Gospel Commentary: This Is My Body

By Fr. John Riley
HERALD Columnist
(From the issue of 6/22/00)

Four words … simple and homely. Far more eloquent phrases have been conceived by the likes of Shakespeare and Pope, Dante and Frost. The more accomplished rhetoric of men like Cicero and Caesar, Jefferson and Lincoln has moved the minds and hearts of men through the centuries and actually changed the course of human history. "This is My Body" — apparently nothing here to make us stop and think or take notice. Yet there is no greater use to which human language can be put.

Language is a tool and words exercise a certain power. Using words and concepts, Man with his intellect is able to know the true and to express clearly (or distort darkly) his participation in and understanding of reality. At this moment, you are reading words which a priest has committed to print in an attempt to help you understand more deeply a great and central mystery of the Catholic faith — the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

This Sunday we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi — the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord. In this week’s Gospel passage we ponder Mark’s account of the Last Supper. Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to the apostles, saying those words — "This is My Body". In that quiet and solemn moment in the upper room, the greatest miracle in eternity takes place. Bread becomes Jesus Christ. The substance of what before was merely a morsel of food becomes the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the God Man.

The miracle of Holy Thursday is not restricted to the upper room. The Last Supper is not the end, but the beginning. In the darkest and most desperate hour of His life on earth, Jesus also instituted the priesthood of the new and everlasting covenant. Peter and John, James, Andrew and the rest were consecrated and ordained as priests — living out and participating in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ. They received from Him the power to "do this" [what Jesus had just done] in memory of Him, and to hand on that power to others.

For 2,000 years priests have spoken those words of power and truth — in Aramaic and Greek, Latin and English — and scores of other languages. In their consecrated hands, at their verbal command, the host becomes Jesus. The Incarnation, the life, death and resurrection of Christ are made instantly and absolutely present, perpetuated by a miracle which transcends time and space. With reverence and love, priests lay Jesus on the altar and genuflect before their God. With those same hands, moments later, they fed the faithful flock which would starve without this sacred and spiritual food.

On the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord we give thanks to God for the great gift of the Eucharist. By the power of God, the life of Christ, and the gestures and words of the priest at the altar, Jesus is made present to be worshipped, received and embraced in intimate and holy Communion. May we always be grateful for the awesome privilege to obey our Lord’s mandate: "Do this in memory of Me." Amen

Fr. Riley is parochial vicar at St. John Parish in Warrenton until June 28 when he becomes administrator of St. Louis Parish in Alexandria..

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