Bài Giảng Lễ Mình và Máu Thánh Chúa
The
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ: June
18, 2017)
Happy
Father's Day! Today, we celebrate the
father’s day, we commemorate of the love of own father on earth have had for us
and we thank them for all of their sacrifices for us. Today, we also celebrate
the Feast of Corpus Christi; we also commemorate the love that God our father
have given us, Especially the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus in the
Eucharist.
In today's Gospel we see two
dimensions of the Eucharist. First, Jesus is the "living bread" come
down from heaven, He alone response to our hunger.
Only Jesus can give us real
nourishment. He does it in a surprising way; and this is the second dimension
of the Eucharist: "My flesh is true
food and my blood is true drink. Who eat my flesh will have life….. "
But some time we have doubted and like the Jews disputed this
and asked ourselves: "How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?.
Let
us ask ourselves: Why did Jesus come down to earth from heaven?. Why did he die
for our sins? To answer the question: Jesus was sent from the father and died
for us because God love us. He wants save us and us to have the eternal live
with him.
Let
me tell you a real story; after the communist took control the South VN in 1975
many Vietnamese escape the country and most of them are catholic including me.
For
many reasons, people flee the country to seek for their freedom. Even though,
they knew that they may have to die on their way to find the freedom.
When we was in the refugee camp in early
1977, we heard a story about one of the boats full of people on their way to
seek for their freedom in the pacific ocean, they got caught in Malaysia water,
they were put in jail for a month and their boat
were pulled to the International water after released from jail with a little
water and food on board. When the boat was out in the
international water for couple of days they run out of food and water. All the adults
can handle the hunger and thirst but it was hard for young children. In the
boat there was a young child was hungry and kept crying, his young mother can’t
satisfied him with her empty breast.
And
then, when the baby stop crying people in the boat thought the little child has
died of hunger, but they found that the child was fine and playing beside the exhausted
mother with many big cuts in her arm. Latter they found out the cut herself so
her child can suck the flesh on her wound.
We can see how much this mother love her little child. She gave her own flesh,
her life in order to save her child.
With this picture in our mind we can
imagine that how much more Jesus had loved us. And because he loves us so much,
he could do the same thing as the mother could do for her child by giving us
his body and blood to save us.
Jesus fills us and feeds us. Let us
join the priest in lifting up Jesus. When he lifts up the Host, the Body of
Jesus, and the chalice, his Precious Blood, The priest does it not only for him
but for all of us.
When
we celebrate the Eucharist, Christ's body is not only on the table, but at the
table. Christ is to be worshipped. But Christ is also to be received, broken
and shared for the salvation of the world. If any of us concerned that the consecrated
host not be left alone in the tabernacle or chapel, we also be concerned about
the homeless people alone in the streets.
Those who reverence Christ's presence in the host must
also reverence Christ's presence in human bodies. In the article "Changing
Elements or People?", Gerard Martin insists that "Jesus did not
institute the Eucharist to change bread and wine into his body and blood, but
to change us into his body.
The Mass is not meant to transform elements but to
transform people.
When Jesus said, “Behold I am with you always, until the
end of the world,” Jesus was not referring to his real presence in the
Eucharist; he was referring to his real presence in his people, the members of
his body."
Every year, we celebrate the father
day, we remember the work, the love our father have done for us. We remember
everything he has done… If we can celebrate our earthly father, what about
Jesus and our heavenly father?.
Every time we partake of the
Eucharist we not only remember what God has done for us in Christ, we also
enter into the very reality of which Jesus our Lord speaks.
By sharing in the Body and Blood of
Christ; we affirm our desire to share in Jesus' life and resurrection as surely
as we share in his passion and death.
When we take Jesus in our hands to eat the
Bread of Life, we become one with our Creator. But if we attempt to receive
Jesus in communion while our souls are covered with sin It would be a
tremendous abuse of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
This is like crucifying Jesus again. If our
souls are in a state of sin, the intended union between Jesus and us will not
happen. This is why we need to go to the confession and that is why many of the
saints went to Confession on a weekly basis and even daily to ensure that they
were in the purest state possible before receiving Jesus in their hearts.
As we celebrate our father day today, we come
to Jesus and receive Him in the Eucharist today and unify with Him As we celebrate the Body and Blood of
Christ, I would like to conclude by quoting Hans Urs Von Balthasar. "When
receiving the Eucharist each person must remember that he is falling into the
arms of God like someone dying of hunger in the wilderness of this life."
Amen.
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