Gospel Reflection June 11 – Deacon Frank Iannarino
Sunday, June 11
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
John 6: 51-58
Gospel:
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“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.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Gospel Reflection:
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, you may remember that it was impossible to buy certain items. One of those items was yeast, and in some areas, flour. Why? Because people confined to their homes had a widespread desire to return to the very foundations that ground us as humans, baking bread among them. From the earliest times, bread has been called the “staff of life.”
This weekend we celebrate one of the great feast days of our faith – the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the feast of Corpus Christi. The greatest gift that Christ gave to the church was the total gift of self in the form of bread – truly, his body and blood. Every week – and for some every day – we are invited to the banquet table to feed on Christ, the source of our eternal life. We gather, as the apostles did on that first Holy Thursday, in remembrance of him, for he died for us, conquering sin and death, and promising all who believed in him life everlasting. The Eucharist is Christ’s Sacrament of unconditional love for all who believe in him.
In this Sunday’s gospel, Christ is giving us a foretaste of the way in which he is going to bring salvation through his brokenness. This is reflected when he says, “…whoever eats my flesh and drinks, my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me, will have life because of me.”
Through this invitation, we become partakers of this spiritual food, so that we can enter into the new covenant with him. Every time that we come to the altar, we deepen our relationship with God, and receive love, joy, peace, goodness, and gentleness. These gifts take root in our lives and gradually transform us.
May the Eucharist send us forth to be good news: to empower the powerless, to give hope to the hopeless, and to proclaim the kingdom of God, in our midst, here, and now. Come to the table. Take and receive the body and blood of Christ, given so that we might have eternal life in him.
-Deacon Frank Iannarino