Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi. We are called to reflect on what is really the center of our faith and what should be the essence of our existence: that God, in the form of a human in Christ Jesus, offered himself as a sacrifice for our salvation from our sins.
As a Catholic, I believe that the Eucharist consecrated on the altar at every Mass is really Jesus, no less so today than he was in the midst of the Apostles 2,000 years ago. In a way, we are closer to Christ in the Eucharist than his disciples ever were when he was among them as a human. The French poet Paul Claudel captured this sentiment in his writing:
The Eucharistic Christ is precisely the same who conversed with the APostles, but they saw him from without to within, and we entertain him, so to speak, from within to without...Entirely shall you put it away within. No longer for your eyes but for your nourishment, no longer for your curiosity but for your edification, no longer for your consideration but for your Faith: no longer for your instruction but for your construction.
Indeed, the Lord, through our reception of His precious Body and Blood, sustains and builds us into more perfect vessels through which God's will can be carried out in the world. We are built from the materials we ingest. By being faithful recipients of the Eucharist, we allow Christ into our lives and into our being. Let us strive to make ourselves- mind, body, and spirit- more respectable lodging for our God.
As a Catholic, I believe that the Eucharist consecrated on the altar at every Mass is really Jesus, no less so today than he was in the midst of the Apostles 2,000 years ago. In a way, we are closer to Christ in the Eucharist than his disciples ever were when he was among them as a human. The French poet Paul Claudel captured this sentiment in his writing:
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