Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ and our second Mass reading is the account in the First Letter to the Corinthians of the Institution of the Eucharist.
Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., in a book of reflections on the Eucharist, says that for Jesus, the Eucharist means,
I love you so much that I want to get as close to you as I possibly can. No sacrifice is too great in my desire to express and communicate that love. As I approach my death, it is the communion of love I live with my Father that I want to impart to you.
Father Cameron’s articulation suggests that the Eucharist is not only the Body and Blood of Christ, in the sense of nourishing us to be as Jesus was in the world, to do as Jesus did in the world. Rather, when we receive the Eucharist we really receive the entire Trinity. We receive not only Jesus, but also the communion of love Jesus lives with the Father, which also implies the Holy Spirit.
The idea that receiving the Eucharist nourishes us with the love and communion of the entire Trinity suggests an even fuller, richer experience and reality of what we receive in the Eucharist. We are all a part of the communion of love Jesus shares with the Father and the Spirit.
You might take some time today reflecting on Fr. Cameron’s expression of Jesus’ thought and see where it takes you.
Creo en Dios! 