Last Sunday, we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ). The feast celebrates the Real Presence (not a symbol) of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It is for this reason that Catholics venerate the Eucharist with such reverence.
On Sunday 19 June 2022, Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
The Feast of Corpus Christi is a time for Christians to remember that God will meet their basic needs to eat and to be filled with the joy and amazement of receiving loving nourishment from Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said.
At the same time, the Pope emphasized, the Eucharist must also move Christians to action. “We can evaluate our Eucharistic Adoration when we take care of our neighbour like Jesus does,” the Pope said on Sunday before the recitation of the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
“There is hunger for food around us, but also for companionship; there is hunger for consolation, friendship, good humour; there is hunger for attention, there is hunger to be evangelized. We find this in the Eucharistic Bread — the attention of Christ to our needs and the invitation to do the same toward those who are beside us. We need to eat and feed others.”
The Pope’s remarks reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes from the Gospel of Luke.
Pope Francis reflected on the manner of the miracle when Jesus fed so many who lacked food. “The miracle of the loaves and fishes does not happen in a spectacular way, but almost secretly, like the wedding at Cana — the bread increases as it passes from hand to hand. And as the crowd eats, they realize that Jesus is taking care of everything,” said Pope Francis.
“This is the Lord present in the Eucharist. He calls us to be citizens of Heaven, but at the same time he takes into account the journey we have to face here on earth. Jesus Christ’s self-giving presence is key to understanding the Eucharist” he said.
“We certainly need to nourish ourselves, but we also need to be satisfied, to know that the nourishment is given to us out of love. In the Body and Blood of Christ, we find his presence, his life given for each of us. He not only gives us help to go forward, but he gives us himself — he makes himself our traveling companion, he enters into our affairs, he visits us when we are lonely, giving us back a sense of enthusiasm.”
“This satisfies us, when the Lord gives meaning to our life, our obscurities, our doubts; he sees the meaning, and this meaning that the Lord gives satisfies us,” the Pope explained. Everyone is looking for the presence of the Lord, because “in the warmth of his presence, our lives change,” the Pope added.
“Without him, everything would truly be grey,” he said. “Adoring the Body and Blood of Christ, let us ask him with our heart: ‘Lord, give me that daily bread to go forward, Lord, satisfy me with your presence!’”
The pope also prayed that the Virgin Mary may teach us “how to adore Jesus, living in the Eucharist and to share him with our brothers and sisters.”