CORPUS CHRISTI/ BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST A
CHALLENGE OF THE “REAL ABSENCE” OF CHRIST
We Catholics have always worshipped differently even from other Christians.
Our community worship takes place within the Eucharist or Mass, where receiving Holy Communion is a climax of our union with the Lord.
Many Protestants are re-discovering Communion and are now doing it too, in their services.
But the difference is that while other Christians now have Communion, they do not believe as we do in the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Eucharist.
Catholics believe that the Bread and Wine at Mass truly become the “Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus says in the Gospel today: 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 (Jn 6: 55-56).
That is why we receive him with deep respect, asking forgiveness for our sins, and going to Confession if possible if we are conscious of serious sins, before receiving Communion.
So Communion is not a symbol but a reality; we truly touch, receive, encounter our Lord and God and he truly meets us in whatever situation we are in through the Eucharist.
The pandemic shattered our experience of the Eucharist. The worldwide lockdown shut churches, forbade public Masses, and alienated us from our parish communities and groups.
We experienced not the “Real Presence” but the “Real Absence” of Christ in Communion.
We attended Mass in our computers and cell phones; some on the radios. The Mass was still there but we missed one thing: we cannot receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
For many of us, just praying while the priest is receiving Communion on our screens is not enough. How we long to receive the Bread of Life.
Now that the lockdowns will end slowly, we still cannot all go to church at once. The elderly and very young cannot come. The sick will not be allowed entry. Only a few slots will be allotted to actual physical worshippers.
We still cannot receive Communion as we want to. And of course, we cannot risk our health to go out if there is the present worry of disease.
But the center of our faith is not the Mass. Remember that the center of our hearts should always be Jesus.
The Mass is our means to meet with him. And people in church form our family of faith to strengthen and encourage us to be faithful. That is all very important.
But nothing is more important than faith in Jesus who comes to encounter us not only in the Mass but in everything we do, every word we say, every thought we think, and every person we love and serve.
While we cannot yet all go to our parishes, while we can only follow the Eucharist in our gadgets, let us ask ourselves: Is Jesus still the center of my heart? Am I becoming more loving to the people around me? Am I offering my service in the place where I am in spite of restrictions? Do I pray with all my heart even if I am in my room?
Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! (Rm 8:38)
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