REFLECTION: Jesus is not only present in bread and wine, but in God’s word

by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace

I’m sure all of us, from our earliest understanding of The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, have a strong recollection of being impressed with the truth that is proclaimed so strongly in today’s Gospel that Jesus really is present in that bread and wine that is transformed into his body and blood during our celebration of the Eucharist. The real presence of Jesus, in a very mysterious way, is there in the bread we eat, the cup we drink.

St. Paul, in our second lesson today, emphasizes the same thing. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion with the blood of Christ? The bread we break, is it not a communion with the body of Christ?” Jesus is really present then in the bread and wine. We reverence, we adore the Blessed Sacrament. I’m sure for all of us, that always has been part of our understanding of the Holy Eucharist and of our own development in our worship of God, especially the God who came present in our world in Jesus and who gave us his body and blood for our food and drink.

We never want to lose that sense of conviction that Jesus really is present there. When we eat that bread and drink of the cup, we are participating in eating and drinking the very body and blood of Jesus and that draws us together and makes us one body. But as we listen carefully to our lessons today, I think it’s important for us also to understand that there are other ways that Jesus is present in our world right now, in our midst, here in this church….

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