“My Body, My Blood”
Bread for the Life of the World

“This is a fact that is not lawful to doubt,
Christ is in the host and in the chalice sacramentally,
that is, their flesh and blood,
under the species of bread and wine”
(Fr. Francisco Palau, M.R. 3, 9)

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, with this simple gesture of Jesus telling us that He will be with us forever in the Sacrament of the altar. It has become our food. It is the Sacrament of grace that fills us with His grace. “Take, this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant…». The Eucharist is the Sacrament that makes us a community because we are united in the Only One that makes us a body, one in the Spirit.

This time of pandemic has made us feel even more the strength that the Eucharist gives us and how central this Sacrament is, in the life of the Church.  We experience the impossibility of participating in this celebration in person.  Nevertheless, we have to adapt the participation online or on the radio. It is then announced that today, the Eucharistic celebration is valued more, which is really the Sacrament of our faith, the Sacrament that unites us as a body with Christ as the Head.

The strength that the Eucharist gives us is to convert every day that we must put into practice.  The life of grace often gets out of hand for falling into a routine, nor is it possible that, communing so many times, we are so empty inside, so hollow. It is not possible to commune and lead a life so lukewarm, so mediocre, and so vulgar.  This world of ours is so far from God.  Only those who seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness will help to wash it, and the strength for this comes to us from this Jesus Eucharist, who makes himself broken bread for the life of the world, who gives us grace and life.

May this Feast of Corpus Christi help us to be more aware of the great richness of this Sacrament and encourage us to be signs and testimony of God’s love and mercy in the midst of the world.

 Sr. Maria Soledad Morales Manriquez, cmt

Fr. Francisco Palau Community