Reflection for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Year C 2022

When Jesus gathered with his friends at the Last Supper, he acted in a way that was consistent with the whole of his life. To be sure, it was a powerful event with dramatic and moving moments – the washing of feet, the departure of Judas. Although the Scriptures do not say so, one can imagine that there may have even been a few tears. Jesus could have seized the moment and with a wave of his hand something spectacular – destroyed his enemies or escape the treachery of Judas. But as we know from the accounts we have in the Scriptures, Jesus was all about obedience to his Father’s will.
So, too, in His final meal with his most intimate friends, Jesus did something so simple that it could be recalled and repeated in the most basic way. Jesus chose to use the most basic elements of bread and wine to give us the food and drink of everlasting life. Bread – universal in significance -has been known throughout human history and all over the world in various forms. It is a substantial source of nourishment and it holds meaning in every culture. Wine – as universal and familiar as bread – was a drink of significance that Jesus easily employed.
The how of the multiplication is not the issue. What is important is that just as Jesus fed the crowd on the hillside, he fed his friends gathered in the Upper Room and he feeds us at this gathering. All of this reminds us that we meet the Divine in Sacramental moments. This is also a powerful reminder that God so often reaches out to us in the simple, tangible realities of everyday life: bread, wine, water, the spoken word, the touch of a hand. All of those meetings are Sacramental in that they direct us toward God.
Where does that leave us? Are we becoming what we eat and drink? Is what we do today so different from what took place in the Upper Room out on the hillside in the presence of the crowd? On this day, in this gathering, we share in the experience of the multitude on the hillside:,we gather in groups to receive the bread and wine that has been consecrated for us. In these gestures, and in so many others, we ultimately have the very real experience of the Risen Christ moving among us.
May God bless you all
Fr. Dominic
Your brother in Christ