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.
In 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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