LIFE-GIVING BODY / LUST-FILLED BODY

Today we are celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi (the Body and Blood of Christ). The Eucharist – the body of Christ – is the centrality of our faith. Jesus inaugurated the Church together with the institution of the Holy Eucharist on the Last Supper. But that was only anticipation. In truth, the Eucharist and Church were born when Jesus gave His spirit on the cross. The church is the mystical body of Christ. Eucharist is the real presence of Christ in the church. As members of the church we are united to the Father by the blood of Jesus which He shed in His passion and death on the cross. Whenever we receive the body of Christ we are receiving the life which He gave for the world on the cross. Every celebration of Eucharist is the reminder of bloody and bodily sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Corpus Christi Procession — St. Jude Catholic ChurchIn this post-colonial world, the celebration of this feast has great significance. Because, in the present century we are more attracted toward body, not crucified body of Jesus, but commodified and objectified body of women. 2000 years ago a Man hung naked on the cross, shedding his blood cruelly to show how much God loves the world. Today, our women are portrayed naked in the media to show not how much we love them or they love us rather what we love in them. Every ad and promotions prefer female protagonist. Those days Jews and Romans stripped Jesus, today we are stripping our women, the beautiful creation of God. The stripping of Jesus led to life. But the stripping of our women leads to lust.
In the Old Testament, Our first parents (Adam and Eve) were naked in the beginning but never looked at each other with lust. They saw each other naked, without even realizing that they were naked. It was after the first fall that they realized that they were naked. Sin made them to look at each other’s body with lust. It was the same naked Adam and Eve who enjoyed communion with God prior to sin hid themselves before God because they were naked. They felt ashamed in front of God. Sin made them to look at their bodies with lust and not to perceive each other as persons. In the New Testament, Jesus removed that shame from human beings. He was made hung naked on the cross. He was put to shame so that we don’t be ashamed anymore in front of God as our first parents were.
It is the work of the devil to make us see one another as objects of sex. It is the work of the devil to look each other with lustful heart. The union of bodies of husband and wife / man and women brings new life. In the same way, the union of our body with the body of Christ in the form of Eucharist brings new life, new understanding toward reality, new outlook toward each other and new relationship with God and our neighbour. We need to receive Jesus in the Eucharist to move away from sin and to refrain from sinning.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:53-56). By receiving Jesus in us we become one with Him. Jesus who overcame all the temptations from devil would help us to overthrow the lust-filled heart from us.
As we celebrate this feast, let us reflect on our outlook toward our sisters in the society. Some cultures devalue women especially their body, some demoralize, some commodify, some objectify and still some sexualize. As followers of Jesus we need to sanctify the body of women. The rising number of rapes and child abuse in the society are result of weight of sin in the world. Every sin makes us to lose the sense of holiness in each person. The loss of sense of holiness (godliness) leads us to sensuality of bodylines. We who sensualized and sexualized the body of women are struck with bodily illness of Covid-19 pandemic. We are turning to God for help as all our human intelligence become helpless. Long before we could contract this physical illness, we have contracted the spiritual illness lust. Our lust-filled heart led us far away from the spirit filled life of Christ in the Eucharist. It is the work of the devil. We need to acknowledge the presence of devil in the world to come into our senses.
This year many faithful are not able to participate in the Eucharistic celebration for many days. This may serve as good opportunity for devil to lead us into temptation. Let us be vigilant. Let us remember, people of Israel were tempted for 40 years in desert to humble them, to test them and to know from their heart, them whether they would keep the commandments of God or not” (Deut 8:2). Let us take this time as 40 years period of Israel in wilderness. Let us not allow the devil to fill us with lust as we are confined to our home and engaged more time in social media. The young people are more vulnerable to this. Let us accompany our young people in our home with spiritual help so that they may embrace the life-giving body of Jesus and overthrow the lust-filling work of the devil. Let us also pray for women and children who are unloved as persons but wanted them as objects. May the humanity rise up to see divinity in all human beings irrespective of gender.  

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