The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body
and Blood of Christ
Do this in memory of me
Reading 1 Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Moses said to the people:
« Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your jour-neying in the desert,so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,and then fed you with manna,a food un-known to you and your fathers,in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
« Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,that place of slavery;who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers. »
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
- Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you. R
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;swiftly runs his word! R
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them.
Reading 2 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break,is it not a participa-tion in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Gospel John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: « I am the living bread that came down from heaven;whoever eats this bread will live
forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh
for the life of the world. »
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, »How can this man give us his flesh to eat? » Jesus said to them, «
Amen, amen, I say to you,unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food,and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me
and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father,so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever. »
THE NEW SUNDAY
Sunday is not what it was a few years ago. In a short time, it’s grown and been converted into the «weekend», which starts Friday afternoon and in which most people can go about life differently, escaping the obligations of work, of an imposed schedule, and of daily routine.
Not all of us live out the weekend in the same way. For some it’s truly fortu-nate: they can take the initiative, explore possibilities and join friends to enjoy those days. For others it’s a cruel time, since they feel more strongly their loneliness, sickness or old age; Sunday only awakens in them sadness and nostalgia. Others are afraid of Sunday, don’t know what to do with it, get bored; if football didn’t exist it would be unbearable.
Theologians and liturgists ask themselves today what will be the Christian Sunday in the future. Will it be reduced to a celebration of Mass on its own and without any connection to the weekend of the people? On the other hand, «wouldn’t it be possible» – asks Xabier Basurko – «to have a dynamic inte-gration of the human values of the weekend in the mystic of Sunday?» This Basque liturgist offers us some starting points.
The Christian Sunday could be the soul of the weekend, which helps believ-ers to better experience the freedom of God’s children, without impositions or utilitarian ends. The Eucharist would be able to help to recover quiet and re-vive inner strength. On the weekend we could be a little more «ourselves».
On the other hand, you would be able to recover Saturday as a celebration of creation; this way you would be able to pursue on Sunday the celebration of salvation. So think some liturgists. The faith would then help to live out the weekend as celebrating the Creator and as an encounter with nature, not by means of work but by enjoyment and contemplation.
Lastly, the celebration of the «Eucharistic assembly»” can give a deeper meaning to that other dimension of the weekend, which is the endearing and gratifying communication with friends and family members, or the encounter with other people and other cultures. The weekend can be the experience of encounter and communion of brothers and sisters. Will the Christian Sunday grow until it is «leaven and salt» of the weekend of today’s culture? In any case, we can ask ourselves this question: do we Christians know how to ex-tract from the Sunday Eucharist strength and joy so as to live out a new Sun-day?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf