MOST HOLY BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST

Readings: Genesis 14.18-20, 1Corinthians 11.23-26, Luke 9.11b-17

The Celebration of the Lord's Body and Blood has been taking place since Last Supper and Continues to be celebrated at every Holy Mass. The Protestant reformers of the Sixteenth century, including Zwingli, Calvin, Luther and others, taught that the Holy Eucharist was simply a symbol. The unbroken teaching of the church is that we behold and receive in the Eucharist the Real Presence of the Risen Lord, who promised to be with us until the end of time. It is a great mystery yet  at the same time a simple truth: God-is-with -us in a very special and singular way in the Blessed Sacrament, both received at Holy Communion and adored in the tabernacle or exposed on the altar at Exposition and Benediction.

The Mass, Holy Eucharist, is the sacrifice or offering of the new covenant in the blood of Christ. It is likewise the offering the faithful, God's people, united to Jesus in praise of the One God. Saint Paul the apostle preached that the entire life of a Christian is a prolongation of the Eucharist, as a spiritual sacrifice offered to God in union with Christ. For this reason, Saint Paul exhorted his hearers to offer themselves as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is the message for each of us today as well and the heart our religion and worship, in Spirit and in truth.

We should not come to mass out of mere obligation, but because the Eucharistic celebration is an integral part of our life in Christ and our communion with others. The celebration and reception of the Eucharist should be our strength and joy, a commitment in faith and love that gives meaning to all our existence.

We aren't Christians because we go to Mass, but we go to Mass because  we are Christians, to celebrate god's unbounded love for us and to participate in the action that followers of Christ have engaged in since the Lord walked among his own.

The Mass never ends, we might say, because at the conclusion of every Mass we are "sent forth", to announce the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, to the ends of the earth, by our words and especially by our deeds ("actions, not words,") As tabernacles of the Lord, by receiving His Body and Blood, we are commissioned with a special task that not everyone has embraced: to be bearer's of Christ to all people, until our final breath.