Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI....
CORPUS CHRISTI:
When I asked children once about where we get the host or the Altar bread, right away, they  answered, "From Walmart".  Becasue children think that everything comes from Walmart.  I think I should stop going to Walmart with another priest. Because, the last time...as he entered without realizing, he knelt before toilett papers and blessed himself and since I followed him, I did the same.  Once after having practice for first communion,  I asked them, how
the altar bread tasted?  they all said, "It tasted like cardboard". I was not happy at all. So I told their parents not to feed their children with cardboard.
When Blessed Mother Teresa was asked about her amazing energy and strenght to do great things for the poor and the needy. She said, "My energy and strength come from Christ in the Holy Eucharist".
In his last years, St. Vianney preached only three words indicating the tabernacle said, "There is Jesus....there is Jesus" and then he began to cry and so did the people.
The courageous chinese archbishop Dominic Tang who was imprisoned for twenty-one years for nothing more than his faithfulness and loyalty to Christ and the Holy Catholic Church. After five years in the solitary confinement, he was allowed to leave the cell for few hours thinking that he would call his family or friends or go for a walk. Do you know what he did. He used that few hours to say Mass.
In 1969 as Niel Armstrong stepped onto the Moon's surface saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", Buzz Aldrin before decending on the moon, consumed the body of Christ that he took with him in a small pyx reading from the scriptures, "I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit".
There is a non-canonical story that goes like this... once God wanted to see what was the pressing needs of His people, so He sent His angels to find out. After some days, they all came back with one demand. They all said that people are in need of food, in need of water. They want to know the truth, the way to come to God and so on... So God said, "I will send my only Son who will satisfy the needs of all people".  Yes, Jesus nourishes us with His words and heals us with His miracles. Anyone who goes to Him will have life everlasting.
Those who were hungry in the wilderness were fed with manna. And what happened to them? They all died and persihed. Because Manna satistied only their physical needs but in the gospels, Christ says that anyone who eats His flesh will never die but be given everlasting life. He says, "Ego Sum Panis Vite" namely I am the bread of life.
Everytime we receive the body of Christ in the hand or on the tongue, we promise Christ, "Christ Jesus, I will become your hand and helping others in need and when we receive look at the Holy Eucharist the body of christ, we say to Christ, Christ I will become your eyes and help others to see higher things spiritual things and when we consume the body of Christ, we promise Christ, "Christ, I will pronounce only your words to those who are oppressed and outcasts and I will bring back those who are scattered and thus, we become another Christ in the world filled with challenges, spiritual toughness.
Like the people of today's gospel, we too come to the Lord empty handed. We come to Him with our sinfulness and short-comings and Christ who loves us so much is not going to send us away saying, "you are a sinner and do not come to me" instead, He is asking us to participate in the banquate saying, "Though you went away from me, though you fell into the same sin again and again, I love you so much. Come and eat my flesh and you will have life that will never end".
Every time, we eat the Holy Eucharist, we witness  Eucharistic miracle.  Yes we are His Eucharistic miracle. As the body of Christ touches our body, soul and mind and heart, we become a symbol of his love and kindness; we become a symbol of His forgiveness and acceptence. Yes, we become His miracle. we are called the Eucharistic miracle of Christ today.
After composing the beautifu hymn of Tantum ergo Sacramentum to vererate the most Blessed Sacrament, St. Thomas Acquinas was not happy, thinking that he did not do a good job, he placed the hymn at the foot of the cross and praying and Jesus himself appeared to him saying, "Thomas, you wrote well. Now ask me anything you want. Thomas said, "Jesus, I don't want anything but yourself..." Dear friends, Every time we come to Church, every time we receive the sacrament and everytime we do anything in His name, all we have to say is..."Jesus, I don't want anything no fame, no money...but give me yourself...the highest gifts of all.
God is not a distant reality. He is with us and he is infinitely in love with us. Every year, we do lose so many people from our Catholic Church. They leave the Church in search of Christ and they want to have deeper encounter with Christ and it is  our time to help them to face Christ every day. So let recieve the body of Christ and become new spiritual creatures. Amen.