May Jesus Christ be
praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
Today we celebrate
everything, because today is the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. If the Body and Blood of Christ does not
become present on our Altar, then we have no true reason to be here. The Eucharist is everything, because the
Eucharist is Jesus Christ.
The feast of the Body
and Blood of Christ is celebrated nine weeks after the institution of the Holy
Eucharist on the evening of Holy Thursday.
On that most holy night, when the Church gathered to celebrate the
institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood together, because
they can never be apart, the Holy Eucharist was celebrated in anticipation of
the suffering of the Savior. On this
feast, the Holy Eucharist is celebrated in anticipation of the glory that shall
be revealed in the disciples. In the
celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the Lord Jesus Christ invites us to follow
him. Each and every Sunday, the Lord
Jesus calls us to leave the world and follow him, just as he called Peter and
Andrew to leave their nets and follow the way of the Lord. In the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we
join the disciples on the road to Emmaus and listen to the law and the prophets. Each Sunday, we join the disciples on the
side of the mountain and listen to the words of the Lord proclaimed to us. The words of salvation spoken in the Sermon
on the Mount are spoken to you and to me.
The words of comfort and the invitation to conversion spoken to tax
collectors and sinners are offered to us.
The words of resurrection and healing announced at the tomb of Lazarus
are promised to us. In the celebration
of the Holy Eucharist, we are invited to act on his word and imitate the life
of the Lord Jesus.
In the celebration of
the Holy Eucharist, the Lord Jesus calls us to communion. The Lord Jesus is not simply calling us to
receive Holy Communion. Our Amen means more
than that. The Lord Jesus is inviting us
to live in Holy and Blessed Communion with him.
He is inviting us to live in communion with him through our communion
with the Church, his bride. We are being
invited to live in communion of heart and mind with her sacred teachings. He is inviting us to live in communion with
his vicar on earth, our Holy Father Francis in Rome. The Lord Jesus is calling us to live in
communion with the successors of the apostles of the Lamb, who are the bishops
of the Church. He is calling us to live
in communion with the shepherds of his flock, and to live in communion with
each other. The Lord Jesus invites us to
the Holy Communion of humble obedience and loving service. In the celebration of the Eucharist, the Lord
Jesus invites us to imitate the mystery of love that is celebrated on the
Altar.
In the celebration of
the Holy Eucharist, the Lord Jesus invites us to loving service. The Lord Jesus calls us here so that we may
be instructed and so that we may be fed in order that we may be sent
forth. As we live as followers of the
Lord Jesus and live in communion with him and his Church, the Eucharist that is
celebrated on the Altar of the Church must be imitated on the Altar of our
lives. The Lord Jesus invites us to imitate
what we celebrate.
The Eucharist is everything, because the
Eucharist is Jesus Christ. As we now
approach the Altar of God and participate in the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
may we respond to the invitation to follow him more closely. Let us respond to the call to communion of
mind and heart with the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And may the transformation of the gifts of
bread and wine into Body and Blood of Christ transform each of us so that our
lives will reflect that Jesus Christ is indeed
everything. Amen.
Preached
at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
