Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Year A
This is the bread come down from heaven
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament
have left us a memorial of your Passion,
grant us, we pray, so to revere
the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood
that we may always experience in ourselves
the fruits of your redemption.
The fact that there is only one loaf means that we, though many, form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.
Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 10: 17
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven Gospel, John 6: 51
He established peace on your borders
He feeds you with finest wheat. Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 147
This week we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. For us, this has a two-fold meaning – we celebrate God’s gift of Himself, His body and blood, in the Eucharist and, as we share in His life, we become the Body of Christ, His Church.
In the First Reading Moses asks us to remember how, in the midst of great hardship, God kept His people alive in the desert by giving them manna from heaven and water from bare rock, so that they might learn that life is more than material things. Everything we have is gift; our lives depend on the goodness and faithfulness of God. In response, we sing a psalm of praise and gratitude to God for all His gifts.
As we come to receive the bread and wine that are the Body and Blood of Christ, we do not do this only as individuals, but as the one body of God’s people, sharing one loaf (Second Reading).
Jesus tells us that He gives Himself for our life and for the life of the world, so that everyone who eats the bread that is Himself will draw life from Him. Christ will live in us and we will live in Him for ever (Gospel).