The Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) Sunday Year A - 22/6/2014 - Gospel: Jn 6:51-58
Table fellowship
Most religions in the East have some form of offering to their gods and the offerings would serve the same purpose that is giving food to please their gods. Some believe the food offered would make their gods happy and the gods would bless them in return. Some believe without proper periodical food offerings the gods would get angry and make mischievous signs reminding them that they have failed to perform their duties. Unlike them, the Christian faith teaches us that when we make an offering to God we do it not out of fear but out of love which comes from the heart. We believe the Christian God receives no benefit from our offerings but rather allowing us to worship is a gift itself. Oriental religions believe that the offerings they offer would change the minds and the emotions of their gods.
Christians are a Eucharistic people. It is understood in a sense that we receive life from the Eucharist and we will bring life to others and that is our mission. We are called to give food to articulate for noble thought and food to sooth the trouble hearts; to give food to restore hope for those who had lost hope in life and to give food to restore friendships for the lonely.
We offer the bread and wine as symbols of our love for God but our loving God will transform them to spiritual food for our souls. It is not we who made the initial but our Lord Jesus who first used these symbols and asked us to do it in remembrance of Him. Our God is the living God and only the living God is able to transform the ordinary gifts offered to be sacred food for the soul; other deities could have no such power to make that transformation. The pagans believe that their sacrificial gifts offered for their gods to consume, to turn it into food for the gods to enjoy. We, Christians offer the gifts to God and God will transform it to be the spiritual foods not for God but for us to share God's likeness. The gifts offered to the pagans gods soon got rotten simply because the gods they believe in exist only in their heads, not in the world and have no power upon the gifts offered.
When we make offerings to God we are invited to partake of the offering and that make us sharers in the act of sacrifice itself. The consuming of the bread and wine precisely means that we are invited to come into union with God through the sacrifice of Christ. Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup we recalled the ultimate love Christ gave us and enter the table of fellowship with Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine offered become real Body and Blood of Christ broken to save and nurture us. We are unable to explain how His Body and Blood because ours because His thought is higher than ours.
The root of our communion with one another has its foundation in the baptism and in the sharing of the table fellowship, sharing the same bread and the same cup in the same Lord. Saint Paul telling us we are many but united in one body in Christ. The offering is for our salvation united in one source of life; and all those who share it must drink from the one fountain- Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Christians are a Eucharistic people. It is understood in a sense that we receive life from the Eucharist and we will bring life to others and that is our mission. We are called to give food to articulate for noble thought and food to sooth the trouble hearts; to give food to restore hope for those who had lost hope in life and to give food to restore friendships for the lonely.
We offer the bread and wine as symbols of our love for God but our loving God will transform them to spiritual food for our souls. It is not we who made the initial but our Lord Jesus who first used these symbols and asked us to do it in remembrance of Him. Our God is the living God and only the living God is able to transform the ordinary gifts offered to be sacred food for the soul; other deities could have no such power to make that transformation. The pagans believe that their sacrificial gifts offered for their gods to consume, to turn it into food for the gods to enjoy. We, Christians offer the gifts to God and God will transform it to be the spiritual foods not for God but for us to share God's likeness. The gifts offered to the pagans gods soon got rotten simply because the gods they believe in exist only in their heads, not in the world and have no power upon the gifts offered.
When we make offerings to God we are invited to partake of the offering and that make us sharers in the act of sacrifice itself. The consuming of the bread and wine precisely means that we are invited to come into union with God through the sacrifice of Christ. Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup we recalled the ultimate love Christ gave us and enter the table of fellowship with Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine offered become real Body and Blood of Christ broken to save and nurture us. We are unable to explain how His Body and Blood because ours because His thought is higher than ours.
The root of our communion with one another has its foundation in the baptism and in the sharing of the table fellowship, sharing the same bread and the same cup in the same Lord. Saint Paul telling us we are many but united in one body in Christ. The offering is for our salvation united in one source of life; and all those who share it must drink from the one fountain- Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia