Jn. 6: 51-58
The world we live in is not the same. All have been experiencing the effects of corona pandemic by way of getting infected or experiencing the difficulties of lockdown, or quarantine experience, or economic crisis, etc. It is for sure most of us had to undergo some of the above-mentioned difficulties. I had to experience the difficulties of quarantine since I left the institute for the summer apostolate before the extreme phase of the Corona pandemic in our country. So when I came back to the institute, I had to undergo this quarantine experience. When I heard about it I thought that I could make these moments of being alone as moments of solitude and spiritual experiences. However, being in the reality of social distancing from others was very hard for me. I understood that what it means when we define a human being as a social being. In these moments of loneliness, I had to encounter and accept my spiritual poverty. Though my community and family members were present with me from a distance, I felt that I am lost. Thankfully, my community was so merciful to me that I was allowed me to participate in the aflame Mass that was telecasted from our institute and I was indeed fortunate to receive the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. When all were forced to keep a distance from me, Jesus came into my Being. Yes, I need to acknowledge that those days of the Holy Eucharist were something special than before. The fact that Jesus is intimately present in me and remaining with me, gave inner strength to encounter these quarantine days with hope and courage. Nonetheless, I was regular for receiving communion, for the first time I realized that what it means to receive Jesus in my being and remaining in communion with him…
The journey of life is not an easy task. All of us have to face the challenges of our day to day life. To exist, we have to encounter struggles and we need to survive these moments with hope and courage. Is there a role for the sacrament of Holy Eucharist in this journey of life? As we celebrate the feast of the Corpus Christi, let us reflect on the role of Holy Eucharist in our earthly sojourn.
The first reading of the day reminds us about a difficult period of Israel’s history, their wilderness experience in the desert, something similar to the pandemic that we experience today. Those 40 years were one of the hardest phases of their life. We all know that journey through the desert is always challenging. However God was ever merciful to them and despite their stubbornness and disobedience, He provided for all their needs. Later on, they recall the intervention of God with gratitude: “It is he who has led you across this great and terrible desert, full of fiery serpents and scorpions, arid land where there is no water. But for you He made water gush forth from the hardest rock. And he fed you in the desert with Manna which your an did not know.” (Dt. 8: 15B-16A) The journey of Israelites to the Promised Land implies our life journey. Every day God provided them daily manna. Later on, they kept a portion of manna in the Ark of the Covenant in remembrance of this great mercy that the Lord extended to them during this difficult phase of their sojourn. The manna was sufficient to sustain them in the desert journey but it could not provide spiritual nourishment for their journey towards heavenly Jerusalem, the eternal Promised Land.
It is Jesus who nourishes us and empowers in our journey towards heavenly Jerusalem by giving us His own body and blood. When Jesus told them whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever; Israelites could not digest it, many disciples abandoned him. At the last supper, Jesus transformed Himself as the new manna that enables a person to inherit eternal life by making Jesus part of one’s being. Jesus says: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (Jn.6: 54-56) Through Jesus, we enter into communion with our heavenly Father, though we are not worthy Jesus who is present in our being makes this impossible a possible reality. We are born as mortal but our earthly sojourn with Jesus, receiving his body and blood, creates an inseparable communion with the Holy Trinity. This spiritual communion lasts to eternity. The reality of death may extinguish our bodily existence but this communion remains because Jesus who is present in our being cannot die and through Him, we are in communion with the Trinity.
As we celebrate this greatest mystery, let us thank Christ for his self-giving love and let us seek his grace that we may all be blessed to receive him again and meet the challenges of the corona pandemic with great hope. May his presence in our being, enlighten us that even though we keep physical distance from our brethren, it should not dispenses us from our responsibility to care and we may be channels of his love in varied ways…