RAINED DOWN TO BE EATEN

Dear brothers and sisters, we are in a Corpus Christi Sunday – the day dedicated to specially honour and adore the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Eucharist is the source of our life as Manna was the source of life for Israelites in the wilderness days. The people of Israel in the wilderness had nothing to survive. And so, they had to depend on the divine assistance for the survival. It was the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and had put them in the desert. If the Lord had brought them, then He had to feed them. Thus, Manna was given as their food in the wilderness days. Their wilderness days were recollected as ‘journey to the Promised Land’. The source of their power to journey safely with all their strength in the wild wilderness is the food they ate: Manna. This food was something different from any material food that humans make. No one in the world had ever seen or eaten Manna till then. Israelites were the first ones to taste this food. Even now no one can make Manna of that kind. The Manna was real a food from heaven. The Lord did this to show that humans live not by material food alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deut 8:3). Yes, it was the mouth/Word of God that rained down the Manna every day until they reached the Promised Land. This Word of God that rained down as Manna in the Old Testament takes human form in the New Testament in the person of Jesus. The Word of God becomes flesh to be eaten by all who make journey to eternal home. 

In the first reading we hear that the Lord had led them safely amidst poisonous snakes and scorpions in the wilderness (Deut 8:15). Wilderness is the place for all kinds of dangers. Manna kept them alive and strong in the face of those dangers. Similarly, this world is a wilderness that is filled with evils. The enemy is prowling around in this wilderness to devour us all (1 Pet 5:8). To pass through this poisonous wilderness we need a food that is much more than Manna and that food is the flesh of the Lamb of God who was slaughtered on the cross. In the Gospel Jesus openly says that the bread we need to eat to live is His very flesh. Even after the dispute broke among the disciples over this teaching, Jesus never gives up on this teaching. Rather, He intensifies it by saying, “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”. Hence, Eucharist is a must be eaten food for the believers.

Jesus was the Word that came into the world. Jesus’ life or existence depends on His Father (Jn 6:57). Without the Father, He is neither a Son nor has His eternal existence. His intrinsic union with the Father keeps Him alive. Similarly, to have our live we need to be in union with the Lord. Eucharist creates that union. In the reception of the Eucharist we allow Jesus to abide in us (Jn 6:56) as Father abides in Jesus. Jesus promises that all who receive Him in the Eucharistic bread will have eternal life. This food makes us holy to perceive the evils in the world as they are. In failing to eat this break we perceive the evil as good and good as evil. The sacrament of confession makes us pure but it is the Eucharist that makes us worthy to enter eternal life. This is the reason for the Church to insist upon receiving the Eucharist at one’s dead bed. The Eucharist given at the time of anointing serves as food for the journey of that soul into heavenly abode. The food that comes down from heaven makes us heavenly beings to enter into an eternal life. St. Therese of Lisieux says, “It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight.” Thus, we need to receive Jesus in the Eucharist as many times as possible. There are saints who have lived their lives solely with the Eucharist without eating any material food. As we celebrate this great feast today may we come to know the power of this sacrament. Without the Eucharist we have no life in us. The Eucharist is rained down not to remain in the tabernacle but to be eaten by us. May we make it a point to receive the Lord in this sacrament every day.

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi!