Corpus Christi: The Body of Christ

Once again, I begin this reflection with a confession. Since I was a teenager, I wanted to be a priest, to be graced to consecrate Eucharist and to give the presence of God to His people.  For years, I considered changing Christian denominations.  There are many Christian Churches that would allow me, a woman, to be ordained.  Prayerful discernment always led me away from that option.  The one thing that always stopped me from stepping away from the Catholic Church was the Body and Blood of Christ. The one thing that tethered me to the Catholic Church is what we believe about Eucharist.  Despite my soulful yearning for ordination, my love for Eucharist has compelled me to remain, a Roman Catholic woman, who longs for priesthood.  

This reflection begins with our hands.  Every Sunday we reach out our hands to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Eucharist is a gift, a selfless gift, of absolute love, placed in our hands. When we receive Eucharist, we hold the purest form of love, in our hands.  Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – God – is cradled in our most ordinary, humble hands.  

Think about your hands.  Your hands, like mine, have touched every part of life.  Remember what you have done with your hands and you will, no doubt be as awed as I am.  Our hands have been steeped in the very stuff of life, they have caressed the newborn, placed a ring on the finger of a beloved, dug in the dirt of a garden, changed a diaper, cooked a meal and made a bed, tended one we love who was dying, and that list could go on and on. Only that isn’t the complete picture.   Our hands have also pulled away from someone in need.  They have refused to help when asked, remained stubbornly by our side instead of embracing one in pain. Our hands have gestured or written words in anger and frustration and refused to embrace in forgiveness when another begged our forgiveness, our hands have failed in many ways.  Simply put our hands have both blessed and sinned against others again and again.  Yet, God, still deems our hands worthy to hold pure love, to hold Him, to hold the Body of Christ.  

We are sanctified again as we consume Eucharist.  We ingest the fullness of love, and the fullness of God, when we take Eucharist into our body as nourishment.   When we receive Eucharist, we become Eucharist.  We become the body, blood, soul and divinity of God.  That reality is overwhelming and awe-inspiring.  We are the Body of Christ!

We together are the Body of Christ. And, each of us when alone are the Body of Christ.  Those words are not just some kind of poetic rhetoric or symbolic analogy.  No matter how many times I write those words and think about what they mean, love overflows my heart.  Our God deems us, sinful, striving, weak and wanting humans to be one with Him in Eucharist.  In the act of receiving Eucharist we are missioned week after week to share the God that we have received with our world.  We are called to be Christ for our wounded and suffering brothers and sisters, for the broken and abandoned.  God gives as pure gift into our humble hands, and with that gift we are given the grace to be what we receive.  We are given the courage to be Christ for our world.

On this feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, we stand in amazement of the great gift that God is placing in our hands.  Let us pray for hearts, minds, and souls open enough to receive the gift, recognize its power, and allow it to change us.

We are called to be the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, broken and shared.  Our Eucharistic Liturgy is not “just another ritual.”  It is God embracing the world in the most intimate and personal way possible, by becoming one with us.  When He comes to us in Eucharist, we say Amen.  Amen, I believe.  Amen, so be it.  Amen, I will humbly be Eucharist too.

In God’s Unfailing love,

Gwen, Pastoral Associate