Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: There are many ways to look at the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ which we celebrate today. The most obvious is the gift of the Eucharist, the institution of which we encounter in the account we hear in today Gospel. We encounter that special moment just before Jesus Passion and Death when he gathered his disciples together and gave them the central focus for the rest of their lives. The Eucharist is our most cherished gift, it is the center of our lives as people of faith, as Church. The Eucharist offers us, like it offered the first disciples, the physical and spiritual nourishment needed to live this life of faith. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist that we receive demands our lives, it demands that we bring Christ’s real presence to the world.
 
Another way of looking at this feast comes from another Gospel story. Fr. James Martin, S.J. writes, “God can do a lot with what we think is a little.” Just think of what Jesus did along the Sea of Galilee when he multiplied the loaves and fishes. His disciples wanted to give up. They said all they had were five loaves and a few fish. As we have learned God makes possible the impossible while doing a lot with little; or as Teresa Whalen Lux put it, “God often takes something small and insignificant and turns it into the extraordinary.”
 
When you think about the Last Supper and the story of the Multiplication of the Loaves you think of Jesus taking simple ordinary things and doing extraordinary things with them. Along the Sea of Galilee, he fed many and at the table of the Eucharist each Sunday, each day, Jesus feds many.  Day in and day out Jesus takes something small, insignificant and ordinary, bread and wine, and does the extraordinary.
 
I have often in my preaching reflected on receiving the Eucharist as a moment when God, when Jesus says to us, I demand your life! I have given you mine so now go and give it to the world.  Our celebration of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ today reminds us of just how blessed we are, of just what God can do and of our challenge each day to live, to trust in God and bring the real presence of God to the world!
 
Have a great Sunday everyone!