Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus,
“Corpus Domini” is certainly one of the most popular feasts celebrated in the Catholic Church. The solemnity underlines the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In most of the parishes, this day is marked by offering special prayers & singing of hymns to Jesus in the Eucharist, often accompanied by processions, visual representations and decorations depicting the Eucharistic Lord. So today, we rejoice in a special way, for the gift of the Eucharist.
As we see, when children are small little ones, they know practically nothing about themselves and their needs, but then Moms (parents) take care of them every day and night. Although little children do not express themselves well, yet mothers understand them perfectly well. How do mothers know and understand their children so very well? The answer, obviously, lies in Mom’s heart: the mother loves her child. If she loves, then she understands what her child, whom she loves, needs, even if the loved one does not know how to speak or communicate clearly. So, here is the reason of today’s feast: today we celebrate the certainty that God loves. In fact, He has always loved us and taken care of us.
The OT book of Deuteronomy tell us beautiful things in this regard: thousands of years ago, when God’s people in the desert walked and followed Him, He gave them water to quench their thirst; manna and quail when they were hungry; light when it was dark; road signs when the desert looked the same everywhere and it was not clear in which direction to go. It is an example to say how much God loved and cared for the people of Israel right from the beginning.
God’s love is best manifested in and by Jesus in the New Testament especially in the Gospel of John. “God is love”, says John and he would repeat this many a time and “love is the inmost moral essence of God, which animates, directs, and holds together all other attributes. It is the motive power of God’s revelations or self-communications, the beginning and the end of his ways and works, the core of his manifestation in Christ. The Eucharist reminds all this. It is indeed the sacrament of memory, reminding us, in a real and tangible way, of the story of God’s love for us.
Dear brethren, as we are celebrating the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we are telling ourselves and declaring to the world the depth of the love of Jesus for us who gave himself for us as the Way, Light and as Nourishment for our spiritual Life. Jesus, indeed, truly loves us.
When we eat His Body and drink His Blood, this divine food and drink make our hearts to find the Way to Eternal Life. What a grace and blessing to feel that we are always loved, cared for, nourished by Jesus, the Eucharistic Lord.
Let us therefore praise Him! Let us rejoice because He is here now and thinks of us!
Let us allow ourselves to be loved, cared for and nourished by His Body and Blood.
Happy feast of Corpus Christi !
Fr. Saga
Pastor.
