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

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Not by bread alone. Moses says this to a people who have been hungry - who have been in the desert long enough to know what hunger feels like, and who have been fed by a food they could not have produced or predicted. The manna was the word made edible. The Eucharist is the Word made flesh, made bread, given for the life of the world.

We who are many are one body. The Eucharist creates community - not as a side effect but as its central logic. The same loaf, given to all, makes all into the one body. Your brothers in this band are people you receive the Eucharist with. The one body Paul describes is not metaphor. It is what actually happens when you receive from the one loaf.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. The mutual indwelling is the fruit of the eating. The Eucharist is the practice of the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17. It is how the I-in-them-and-they-in-me becomes real in the body.

We who are many are one body. Name one man in your band of brothers with whom the one-body reality needs more attention this week - a conversation, a shared commitment, a prayer together. The Eucharist makes you one; live from that oneness this week. And carry [name] into the Eucharist: Lord, let him receive the flesh given for the life of the world and live from the mutual indwelling.

Lord, the bread we break is participation in your Body. The cup we bless is participation in your Blood. Let the eating produce the remaining - you in me and I in you. Sacred Heart of Jesus, given in every Eucharist, I trust in you. Amen.