Celebración de la palabra

Sunday June 14

THE LORD´S BODY AND BLOOD

1. One Bread, One Body
2. This Is I For You

Greeting (see the gospel)

Jesus tells us here:
“I am the living bread from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give
is my flesh for the life of the world.”
May the Lord Jesus give us this bread always
and always stay with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

1. One Bread, One Body
Where in our Christian living, besides in prayer, do we encounter the Lord Jesus more often and on the deepest level? Is it not in the Sunday Eucharist, where he makes himself our food and drink? Is this not the center of our whole Christian life? Our faith tells us: here is the Lord; here he gives himself to us. Here he teaches us to give ourselves to one another. Let us thank Jesus who is always with us here.

2. This Is I for You
When a person is about to die and gives a farewell message to one’s relatives and friends, we know these words come from the heart and we will never forget them. On the eve of his death, at the Last Supper, Jesus said: “This is my body for you; this is my blood shed for you. Do this in memory of me.” There, as on the cross, he gave his whole self, that we might live, and he asked us to do the same, that others might live. Let us celebrate this in the Eucharist now.

Penitential Act
In the Eucharist Jesus makes us share in his life,
but our sins make us less like Jesus.
We now ask the Lord to forgive us.
(pause)
Lord Jesus, you multiplied bread
to give the hungry crowd to eat:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you gave yourself totally
at the Last Supper and on the cross:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you were thirsty
and asked the woman by the well for a drink
yet you give yourself as our drink of life:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
give us the bread of your forgiveness
and the drink of joy of your merciful kindness.
Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to the Lord Jesus
to be our food of life always
(pause)
Lord Jesus Christ,
you ask of us to be your body
for the life of the world.
Nourish us here with your word of life,
give us your body to eat
and your wine of joy to drink,
that we may become more like you
and learn from you to live
no longer for ourselves only
but for God and for the people around us.
Make us of one mind and heart,
that the world may recognize
that you are alive in us.
Be our Lord, now and for ever. R/ Amen.

First Reading: A Food for A People in Need

To his people in need in the desert, God gave manna to eat and water from the rock to drink, and so they could march to the promised land. Today he gives us the Eucharist on our journey to him.

Reading 1: Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a

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 one 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."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

R. (12) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. 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.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Second Reading: Bread, One Body

We Christians, says St. Paul, are—or ought to be—one as Christ’s body, the Church, for we share together the one Eucharistic body of Christ.

Reading 2: 1 Cor 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.

Alleluia Jn 6:51

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Real Food and Real Drink of Life

In the Eucharist Jesus is the bread that sustains us and helps us to grow in the life of Christ; he is our wine of joy and resurrection.

Gospel Jn 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."

Commentary

Being Really Present
A priest teaching in Manila used to go to a barrio (village) on Sundays to say mass. It happened that there was a baguio (typhoon) and as he went there on the following Sunday he noticed that the house of an old childless couple, Antonio and Maria, living on the edge of the barrio was tilting quite a lot to one side. After his homily he mentioned to the congregation that he had noticed the house of Antonio and Maria was tilting to one side. On the second and third Sunday of that month he noticed the same thing and made the same remarks. On the fourth Sunday he said to the people, "I regret to inform you that this will be the last Sunday on which I will be saying Mass in this barrio." "Why, Father?" they asked, "Are you being transferred or something?" "No," he said, I am not being transferred. It is just that I cannot continue to say mass in this barrio because you are not Christians." "What do you mean?" they asked: "We are not Christians? Can't you see the numbers that come to church, confess, and who eat the Bread of Life?" "Yes," said the priest, "you eat the bread but you do not live the life! For one month now I have been telling you that there have been two old people in this barrio in need of help but not one person lifted a finger to help. You receive the Sacraments but you are not Christians, so why should I continue to give you the Christian Sacraments?"
For the Hebrew, "body" meant the "external expression of the person present." To see the "body" was to know that the person was present. Through Christian history the expression BODY OF CHRIST came to have many meanings but especially it came to express the Church itself, the Mystical Body of Christ, and the Eucharist the sacramental Body of Christ. One was a community and the other was a communion. While both meanings are kept very close together there is little problem. But when, as happened in out story about Antonio and Maria, the idea of community caring and the idea of sacramental communion got seriously separated then indeed the Body of Christ was severely broken.
Christ called for discipleship, a deep personal union with him. This was often expressed in table fellowship. He challenged the culture of his time, and particularly the way of acting of the Pharisees who tended to cut off the unclean, by inviting all sorts of people to table fellowship. He invited Samaritans, tax collectors, and prostitutes to his table. Later, in the early Church the pattern of coming together to share a meal of fellowship was continued. Jesus had said that "when two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of you." In the account of the Eucharist in Corinthians, Paul has Jesus tell the disciples, "do this in memory of me" (1 Cor. 11:24-25). In the same account the Corinthians are castigated for eating and drinking unworthily because of the divisions that are amongst them.
The point comes across repeatedly in the history of the early church, as in our own times, that there can be no true reverence for the sacramental real presence if there is not real reverence for the mystical real presence that is in the heart of each person. Christians would be shocked if someone were to take the sacred host and dance on it in disrespect. Yet the desecration of the human person, through oppression, exploitation, physical or psychological cruelty, can be an even greater desecration of the real presence.
For centuries now we have had vivid and forceful preaching on the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus was "produced" at the consecration of the Mass and "was a prisoner of love waiting for us in the tabernacle." I do not question this theology but I sometimes think that an over emphasis on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist may have led to an implicit downplaying of that presence in ourselves and in our neighbor. After all it is much easier to see Jesus in the host than it is to see him in that neighbor who throws his garbage into your garden, steals your chickens, or in those who are striking for a just wage.
"The one who made the universe lives in the cave of our hearts." There is also a real presence of God in the cave of our hearts. It is all the more real for the fact that it is not very controllable or manageable. Moses had a real experience of God in the burning bush but had to live on the memory of it for forty tormenting years in the desert. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had an experience of the Risen Jesus but at the time they did not know it. As soon as they recognized him he was gone. The true experience of God is often a memory, something seen in the rear view mirror. We get a glimpse of it but when we look around it is gone. This is the sort of experience of God that happens, or maybe more accurately does not happen, in meditation. We continue trying to be faithful, to be present to the mantra or prayer word. At the time we feel or experience nothing. But later on we know that God was working in the experience.
There is a story - probably apocryphal - that one of the engineers involved in constructing the huge face of Marcos along the highway going to Baguio City was asked how they did it. "Well," he said. "when we got that huge mass of stone and cement in place we just began to chip away. We chipped away anything that was not Marcos and then he was left." So too in meditation we let go of everything, our thoughts, desires, words, images, even our holding of God himself. When all of these, products of our own egos, are chipped away the only presence remaining is that of God.
Meditation brings one to be more really present to all things. It makes us more present to the prayers we may say at other times and to the scriptures that we listen to. It makes us more present too to the sacramental presence and hopefully more sensitive to its meaning and implications. It will make us realize that the fact that the house of Antonio and Maria is tilting to one side has something to do with the Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ.

Intercessions

Let us pray that the Lord Jesus may sustain all who hunger for him on the road of life. Let us say: R/ Stay with us, Lord.

– That all over the world our Lord may be the strength of those who receive his body and blood and be their companion in life, let us pray:
R/ Stay with us, Lord.
– That Jesus our Lord may be the strength of those who share their bread with their brothers and sisters, and that they may inspire those who do not yet know how to share, let us pray:
R/ Stay with us, Lord.
– That Jesus our Lord may be the strength of those who earn their bread with difficulty and of those who have lost their jobs, let us pray:
R/ Stay with us, Lord.
– That Jesus our Lord may be the strength of the sick who receive him and of those who can’t, that somehow he may also be close to those who cannot go to communion, let us pray:
R/ Stay with us, Lord.
– That our Lord Jesus may be the strength of us gathered here for the Eucharist; that he may be our joy and the source of our unity and our commitment to one another, let us pray:
R/ Stay with us, Lord.

Stay with us, Lord, be our life and happiness, now and for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Lord Jesus Christ,
as a meal brings a family together
and expresses the unity of its members,
we are gathered here around your table.
Bind us together
as the people of your covenant,
in unity, peace and friendship,
in a common love and concern for each other.
Let your self-giving become flesh and blood in us,
that you may be our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

With all our hearts we give thanks and praise to the Father for letting Jesus stay with us in the Eucharist as the bread that nourishes us on the way to God and one another.

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

God is our Father
who gives food to his people.
Let us ask him in the words of Jesus
for the true bread
that gives life to the world. R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us Lord, from every evil
and grant peace and unity to your Church.
Keep us free from sin
through the food of the Eucharist
and let it be our strength
to overcome our anxieties and fears.
Let it prepare us for the final coming
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

At the Breaking of Bread

(It is good once in a while to call attention to the important rite of the breaking of bread, which usually passes unnoticed.)
On the cross Jesus was broken and crushed because of our sins. In the night of the Last Supper Jesus broke the bread of himself to give it to his disciples. He breaks the bread of himself for us here, that we too may learn to share ourselves with one another.

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus our Lord,
the bread from heaven
that makes us live for ever.
Happy are we to be invited
to eat this bread
and to live in union with the Lord. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Note:

This “Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ” is a most fitting day for giving communion under both kinds, on condition it is pastorally feasible.

Prayer after Communion

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you for having given us
your body and blood, your whole self,
and for unifying us as your community.
Stay with us, we pray you,
to strengthen us to do your work
of love, integrity and peace
and to set the table of ourselves for others.
And may the holy meal
which we celebrate in your memory
be to us the sign and foretaste
of the everlasting feast-meal
which we hope to enjoy with you
for ever and ever. R/ Amen.

Blessing

In this Eucharistic celebration
Jesus Christ has given us himself
to unite us with himself and with each other.
He has shared himself with us,
people on the way,
as our bread of strength and life.
May his attitude become ours
and may we too be the strength
of those around us,
especially to those who need us most.
And may almighty God bless you for this task:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go and take our Lord
to the people around us. R/ Thanks be to God.