June 3, 2018 // Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Readings for this Sunday:
Reading 1, Exodus 24:3-8
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
Reading 2, Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel, Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

We are the body of Christ, one family. We gather at the altar with all of our needs and all of our gifts and lift them to God. The Body of Christ includes the most powerful and the most vulnerable, the weakest and the strongest. Eucharist feeds our compassionate solidarity to act on the realization that when one suffers we all suffer; when one is acclaimed we are all acclaimed (1 Corinthians). We are blessed as we allow ourselves to be broken in service for those who have little. The Body of Christ includes the child living on a garbage dump, the elder in the tenement, the teenager in a refugee camp and the parent teaching children survival skills. We are blessed as we allow ourselves to be broken in service for those who have little.

A photo of bishops, priests and lay people placing Eucharist on upturned hands extended through the chain link fence on our border with Mexico shows an integral part of our Body of Christ. And when we are too ill to come to church the Church comes to us. Forty years ago, I met 79 year old Yolanda who brought Eucharist to lepers 50 miles away every Sunday for more than 50 years! We become what we eat, the Body of Christ.

Blessings, Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate