June 06, 2010 Corpus Christi Gen. 14:18-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Lk. 9:11-17 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/nab/060610.shtml     ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________     The Lord Jesus, on the night before he suffered on the cross, shared one last meal with his disciples. During this meal our Savior instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages and to entrust to the Church his Spouse a memorial of his death and resurrection.   What Jesus did at the last supper included four things. ·    He gave thanks over bread and wine. ·    He identified the bread and wine with his body and blood. ·    He gave them the bread to eat and the wine to drink. ·    Finally, he told them that his coming death was for the forgiveness of sins, and he prefigured that death by breaking the bread and pouring out the wine.   Jesus said: "Do this in memory of me". The Eucharist does not simply commemorate a fact; it commemorates Him! The theology of the Eucharist teaches that the Eucharist was the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20), the meal where the new people of God are nourished by spiritual food for their journey.    Recalling these words of Jesus, “This is my Body, … This is my Blood”, the Catholic Church professes that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. Jesus said: "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. . . . For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (Jn 6:51-55). The whole Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine - the glorified Christ who rose from the dead after dying for our sins. This is what the Church means when she speaks of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist. This presence of Christ in the Eucharist is called "real" not to exclude other types of his presence as if they could not be understood as real (CCC, 1374). The risen Christ is present to his Church in many ways, but most especially through the sacrament of his Body and Blood.     <<   Previous: Most Holy Trinity  | Next: 11th Ordinary Sunday >>   Go Back to SERMONS (Year C)