Corpus Christi (A)
(Deuteronomy
8:2-3, 14-16; 1st. Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58)
Anyone who loves Jesus will occasionally think “How
wonderful it must have been to actually see Him, hear Him speak, experience His
Presence and Personality!” What a
privilege: incomparable and unrepeatable!
Such a person might then go on to wonder: “What difference might it have
made to my life if, indeed, I could have known the Jesus Who walked and talked
in Palestine; Who taught, smiled on, and blessed His Apostles, disciples, and
the thronging crowds; Who looked on the poor and needy with an immediate and personal
sympathy, giving evidence of a patient understanding deeper than any possible
words of exhortation or explanation. Oh,
to have known Him thus! Had that been my lot, might I not have turned
out immeasurably better than I find myself today?”
Let us, however, recall these words of Jesus to His
sorrowing disciples who were distressed at the thought of losing Him (John
16:7):
But I tell you the truth, it is
better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to
you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.
God’s blessings are now bestowed on us in the name of Jesus
by the Advocate, the Spirit of Jesus, through the mediation of Jesus’ Sacramental
Body and Blood, and these two aspects we need to look a little closer at in
order to appreciate them more.
Had we personally heard and seen Jesus Himself here on
earth, we would have been looking upon Him as One other than ourselves, looking
outside ourselves to Another. Moreover,
we would have been listening to Him with ears that do not always hear
accurately, looking at Him through eyes that often see only what we expect or
want to see and are conversely, at times slow to notice or appreciate the
unexpected or the unwelcome. And then,
having seen and heard in our own way that which others might have seen and
heard somewhat differently, we frequently recall only that which -- for some perhaps
unknown reason – particularly stirred our personal sensitivity, and so fixed
itself in our memory. It is a fact that
we can rarely, if at all, remember all that actually happened; and police will
tell us how difficult it can be at times in the search for objective facts to
reconcile different, even mutually contradictory, eye- witness accounts.
If our remembering and reporting of all that might have
happened could prove so difficult, what about our understanding of those
events? We can misunderstand what others
do, even when we know them intimately …. How would we -- sinners as we know
ourselves to be -- have understood aright what Jesus in His infinite wisdom and
'caritas'-as-distinct-from-emotional love chose to do and say to us and in our
hearing?
In the days of His public ministry Jesus – though devoutly
accompanied and attended to by the company of the disciples and Apostles we
have learned to admire so much -- was nevertheless led on several occasions to
reproach them for their slowness of understanding and the weakness of their
flesh. Had we been with them, we might
have watched and admired Him in His work, but surely we ourselves would
frequently -- probably more frequently than the Apostles -- have been found unable to rightly
appreciate the significance of His words and actions, nor would we have been
either more committed and courageous than they so as to be able to disregard
the fear that originally held them back from confessing His Name, or so as to
stay our feet from leaving Jesus’ side and running with them, each and every
one of us, on our own way.
Now, however, Jesus has given us His own Spirit, to be with
us in Mother Church to the end of time and we know more of Jesus’ words than
did His disciples of old because the Spirit has brought, and is constantly
bringing, to the Church’s mind all that Jesus said and did, intended for us and
wanted of us, as He so gently but yet irresistibly guides her into all truth
about Jesus’ saving work. And in our
individual lives, too, through all the changing circumstances of our daily routines,
no matter what the joys or sorrows, difficulties or trials, the Spirit of Jesus
is in us, with us, and for us: speaking to and communing with our spirit, comforting
and supporting us, moving and guiding, inspiring and sustaining us, whereby we
are enlightened to appreciate what Jesus does for us, and also
empowered to work with and for Jesus, making full use of the blessings
He has left us in His Church.
All this is what was shown when Our Lord ascended to heaven. The disciples were left gazing after Him,
whereupon they were admonished by angels saying:
Men of Galilee, why are you
standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you
into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.
(Acts 1:11)
“Why stand gazing up into the sky?” Admiring indeed, but not involved. That was our situation at the beginning when
we were thinking about how wonderful it would have been if we had been
able to see, hear and follow Jesus on His saving mission. The present
and enduring fact is that now we are not just watching, we are involved;
we have been given riches beyond any of our imaginings, riches meant to enable
us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” as St. Paul said. We are no longer like children innocent of
any responsibility, just watching, waiting, wondering and wishing; but rather
we are now called upon by the Spirit of Jesus -- working within the Church and
in each one of us -- to actualize, bring about, what Jesus planned, suffered,
and died for, by bringing forth acceptable fruit in our lives and growing to
full personal maturity in Christ, having
a part with Him in His sufferings for the salvation of mankind, and thereby hoping
to attain to a share in the glory of His Resurrection, under the guidance and
in the power of His Spirit within us.
In order that we may be able to fulfil this our glorious calling,
and to grow continually in union with Jesus, we have been given His own Most
Precious Body and Blood in Holy Mother Church, so that, receiving Him from her we
might be filled ever anew with, purified and perfected by, His Most Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is indeed given to each of us at our
Baptism. However, the Spirit is a Divine
Person to Whom we must learn to respond; He is not a thing we irrevocably
possess; and our awareness of a developing presence of the Spirit within us and
for us is dependent upon the sensitivity and sincerity of our response to His
initiatives in our lives. And therein
lies the difficulty, for it is difficult to respond to One Who is invisible and
intangible.
To help us in that respect the Spirit Himself, our Advocate
and Helper, puts the presence of Jesus in Mother Church before our eyes; for,
just as Jesus lived for the glory of His Father, so the Spirit too, lives and
works in us, not for Himself but for the glory of Jesus. He knows we can more easily recall, love, and
appreciate the human figure of Jesus Who, though Himself no longer with us
visibly, is nevertheless indelibly etched on our minds and hearts through His
shared humanity with us: in the memories of Him enshrined in the Scriptures and
in the traditions and practices of Mother Church. Above all else, however, the Spirit insists
that we never forget that Jesus left us one supreme and sublimely perfect
memorial of Himself -- His Self-sacrifice to the Father and Self-communion to
us -- in Holy Mass:
Then Jesus took the bread, said
the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body,
which will be given for you; do this in memory of Me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten,
saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which will be shed for
you. (Luke 22:19-20)
In our Holy Communion, Jesus is present to us as He
promised: He is present in His glorious body under the appearances of bread and
wine because He comes offering us life, eternal life. Indeed, He even offers us a share, a place,
in His glory by the Gift of the Spirit Who raised Him from the dead:
If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life
to your mortal bodies also, through His Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)
In this way our continued growth in understanding of, love
for, and likeness to, Jesus can know no limits until we are, finally, one with
Him in all things for the Father. Jesus,
on earth, was necessarily leading His disciples from the outside; now, however,
by the Gift of His Spirit – ever renewed and refreshed in us by our communion
with Him in His Eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament -- Jesus wills to make us, by
His Spirit, perfectly one with Himself in love for and service of His
Father, Who Himself comes to us and wills to abide with us, that thus He might make
us His own truly and fully adopted children and show Himself to be our most truly
sublime and loving Father.
