First Reading: Ex 24:3-8
Second Reading: Heb 9:11-15
“Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest” said Jesus (Mt 11:28). Where is He present that we can go and rest on Him? It is in the house of God, it is in tabernacles around the world, He is fully present for us to meet Him and have our rest with Him. Cardinal Newman said, “The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy.” Hence, today’s celebration [Corpus Christi] is very unique to the Catholic Church. We celebrate the promise of Jesus before His departure from the world. Before departing from the world Jesus promised us that He would be with us until the end of time (Mt 28:20). Yes God is present with us in varied ways. We can feel His presence everywhere but as material beings we need to feel His presence in a more concrete and material way. We long to feel His presence, we desire to touch Him, we like to see Him… all these are possible with the Eucharist. It is the greatest gift of Jesus to the world. It is His extended physical presence in the world. Which man with full knowledge of His imminent suffering would call people for a festive supper? But our Lord did it. The one who would be left alone in His suffering is more concerned about the helplessness of the people would be running away from Him. The disciples left Him alone, but God the Father was with Him. It is same with us today. In how many churches and chapels around the world do we leave Him alone? We invoke the presence of God into our house, in our work places, in our undertakings…. But how often do we go to the presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament? In our Catholic Churches the presence of God is always felt as Jesus resides in it. Can we think of God who is free to be everywhere has imprisoned Himself in a small tabernacle in the church? He is waiting for us in the tabernacle for two thousand years for our presence today. In the Gospel of today Jesus tells His disciples to enquire about the guest room where He can eat the Passover with them. Every tabernacle is His guest room on the earth. Every soul is called to enter into that guest room to have a union with Him. In other way, our body is also a guest room whenever we consume Him in the Eucharist. On the one side, the guest room of tabernacle is left alone, on the other side the guest room of our body is filled with filth and dirt. While the beautiful and decorated guest room (tabernacle) of the Lord in the Churches are left without any visitors, the most filthy and dirty guest room of our body frequently receives the Lord without any reverence. Yes, it is the sinner who needs the Eucharist most. It heals the wounded and restores the wanderer. The problem here is when we get used to getting Eucharist as routine in the Holy Mass. We need not fast from receiving the Eucharist but we can take effort to receive the Eucharistic Lord into the guest room of our body with clean and tidy atmosphere as often as possible. In this century, we do maximum to get worldly pleasures, but we limit ourselves in doing minimum with regard to the things of God. Having a regular leisure time is mandatory for us, even we are ready to increase those moments if necessary. But we neglect to go beyond the minimum to give a worthy place for God, who is the source of all our leisure.
As we
celebrate Corpus Christi feast today, may we not do minimum possible, rather do
the maximum by giving our extra time for adoration and reflection. Let us go to
adore the imprisoned Lord in our churches and chapels. Let us commit ourselves
to the regular cleaning up of the guest room of our body.
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