To Become What We Receive

Sunday, the Church celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. It seems to me that this should be a huge wonderful celebration in our Catholic community, given that our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is one of the few theological realities that distinguishes us from our Christian sisters and brothers. Yet, very often we take the sacredness of the Eucharist for granted don’t we?

Every Sunday, or even, every day if we choose, we have the opportunity to come together in prayer and worship. Along with one another we hear Scripture proclaimed, we pray for the needs of our world, we come to the altar to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. We ‘Go in peace, to love and serve the world”.

We are supposed to become what we receive, aren’t we? Once we share in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are we not invited to be his hands and feet in our world? Aren’t we supposed to be changed to our very core by the mystery of the Eucharist? Shouldn’t we be better people after Mass then when we began?

Do we allow the Eucharist to change us? Do we want to let Jesus transform us to be more like Him or, is that too overwhelming a thought to grasp? May our prayer today for each other be that we have the courage to want to be more like Jesus. As we leave Church, let us take to heart the mandate to love and serve the world, as Jesus asks us to.