OMELIE / Omelie EN

02 giu 2024

02/06/2024 - Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - B

02/06/2024 - Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - B

1st reading Ex 24:3-8 from Psalm 115 2nd reading Heb 9:11-15 Gospel Mk 14:12-16.22-26

Every Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead by remembering his Supper, the one carefully prepared by the disciples in the ‘great hall’ of a house in Jerusalem. That Supper was the Passover Supper, full of rituals and memories, but the evangelists who tell us about it dwell on only two details: the gestures and words that accompanied the distribution of the unleavened bread and the cup of wine. Both should have commemorated the liberation of the people from Egypt following Moses, the prodigious signs that accompanied it and the killing of the lamb on which they fed, and with whose blood they sprinkled the doorposts.

Jesus makes a solemn yet simple gesture with the unleavened bread in his hand: he recites the blessing to God, breaks it and distributes it. So far nothing new. The words with which he accompanies the gesture, however, are not the usual ones: ‘Take, this is my body’. The disciples must have been dumbfounded, unable to understand. Jesus had already announced his death at the hands of men, but they had not taken him seriously. Now he attributes to that broken bread the significance of a memorial of his given body.

And similarly, he repeats the novelty with the chalice. Of the chalice he says something more: it is ‘blood of the covenant, poured out for many’. The covenant of which the prophets spoke, is the new and eternal covenant, the one whereby God alone pledges to love us.

Since, because of the evil of sin within us, we are never able to be faithful, here God makes himself our ally even though we are incapable of keeping our promises. This covenant is established by Jesus by shedding his own blood. By nourishing us with his Body and Blood, his life and faithfulness become ours. Whoever eats the Bread that Jesus offers and drinks the Wine from the chalice, which Jesus offers, becomes a sharer in his capacity for faithful love, a love beyond expectation, a love of unexpected possibilities. Bread and Wine, the Body and Blood of Jesus, are what we put on the altar and then feed on. Those who come here come to receive, to receive life and strength and perseverance for the love God has given them. He who comes here, however, also comes to give. He gives his presence as a renewed man or woman, he gives that love he has already received from God and which Jesus now nourishes with his Bread.

Attending Mass is an important moment in life: it is not simply a ritual, it is not comparable to going to the supermarket to choose what you like, nor is it comparable to visiting a theatre to spend some time in company. Participating in the Eucharist manifests what kind of life we have and how we wish to live it both in our daily solitude and in our social life, it is an exercise of practical love not only to God, whom we wish to listen to, but also to men, both those with whom we will share the listening and the singing, and the absent ones we will find on our path.

When, on the other hand, you stay in bed or go out to have fun or go about your business rather than participate in the Eucharist, your community remains impoverished. In that case, your sin consists not only in depriving yourself of the wealth that you can only receive in the Eucharistic Celebration, but also in depriving the community and the whole Church of your presence, the witness of your faith, the preciousness of your love.

I meet many people who suffer from the breakdown of relationships in their family or environment. From their stories I understand why they suffer so much. More often than not, these people no longer feed on the Bread of Life, they stay away from the sacrament of God's mercy, they do not unite with their brothers' witness of faith, they do not offer their contribution to the celebration that Jesus himself gave to renew and heal the world. The sick person who refuses medicine and doctor's care remains sick and his suffering increases. The Christian who ignores the gift of his Lord and avoids it, can only remain in the tribulation caused by the disorder and sin of the world.

Today's solemnity is an opportunity to renew our decision to remain close to the Lord and to joyfully accept the gifts that he wanted to leave us so that ‘eternal’ life might grow in us. As we leave the church in procession carrying the sacrament of the Body of Christ and singing his praise, we express our faith in him and our love for him, but we also tell everyone that true life is Jesus, that he is the source of our communion, the source of all our love and service.

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift you have left us: your presence hidden in bread. Your strength, with this bread, is mysteriously communicated to us, great and small, healthy and sick, sinners and infidels. We praise you and bless you: remain with us always, we want to remain united with you!