THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST June 7, 2026

Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a 1 Corinthians 10:16-17  John 6:51-58

The cup of blessing and the bread we break—the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This solemnity repeats to us again the lessons of Holy Thursday, but with the focus simply on the Eucharist and on the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. When a person can say with faith that he or she believes that Christ is truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity, in the bread and wine consecrated at Mass, then there is a belief in what we celebrate today.

The First Letter to the Corinthians helps us understand that we are all one because we share in the one bread and the one cup. Just as Christ is always one, even though He is given to us individually, so in Him we become one. If we could live this mystery of our unity with one another, the world would be transformed in the twinkling of an eye. It is the same mystery as when Christ prays that we be one with Him as He is one with the Father. This mystery is so vast and immense that only poetry can touch on it.

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you—John’s Gospel is always teaching us about the bread of life, especially in Chapter 6. We know that some of the followers of Jesus left him because of His teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Even today, this is a difficult teaching and many Christian will not accept it and want to turn it into only a symbol and not a reality.

It is so clear from the writings of the early Christians that the followers of Jesus did understand that Jesus Christ is truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharistic bread and wine. Will we walk with Jesus and be His followers or will we leave Him? Let us bow down in adoration!