* Body & Blood of Christ (A), May 25, 2008
* Theme: We though many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf

* Today’s First reading from Deuteronomy sets a tone for our celebration of Corpus Christi:
* Those 40 years in the desert were a time of extreme hardships for the people
* It was a time of temptation, physical exhaustion, despair, death, failure and rebellion against God and Moses.
* It got so bad that the people turned in anger on Moses and wondered why he even brought them out of slavery.
* They would prefer, they told him, to return to the slavery they knew, rather than face their arduous present and a very uncertain future.

* However, God comes through for them and for us in the second part of today’s reading.
* It is a God who brings us out of slavery;
* God guides us “through the vast and terrible desert with its seraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground,” feeds us daily with one form of manna or another and quenches our thirst.
* Today’s celebration gives us the Word of God to hear and ponder so that we can receive guidance and strength, lest we get lost in our many contemporary desert places.

* After we are fed on the Word, John’s Gospel reminds us today, we are fed on the living bread that has come down from heaven.
* Today’s passage is Eucharistic.
* In Jesus’ culture, “flesh and blood” referred to the whole person.
* So, when Jesus speaks of eating and drinking, he is inviting his hearers to a personal communion with him.
* And not only with him, but with the Father who sent him.

* Each time we come forward to receive the Eucharistic bread and wine we are expressing our desire to take Jesus into our lives.
* We are responding to an “altar call” after hearing the Word.
* We not only want him to be more a part of our lives, but we also want our lives look more and more like his.
* So, we come forward to receive the One whose life can shape our lives.
* In receiving his body and blood, his life, we are asking that our lives reflect, as his did, our compassionate and forgiving God.
* (Cf. Jude Siciliano, OP)

* Jaime Stellos, a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament who volunteers as a part time chaplain at a local prison put it well:
* On Friday he was conducting a Communion Service for prisoners who had not had a religious service for over a year.
* He preached to the prisoners that, “The sacrament of Eucharist was a celebration of Christ’s continuing presence with us. That which is true everywhere and always needs to be celebrated somewhere someplace, and we were blessed to be partying together at the table but [more importantly, we remember] that God’s love and presence remained with them always.”
* Jaime wrote to me, “There was more than one tearful eye in the house at communion. It was a beautiful Corpus Christi.”

* Today we celebrate Corpus Christi, the Feast of our Parish, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.
* For 104 years, Catholics from the community of Hollywood have come together to partake of the one Bread that feeds us all.
* We have our difference, and sometimes we argue, but at the end of the day, we are all made ONE around the table of the Lord.

* Today we celebrate the many ministries that make up the Body of Christ at Blessed Sacrament.
* We also celebrate the people who take a public presence in the parish, and the people who work hard behind the scenes – we celebrate them all.

* We rejoice in the diversity and the richness of the community of the Blessed Sacrament.
* Sometimes our ministry is difficult and challenging;
* Sometimes we get frustrated and discouraged;
* But the faith and the spirit of the People of God of Blessed Sacrament in all its diversity have been a blessing to us all.

* Let us continue with our celebration
* We are many made one around the table of the Lord
* We share the one cup of blessing and the bread of salvation.
* We are the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.
* Praise God

* Amen

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