The Bread of Life

This year the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ and the 170th anniversary of the death of St. Marcellin Champagnat coincide. It is a huge Church Feast and a huge Marist Feast. And fittingly, for St. Marcellin loved the Eucharist, preparing ahead of time for his daily celebration of Mass, even when he was presiding in the "chapel under the trees" while building the Hermitage, and spending quiet time in thanksgiving after concluding the Mass.
We celebrate the gift of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, not simply a memorial or symbolic representation, but truly the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. We take time to reflect on and reverence this unique gift, which promises to those who believe, eternal life. "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has etenal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (Jn 6: 47-51). Pope John Paul II emphasized the the universality of this great gift when he wrote, "[The Church] "does not only celebrate the Eucharist but solemnly bears it in procession publicly procaliming that the sacrifice of Christ is for the salvation of the whole world." Public procession. When I was in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1977, the "Fete Dieu", Corpus Christi, today's Feast was celebrated on a Thursday. It was a holiday, and the solemn procession through the Streets, including several retired members of the Swiss Guard, was observed in strict silence until the Monstrance carried by the Bishop under a magnificent canopy was returned to the Cathedral for Benediction. In Rwanda, the procession wound its way on dirt paths artistically decorated with colored sand and grasses depicting the Chalice and Host, while the people sang hymns and the children climbed trees and basketball hoops in Zachaeus fashion, to honor and give praise to the presence of Jesus in the host. Our secularized world would have trouble observing the feast in this fashion, but in our own hearts and in our own time, especially as we receive Holy Communion today (and everytime) we might deepen our reverence, devotion and gratitude for and recall the universal application of this great sacrament, the Bread of Life.
Bro. Rene