June 22, 2014

Solemnity of the Holy Body & Blood of Christ

First Reading: Dueteronomy 8:2-3,14-16

   Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."

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Responsorial Psalm: 147:12-13.14-15.19-20
Response: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. (or) Alleluia!
   Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. (Response)
   He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat he fills you. He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs his word! (Response)
   He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation; his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia. (Response)

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

   Brothers and sisters: 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.

Sequence - Lauda Sion
  Laud, O Zion, your salvation, Laud with hymns of exultation, Christ, your king and shepherd true: Bring him all the praise you know, He is more than you bestow. Never can you reach his due.
   Special theme for glad thanksgiving Is the quick’ning and the living Bread today before you set: From his hands of old partaken, As we know, by faith unshaken, Where the Twelve at supper met.
   Full and clear ring out your chanting, Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting, From your heart let praises burst: For today the feast is holden, When the institution olden Of that supper was rehearsed.
   Here the new law’s new oblation, By the new king’s revelation, Ends the form of ancient rite: Now the new the old effaces, Truth away the shadow chases, Light dispels the gloom of night.
   What he did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, His memorial ne’er to cease: And his rule for guidance taking, Bread and wine we hallow, making Thus our sacrifice of peace.
   This the truth each Christian learns, Bread into his flesh he turns, To his precious blood the wine: Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives, But a dauntless faith believes, Resting on a pow’r divine.
   Here beneath these signs are hidden Priceless things to sense forbidden; Signs, not things are all we see: Blood is poured and flesh is broken, Yet in either wondrous token Christ entire we know to be.
   Whoso of this food partakes, Does not rend the Lord nor breaks; Christ is whole to all that taste: Thousands are, as one, receivers, One, as thousands of believers, Eats of him who cannot waste.
   Bad and good the feast are sharing, Of what divers dooms preparing, Endless death, or endless life. Life to these, to those damnation, See how like participation Is with unlike issues rife.
   When the sacrament is broken, Doubt not, but believe ‘tis spoken, That each sever’d outward token doth the very whole contain. Nought the precious gift divides, Breaking but the sign betides Jesus still the same abides, still unbroken does remain.
   Lo! the angel’s food is given To the pilgrim who has striven; see the children’s bread from heaven, which on dogs may not be spent. Truth the ancient types fulfilling, Isaac bound, a victim willing, Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling, manna to the fathers sent.
   Very bread, good shepherd, tend us, Jesu, of your love befriend us, You refresh us, you defend us, Your eternal goodness send us In the land of life to see. You who all things can and know, Who on earth such food bestow, Grant us with your saints, though lowest, Where the heav’nly feast you show, Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.

Gospel Reading: John 6:51-58

   Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Reflection: Fr. James Theophilus

   Jesus starts his argument saying that he is the bread that has come down from heaven. From where the bread comes is more important. Jews have already argued saying that Moses gave bread in the wilderness. But here it is the father who gives the bread. Jesus is arguing about his origin. He says that he is from the father and he has come down from the father. Father is in the heaven and he has sent the son from heaven and hence anything to do with the son will in turn take the people to where he has come down from.
   Whoever eats the son (bread from heaven) will have the same effect. They will in turn reach heaven. Jesus argument is regarding his arrival from and his journey to. Jesus abiding presence is with those who eat his body and drink his blood. (Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me). Indwelling of Jesus helps the believer to be in union with the father. And that is eternal life.