Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist  

 

 Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist 

Corpus Christi Homily: Saints Who Hungered for the Eucharist and Lived Its Mystery

Praise be to Jesus Christ

 There is a beautiful incident narrated by St. John Mary Vianney:  a poor man, who used to come to the church every day at noon. He did not say long prayers. He didn’t kneel for hours. He just walked in, sat quietly for a minute, looked at the tabernacle, and left. One day, St. Vianney asked him, “What do you say to Jesus every day?” The man smiled and said, “I don’t say much. I just look at Him and He looks at me. That’s enough.”

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist. It is not a feast about bread and wine but it is the feast of Jesus who chose to remain with us, not in a palace or in heaven far away, but in the silence of the tabernacle, in the small white Host.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples to give them something to eat. As we read in the Gospel they were in a lonely place and thousands of people had come. They were tired and hungry. The disciples were helpless; however, Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and blesses and breaks them and gives them to the people to be eaten.

If we stop here and think about it, this is what happens at every Eucharist. Jesus takes something small, our bread, our offerings, even our weak selves and He blesses it, breaks it, and gives it back as His own Body and Blood.

The key word I invite you to reflect on today is “give.” “You give them something to eat.” That is the heart of the Eucharist: giving. The Eucharist is God’s way of saying: I have given you everything, now I give you myself.  That is why Saint Augustine once said, “Though God is omniscient, He does not know what more to give us than the Eucharist. Though God is omnipotent, He does not know what better gift to give to us than Himself.” What a beautiful mystery. Even God could not improve this gift. What more can a Father give, than His Son? And what more can the Son give than Himself?

Throughout history, the saints lived this truth deeply. There were many saints who could not live a day without the Mass or receiving the Eucharist.  Saint Dominic Savio, even as a schoolboy, would wake up at 4:30 in the morning and walk miles just to serve Mass. He once said, “If I had to choose between missing Holy Communion and dying, I would rather die.”

Saint Padre Pio used to say, “It would be easier for the world to exist without the sun than without the Holy Mass.” After every Mass, he would remain in tears, overwhelmed by the mystery in his hands. Saint John Vianney often said, “If we really understood the Mass, we would die of joy.” He spent hours in adoration preparing his heart to celebrate Holy mass and that was the source of His energy.

 As it is said Saint Teresa of Calcutta would never begin her service without an hour of adoration. She said, “The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth.” Saint Peter Julian Eymard, says that, “The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus.”

When we look to the life of St. Teresa of the Andes, a young Carmelite from Chile, we see a great devotion to the Eucharist. She wrote in her diary: “I live for the Eucharist and it is my heaven on earth.” For her, Holy Communion was not just part of the day, but it was the center. She once said, “I feel such joy when I receive Jesus that I think in heaven it will be the same.” Even in the silence of her cloister, she lived every moment in the light of the Eucharist.

 Studying the life of saints, show that they were not attending mass as a duty but they were living for it and the most cruel punishment for them could be the denial of the Eucharist.  It was because saints had a hunger, thirst and love for the Eucharist.

 This is why saints could go through hardships and still smile, this is why martyrs gave their lives with joy, and this is why the poor who had nothing still had peace.  They had the Eucharist, and the Eucharist is Jesus and as Teresa of Avila states   “Jesus alone is enough.”

Since we celebrate the feast of the body and blood of Christ, let us come to the church, come to the alter, come to the tabernacle not as spectators, but as a thirsty deer looking for water and let us try to become the Body of Christ for others. And may we never forget the fact that God looked at all of creation, at heaven and earth, at sun and stars, and decided that the best He could give us was Himself in the Eucharist.

Jesus, the Bread of Life, feed us with yourself and helps us to share Your love with others. Amen.

 

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God Bless…