Before Christ, God spoke to the world, to humanity through signs and wonders, through prophets and so on. However, humanity’s thirst for seeing and for being in communion with God, for touching and feeling God was not fulfilled until Jesus came. Jesus in our human flesh was the perfect communication and communion of God to humans.
When it was time for him to return to his pure divinity, to the Spirit alone existence, he did not totally abandon his body and cut off the communion with humanity. He chose bread and wine as the medium through which to continue his physical presence (in human flesh) on earth. Hence we have the Body and Blood of Christ as food for our spiritual sustenance and a tangible object for worship. He is present wherever and whenever we are together in his name and made such gatherings acts of sacrifice to the Father, worships and also banquets, which give us a pre-taste of the big banquet awaiting us in his kingdom.
This is the mystery we celebrate in our togetherness. The feeding of the thousands with five fish and seven loaves only preludes an invitation to this great mystery to be established. Before its establishment Jesus purified every participant including the betrayer Judas. The external washing of the feet was also an internal cleansing by Jesus in order to prepare them spiritually to receive the First ‘Communion’. Later St. Paul, who was not a member of this club at that time, very clearly tells us about the necessity of approaching this sacrament with
“purity of heart and mind and with proper preparedness” (1 Corinthians 11:27-32).
Just like Jesus uses his body as an expression of God’s infinite love towards humanity, he also reinforced human love expressed in marriage and family. The latest Pastoral letter (Encyclical) of Pope Francis, ‘AMORIS LAETITIA’ The Joy of Love, clearly explains in detail the love expressed in human sexuality in the context of a family. It is good to have a look at this document as we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.
For humans marriage is a sacrament of love and sex is and must be an expression of love. Thus our body becomes our language of love just as Jesus made his body the language of divine love for humans. In the above vision human body and blood are also sacred and precious as the Body and Blood of Christ.
Fr. George