The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ / Corpus Christi (Year C) - 22 June 2025
22nd June 2025
“As by the Word of God, Jesus our Saviour was made Flesh and Blood for our salvation, so also the food which has been blessed by the word of prayer instituted by Him is both the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Incarnate.” - St Justin, Martyr
A reflection on the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ taken from the book The Real Presence by St Peter Julian Eymard:
Why is Jesus Christ in the Eucharist? We might make several answers to this question. But that which comprises them all is this: He is there because He loves us, and because He desires that we love Him. Love – that is the reason of the institution of the Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, the love of Jesus Christ would be for us a dead love, a past love, which we should soon forget, and which we should be almost pardonable in forgetting. Love has its laws, its demands. The Eucharist alone fully satisfies them. By it, Jesus Christ has every right to be loved, because He testifies in its infinite love for us.
Now, natural love, such as God has put into our hearts, demands three things: The presence of the loved one, or social life; community of goods; and perfect union. Absence is the pain of friendship, its torment. Distance weakens and, if it is too prolonged, ends by putting the firmest friendship to death. If our Lord is away from us, removed from us, our love for Him will undergo the dissolving effect of absence. It is in the nature of man’s love to require, in order to live, the presence of the object loved.
Behold the poor Apostles while Our Lord was in the tomb. The disciples of Emmaus avowed that they had almost lost faith, because they no longer had their good Master. Ah! if our Lord had left us with no other pledge of His Love than Bethlehem and Calvary – poor Saviour! how quickly we should have forgotten Him! What indifference!
Love wishes to see, to hear, to converse, to touch. Nothing takes the place of the beloved one, neither souvenir, nor gifts, nor portraits. All that is without life. Our Lord knew it well. Nothing could have taken the place of His Person. We need Our Lord Himself.
But His Word? No, it no longer sounds. We no longer hear the touching accents that fell from the lips of the Saviour. His Gospel? It is a testament. But His Sacraments – do they not give life? Ah! it takes the Author of Life to sustain it in us! The Cross? No; apart from Jesus, it only saddens! But hope? Without Jesus, it is agony! Could Jesus have wished to reduce us to so sad a state of living and struggling without Him? Oh, we should be too unhappy without Jesus present with us! Exiled, alone upon earth, obliged to deprive ourselves of terrestrial goods, of the consolations of life, while the worldling has all that he desires – life would be unsupportable!
But with the Eucharist! with Jesus in the midst of us … by day and by night, accessible to all, waiting for everyone in His ever-open house, admitting the lowly, calling them with marked predilection – ah! life is less bitter. He is the good Father in the midst of His children. It is social life with Jesus. And what society! Society that makes us better, that elevates us! And what facilities for social relations with heaven, with Jesus Christ, Himself, in Person! It is, indeed, the sweet companionship of simple, loving, familiar, and intimate friendship. Ah! it was necessary! Love desires community of goods, common possession. It wishes to share happiness and unhappiness. To give is its nature, its instinct, to give all with joy, with pleasure. And so, Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament gives with profusion, with prodigality, His merits, His graces, yes, even His glory! Oh, how eager He is to give! He never refuses. And He gives Himself to all, and always. He covers the world with consecrated Hosts. He wishes all His children to possess Him. There still remain twelve baskets of the five loaves multiplied in the desert. All must have some!
Jesus Christ would wish to envelop the world in His sacramental veil, to fertilize all nations in the waters of life that are losing themselves in the ocean of eternity, but only after having slaked the thirst, and strengthened the last of the elect. Ah! it is well for us, for all of us, O Jesus Eucharistic!
Love tends to union, the union of them that love, the fusion of two into one, of two hearts into one heart, of two spirits into one, of two souls into one. Jesus submitted to this law of love, which He had Himself established. After having shared our state, our life, He gives Himself in Communion, He absorbs us into Himself. Divine union of souls, always more perfect, always more intimate in proportion to the vivacity of our desires! In me manet, et ego in eo. He in me, and I in Him. We abide in Him, He dwells in us. We make but one with Him, until heaven consummates in eternal and glorious union, the ineffable union commenced here below by grace, and perfected by the Eucharist!
Love lives, then, with Jesus present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It shares all the riches of Jesus. It is united with Jesus.
The needs of our heart are satisfied. It can demand no more. We Believe in the Love of God for us.
Faith in the truth of the divine words and promises is exacted of every Christian. That is simply faith. But the faith of love is higher and more perfect. It is the crown of the first.
Faith in truth would be sterile if it did not lead to faith in love.
What is that love in which we ought to believe? It is the love of Jesus Christ, the love which He testifies to us in the Eucharist, the love which is Himself, living and infinite love. Happy they who believe in Jesus Christ in the Eucharist! They love, for to believe is to love.
They who are satisfied with believing in the truth of the Eucharist love not at all, or love very little. But what proofs of His love has Our Lord given in the Eucharist? In the first place, Our Lord has given us His word to that effect. He tells us that He loves us, that He has instituted His Sacrament only for love of us. Then, it is true. We believe an honourable man on his word. Why should we put less faith in that of Our Lord?
When a friend desires to prove to his friend that he loves him, he tells him so, and he presses his hand affectionately.
When Our Lord wants to show His love for us, He does so in person, discarding the intervention of any third person, whether angelic or human. Love suffers no intermediate agents. He remains in the Holy Eucharist that He may repeat to us incessantly: ‘I love you! You must see that I love you!’
Our Lord was so afraid that we would eventually forget Him that He took up His abode in the midst of us, made His home among us, placed His service within our reach, so that we might not be able to think of Him without calling to mind His love. Giving Himself thus, He hoped, perhaps, not to be forgotten by men.
Whoever reflects seriously on the Eucharist, but, above all, whoever participates in It, must feel convinced that Our Lord loves him. He feels that he has in Him a Father. He feels that he is loved as a child. He feels that he has the right to go to Him as a Father, and to speak freely with him. When in church, at the foot of the tabernacle, he feels that he is at home with his Father. He feels it.
Ah! I understand why the Faithful love to live near churches, under the shadow of the paternal home.
Thus Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament tells us that He loves us. He repeats it to us interiorly, and makes us feel it. Let us believe in His love.
Does Jesus love us personally, individually? To this question there is but one answer: Do we belong to the Christian family? In a family, do not the father and the mother love the child with equal love? And if they had some preference, would it not be for the most delicate or infirm?
Our Lord has for us the sentiment, at least, of a good Father. Why do we refuse Him that character? But still more, see how Our Lord exercises toward each one of us His personal love. He comes every morning to see each of His children in particular, to visit him, speak to him, embrace him. Although He comes so often, His visit is always as gracious, as loving as if it were the very first. He has not grown old. He is never tired of loving us, and of giving Himself to each of us.
Does He not give Himself whole and entire to each one? And if the communicants are more numerous than the Hosts, does He not divide Himself for them? Does He ever give less to any one? Even if the church is filled with adorers, cannot each one of us pray to Jesus, converse with Him? And is he not heard, is he not answered as favourably, as if he were alone in the church? Such is the personal love of Jesus. Everyone receives Him entire, and does no wrong to anyone. As the sun sheds its light on each and all, as the ocean belongs entirely to each and all the fishes, so does Jesus belong to all of us. He is greater than all. He is inexhaustible.
Another undeniable proof of the love of Our Lord is the persistence of that love in the Most Blessed Sacrament. How touching is this thought to the soul that understands! Numberless Masses are daily celebrated all over the world. They succeed one another almost without interruption. And how many of these Masses, in which Jesus offers Himself for us, are unattended, how many without assistants? While, on this new Calvary, Jesus is crying for mercy, sinners are outraging God and His Christ.
Why does Our Lord renew His sacrifices so often, since we do not profit by it? Why does He remain day and night on our altars, to which no one comes to receive the graces that He is offering with full hands?
Because He is loving, He is hoping, He is expecting! If Jesus came on our altars only on certain days, He would fear that some sinner, impelled by a desire to return to Him, might come seeking Him and, not finding Him, would go away without waiting for Him. So He prefers to await the sinner long years Himself rather than make him wait an instant, rather than discourage him, perhaps, when he wants to escape from the slavery of sin.
Oh, how few have even a remote idea of the love of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament! And, nevertheless, it is true! Oh, we have no faith in the love of Jesus! Would we treat a friend, would we treat any man, as we do Our Lord?
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within Thy wounds hide me.
Never let me be separated from Thee.
From the malignant enemy defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me; and bid me come to Thee.
That with Thy saints and angels, I may praise Thee for all eternity. Amen. 💖🙏💐