“This is My Body….. This is My Blood”

This weekend we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist that we receive is the centre of our faith, for it is Jesus himself—Jesus who is the Bread of Life. Before we come to communion, we say “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you…..” But by coming to us in the form of bread and wine, Jesus is saying: ‘Even though you may not be worthy, I want to come to you anyway; I want you to receive me anyway!’

Many times throughout his ministry Jesus told his disciples that people who are healthy do not need a doctor. He was able to touch only those who admitted that they needed him.

We don’t come to the Eucharist because we are perfect. In fact, if we were perfect, the Eucharist could do nothing for us. We come to receive the Lord because we know that we need him. We come because we want to change and become more like him. In the Eucharist we are challenged as St Augustine put it, “to become what we receive”.

Three of the four Gospels outline the Last Supper account of Jesus taking the bread and wine, blessing them and sharing them with his disciples. He commands them to do this “in memory” of him. Interestingly John’s Gospel does not have this account of the Eucharist, instead he narrates the action of the washing of feet. This very significant action by Jesus reminds us of what the Eucharist is all about, it is not merely about worship within the four walls of a church, the Eucharist must be lived out in the service of others. When we serve others in a Christian way, we also keep Jesus’ memory alive. From this we might ask ourselves “How am I ‘washing feet’ in my life these days?”.

In giving us this feast, the Church calls us to give thanks to God for the wonderful gift of Jesus, who loved without limits and told us to do the same.