Corpus Christi - Sunday Homily

The Gospel sets up for us a real nice contrast between what we can do on our own without God and what we can do with Him.  In the Gospel, the apostles can do very little to feed the crowd.  When Jesus commands, “Give them some food yourselves,” they notice all they have are five loaves and two fish.  This wouldn’t be enough for a dozen people.  But with the supernatural power of God, they are able to feed 5,000.

Even as cool as this miracle was, it’s not the real miracle the Lord would eventually do.  These people would be hungry again the next day.  This miracle was good, but was still of finite value.  The real miracle would come at the Last Supper when the Lord would give his own body, blood, soul and divinity for the salvation of the world.  He would give a divine, supernatural food that lasts.  He would give his disciples liquid love to change their hearts that would set them on a path for eternal life.  What we do on our own does not even compare with what God can do. 

Without God, we can have a nice little memorial meal with bread and wine.  With God, the sacrifice of his Son on the Cross is made present for us.  We eat the body and drink the blood of the God-Man who saves us.

Without God we can get a maximum of about 100 years of life.  And one of the psalms tells us most of these are emptiness and pain.  With God, we get eternal life of complete fulfillment that we can’t even imagine.  John Paul II reminds us that the sacrifice of the Body and Blood is what brings about our destiny for eternal life.  With God we share the life of Christ now, and we share in his life forever.

Without God, we eat food that nourishes the body.  And since the body doesn’t last, this food is of finite value.  With God, the Eucharistic food of his body and blood nourishes the soul.  And since the soul is immortal, this Eucharistic food is of infinite value.

Without God, the food we eat becomes part of us.  We started out as small babies, and as we were nourished with food, we became larger.  With God, we become what we receive.  We become divinized.  We become more and more like him by feeding on Him.

Let’s imagine two rivers coming together.  One river is crystal clear, and the other river is muddy.  In the natural world, the two rivers come together and of course, the new river they form is muddy.  Imagine though the crystal clear river making the water of the muddy river crystal clear also.

Without God, the body decays.  With God, we are destined for the resurrection.

Our Eucharistic roots can be traced way back to the Old Testament.  We hear about Melchizedek in our first reading and Psalm today.  He brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram.  Like Christ, he had a priesthood that would last forever.

Also in the Old Testament, we know the story of the first Passover.  We may recall that God asked Moses to have the Israelites put lamb’s blood on their doorposts.  Without God, this is blood of an irrational beast making the doorposts kind of nasty and stinky, probably drawing lots of flies.  With God’s power, that lamb’s blood was used as His means to free His people from slavery.  With God, it’s a sign of the Lord’s blood that will be shed for us to save us and free us from our slavery to sin.

St. John Chrysostom asks, if the angel of death saw the lamb’s blood on those doors and did not dare to enter, how much less will the devil approach us now that he sees not a figurative blood on our doors, but the true blood of the Son of God on our lips?

As we enter into these sacred mysteries, we receive an abundance of grace.  Let’s participate with that grace so that we may appreciate the gift of the Eucharist that it truly is, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus.  And may our lives conform to the mysteries that we receive.