Corpus Christi - Fr. Leo

In our reading from Exodus, Moses sacrifices young bulls to celebrate a blood covenant with the Lord.  There is a more primitive understanding of God in the idea of atonement through animal sacrifice. Unfortunately, a thousand years ago this was brought into our concept of atonement for sin and the practice of penance to atone.

Truth be told, we could never offer to God what would make up for our sins.  We depend on God’s mercy.  So Jesus’ cross was not a substitute for our sins paying our debt.  What Jesus does, is offers himself to us as a way of reuniting us with God.  Jesus wants us to receive his Spirit and share in his life.  Thus his act of love takes away all the guilt and shame that holds us back.

When we receive a penance in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it is not a punishment.  It is to be some activity that will help us live more in the Spirit.  Often times I will invite people to make their Mass attendance there penance as a way of receiving God’s unconditional love for themselves.  

We celebrate this gift in the Eucharist.  We receive the Lord through the consecrated bread and wine that become for us the Body and Blood, the real presence, of Christ.  This gift is not a reward for good behavior, it is God’s way of giving himself to us that we might give ourselves to him anew.

When we celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we receive the one who poured Himself out for us.  In saying ‘Amen’, we affirm our faith in Christ, and acknowledge his call to do the same for all God’s people.  In the end, what we are invited to is intimacy with the Lord.  We ingest the food of Christ to nourish our unity in Him.

We pray today to become a Eucharistic people growing in the Lord through each liturgy.  Then, when that day comes, we will find ourselves at the heavenly banquet with God and all the saints and all those of our company who have gone before us.   For this we pray, Amen.