Weekly Reflections for June 19, 2022

Last week we celebrated the Holy Trinity; what we believe about God. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God Himself. The Trinity is One; one God in three persons.

Now, this week we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Feast of Corpus Christi. This is another weekend where we celebrate what we believe, this week we celebrate our belief in the Body and Blood of Jesus, the REAL Presence. We live in a world that tries every day to have the secular displace the sacred. It is our fundamental belief as Catholics that God is at the center of everything.

Society tries to substitute material things; money; reputation; ego; for God. We see it, we hear it, all around us all the time. But as a fundamental truth, we believe that at the last supper, “Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples and said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” The Eucharist isn’t a metaphor; it isn’t a symbol. St John tells us that when the Jews start quarreling during His ‘Bread of Life’ discourse, Jesus didn’t try to make it palatable for them. He did say, guys, it’s just a metaphor. No, St John tells us that Jesus doubled down. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 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.” The Eucharist: The Body and Blood of Christ, is another of the great mysteries of our faith. But it is a fundamental belief, a fundamental truth, that in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ is present.

The whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially present. “This presence is called ‘real’, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God, and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.” We believe this because Jesus Himself told us so. Every time we step forward to receive the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, contemplate who you have in your hand, who you are about to consume, just as he commanded us to do, in memory of Him. This is what we believe.

• Deacon Chuck Hoppe