The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. The mutual indwelling - the I-in-them-and-they-in-me that Jesus prayed for in John 17 - happens at the table. It is not metaphor. The bread he gives is his flesh for the life of the world. As the living Father sent him and he has life because of the Father, so the one who feeds on him will have life because of him.

Moses tells the people to remember: forty years in the desert, tested by affliction, fed with manna unknown to your fathers. Not by bread alone does one live - by every word from the mouth of the Lord. The manna was the word made edible, the promise made food. The Eucharist is the fulfillment of that - the Word made flesh, made bread, given for the life of the world.

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body. Paul's observation about the Eucharist is also an observation about the community that receives it. The Body of Christ on the altar and the body of Christ in the assembly are connected. What is given in the one bread is the unity of the many - the household of God made one through the sharing of the one loaf.

Your family at the Eucharistic table is participating in the mutual indwelling Jesus named. The bread you eat is the source of the one-body-many-parts Paul describes. Eat it knowing what it is.

• For our family, that the Eucharist we receive would produce the remaining-in-him-and-him-in-us that Jesus promises, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who receive Communion without understanding what they are receiving, that the mystery would open to them, we pray to the Lord.
• For the one bread that makes us one body - that the unity promised would become visible in our parish and our households, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Sacred Heart month, for the heart given in the Eucharist - the flesh for the life of the world, the blood the true drink, we pray to the Lord.

Not by bread alone does one live. Remember: the manna in the desert, the word from the mouth of God, the Eucharist at the table. This week, receive the Eucharist with deliberate attention to what it is - not routine, not automatic, but the conscious reception of the one who says: whoever eats this bread will live forever. Go to Mass this week as if you know what you are going to.

He fed you with manna in the desert, a food unknown to your fathers. Bring your children to the Eucharist with the story of the manna - the desert, the hunger, the food that came from God when there was nothing else. The Eucharist is that food, given for the life of the world. They are receiving what the desert generation received, and more.