Reflection of Father Moreno's Homily: June 26, 2011

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, The Body and Blood of Christ.

Father Moreno related that on Tuesday he was preparing for today’s homily, he was reading the book written by Pope Benedict XVI entitled: Jesus of Nazareth and then the phone rang. He couldn’t find his phone and then he remembered he had left his phone charging in the kitchen but by the time he went to get it there was already a voice message on the phone. And so the person who had called him and he were playing phone tag.

In order to clear his head he went walking and praying.

He picked up his Bible and it flipped out of his hands with all the holy cards he kept there of all the people who had died and he had promised to pray for were scattered all over the floor.

There were the holy cards of his mother, his two brothers and his sister.

As he picked up the holy cards memories started to flood his mind immensely, the memories are very real.  The card of his mother brought back memories that were very present, he vividly recalled when he was ten years old and his sister Veronica caught him blowing out the church candles and the re-lighting them as he prayed for the person’s intentions who had lit the candle. The moment was reality. As he picked up the holy cards of the people he had kept in his Bible he was engaging and encountering those people.

Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” To remember is to be part of the event, participation.

Those who do not believe are protesting, rejecting what Jesus said, that Jesus is present to us in the bread and wine which is Our Savior, Our Lord.

We need to receive the host with dignity.

Manna in the Old Testament is the Bread from Heaven.

Jesus said, “I am the Living Bread.”

The temptation for Jesus is to turn stones into bread, but man does not live by bread alone.

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life, this is my flesh.”

It is not a symbol is his flesh, it is not an idea of his flesh, it is not a theology of his flesh, and it is not a philosophy of his flesh, it is his real flesh.

Those who couldn’t accept or believe this left Jesus because they did not have eyes to see or ears to hear.

When the priest puts his hands over the bread and the wine and the bells ring, it is the body and blood of Jesus.

This feast calls us not to protest. What separates our brothers and sisters is not the Pope, is not the Blessed Virgin Mary, is not that the priest is called Father; it is that they do not believe it is the Body and Blood of Christ.

When we receive Jesus, we consume him and he consumes us.

We believe in the communion of saints.

We believe in the coming down of the Holy Spirit that bread and wine is the Body and Blood of Christ.

We must open our heart and receive Jesus, he is receiving us. He is in us and we are in him.

We receive the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray to prepare to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.