This weekend we celebrate “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ”. The Body and Blood of Christ are not only something we “receive” at every celebration of the Eucharist…it is what we become! We believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist and while we will never fully understand how this is, we gather each Sunday, around the “the table of the Lord” to be nourished…and to be changed…changed, ever more fully, into the Body of Christ. Through our receiving the Body and Blood of Christ…Christ lives in us and we in Christ and thus we become the Body of Christ. This “indwelling” of Christ in us both as individuals and as community has enormous implications for our lives….individually and communally.
We become “the Body of Christ”, present in the world…called to be the visible compassion and love of Christ reaching out to the immigrant, the refugee, to those discriminated against and treated unjustly because of the color of their skin or their gender or their abilities, “to be for” all those who suffer, are marginalized and who are in need. As Christ was “for the world” so too we are to be “for the world”. Our daily action, our work, our relationships all of these realities must reflect Christ.
Even our relationship with the earth itself should reflect that we are the Body of Christ! We are called to be living witnesses to the words and actions of Jesus Christ.
We are called to live our lives in such a way that we become visible, tangible signs of God’s love for the earth and all its peoples, and the Eucharist emboldens and strengthens us to be able to do this.
And so we ask ourselves how does my life reflect my being part of the Body of Christ? When I leave Mass what do I take with me into the world? What am I being called to “pick up” or “lay down” in my life that I might, more fully, live a life of witness to the words and actions of Jesus Christ?
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
We become “the Body of Christ”, present in the world…called to be the visible compassion and love of Christ reaching out to the immigrant, the refugee, to those discriminated against and treated unjustly because of the color of their skin or their gender or their abilities, “to be for” all those who suffer, are marginalized and who are in need. As Christ was “for the world” so too we are to be “for the world”. Our daily action, our work, our relationships all of these realities must reflect Christ.
Even our relationship with the earth itself should reflect that we are the Body of Christ! We are called to be living witnesses to the words and actions of Jesus Christ.
We are called to live our lives in such a way that we become visible, tangible signs of God’s love for the earth and all its peoples, and the Eucharist emboldens and strengthens us to be able to do this.
And so we ask ourselves how does my life reflect my being part of the Body of Christ? When I leave Mass what do I take with me into the world? What am I being called to “pick up” or “lay down” in my life that I might, more fully, live a life of witness to the words and actions of Jesus Christ?
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
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