end, and the end of our solemn Eucharistic liturgies as well, only love will remain. Even now, our Eucharistic celebrations are transforming the world to the extent that we are allowing ourselves to be transformed and to become bread broken for others.”

Let us always celebrate the presence of the Lord in the sacrifice of the altar with joy and love. Let us be one with Christ who gave Himself in Holy Communion and let us share our joy for having received our Lord with our brothers and sisters who do not have the opportunity to participate with us in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Remember, The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build!

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez.