Ok, we’ve celebrated the Church’s beginnings with Pentecost, and the gift of the Spirit. We celebrated the Trinity, and the gift of relationships. And the feast today, is about the gift of food--the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Like the other feasts, this day tells us a lot about God, but also a lot about ourselves, who we are as Church, and how we continue to live as the Body and Blood of Christ in a world that is so very hungry.


Our God is a God who feeds. Over and over again the scriptures are filled with stories of food and feeding. Our God likes the gift of food.


And if we are a people who believe in, and make ourselves obedient to God, and a people who pray daily for the will of God to be done, then we might be ready for a big question at judgment: “Did you eat this Bread? Did you share it with others?”


The second reading, from Corinthians, reiterates our theology of Eucharist. There is no profound, complicated theology here. We share in this ONE loaf to become the ONE Body of Christ to a hungry world.


Jesus wants his followers to feed others. Eucharist can only be fully understood in terms of community and service.


For us as Catholic Christians, the bread and wine offered become truly the body and blood of the Lord. Many people today do not understand that enormously large word: transubstantiation. It is not a word that we would use in ordinary, daily life. All it means—and this is a lot of meaning—is that the bread and wine, which were truly bread and wine, are now truly the Body and Blood of the Lord. This is not only a memory of Jesus, but a making present here and today, the saving actions and of His very person.


Today's great feast is about our need to be fed, and the need to feed others! It is about the personal relationship that we each must have with Jesus, and, with each other. The feast today is about our capacity to give ourselves to others and for others, just as Jesus has given himself to us and for us. We, who receive today the Body of Christ, are joined with Christ, and, with every other person who comes to this table. Take a look around this morning as you come forward. Our “communion” (or common union) is not only with the Lord, but with each other as well. We receive the Body of Christ, and then together…we become the Body of Christ to our waiting world.


But, we can only feed, if we are fed. And we are fed by the presence of our Lord in the communion that we share. Knowing how Jesus gives Himself to us and for us, we must be formed by the Holy Spirit to live in that same way: we must give ourselves to and for others…all others, no exceptions


We cannot truly call ourselves Christians if we are only aware of Jesus’ presence for myself alone, and ignore others. If we treat today's solemnity as simply a mystery for myself and not a mystery about my relationships to Jesus AND the others in my family or in my community, then we fail to understand Eucharist.


Today, we are invited to see in this sacrament the deepest mystery of giving of self. Though there are many of us, we form a single body because you have a share in this one loaf.


Are you part of this ONE?