Today we celebrate Jesus Christ, who has given us his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist as our food so that we are not starved of life in our sojourn through this world as we head towards our promised home of heaven.
In the first reading, Moses reminded the Israelites how God led their fathers to freedom through the wilderness and provided them the strange food (manna) to eat (Deut.8:16). He reminded them, through that miracle, that man does not live on bread alone but on the word of God. He urged them never to forget all that God did for them.
In the second reading, St Paul reminded us that what we celebrate in the Holy Eucharist is our communion in the body and blood of Jesus, the Word of God. Since we share in the One bread, Jesus, we all are united in Him as one body.
In the gospel, Jesus referred to himself as the living bread from heaven, who gives eternal life to those who partake in him. It was a doctrine difficult for the Jews to accept, so He reiterated that when anybody partakes of Him, they draw life from him, who Himself draws life from the Father.
It is easy to take for granted special gifts like the Body of Christ – the Holy Communion. It is essential that we emphasize its centrality in the Catholic Faith and why we receive the Eucharist in every celebration of Holy Mass. The Catechism reminds us that the Eucharist is a remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve us from mortal sins.” (CCC 1436). And as we are being converted through the nourishment of the Eucharist, we become bonded to the body of Christ (CCC 2837).
Therefore, let us continue to share in it, and be united with Christ and one another until Our Lord Jesus Christ returns.