Reflection by Rev. Leonard N. Peterson

One of the great experiences of my life was my one and only trip to the Holy Land with 4 of my Philly priest brothers. Our natural leader was the Scripture professor at the seminary at that time, and a fine guide he turned out to be as we toured where Jesus walked. He helped energize my imagination to picture the various scenes as they would have been in Jesus’ time, because many of the sacred places have over time had huge and beautiful churches built over them. Some of the locations he told us really developed from pious speculation because the gospel descriptions are difficult to pinpoint.

But I will never forget his measured voice when we came to the site of Pilate’s headquarters and he said: “There is no doubt that Jesus passed under that arch.” For some reason those words said then and there compelled me to intone a Latin hymn we all knew and the guys joined in.

Yet for all the “specializes” of that moment, it is still less than the most recent Mass I celebrated, because the real Jesus came to me and the congregation along with me in the Holy Eucharist,

Today we take time out to stop, look, and listen to the words of Jesus at that Supper we call “the Last.” That name makes sense as the Lord’s final meal before His death, but it was hardly the last time He would be with all those, like us, who believe in Him.

It is a cliché I know, to speak of repetition as a dulling agent for even this most sublime of realities. Most of us must struggle with that from time to time as the weekend rolls around and we come to worship the Lord and fulfill our Catholic duty. We speak so casually about going to “the 8:00 Mass” or “the 12:15” as the local schedule may be.

This feast, in the rhythmic Latin name of “Corpus Christi,” compels us to think about what we do at Mass and whom we receive as our Food and Drink for strength to handle whatever the upcoming week will present us.

Even I we never make a pilgrimage to the actual land of Galilee and Judea; we meet in sacramental form the very Lord who assumed a flesh like ours and was like us “in all things but sin.” He comes into our very flesh to “mingle with our mucous” as one Italian poet phrased it. He loves us so much that He comes to dwell within us, to “pitch His tent” with ours. As a result, we are never alone. Never without His presence. Unless by sin or neglect we invite Him to leave us.

Allow me to close with part of a First Communion hymn from an earlier time and place that still resonates with Faith:

Jesus Thou art coming, holy as Thou art.
Thou the God who made me, To my sinful heart.
Jesus, I believe it, on Thy only word.
Kneeling I adore Thee, as my King and Lord.

Rev. Peterson’s Reading & Gospel Summary

Reading I: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b -16a

Manna, the bread from heaven, sustained Israel during its forty-year trek through the wilderness. It expressed God’s loving care of His people and foreshadowed the Eucharist.

Reading II: 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17

Eucharistic communion is what unites believers with Christ. It continues to mold us into the Church.

The Gospel: John 6: 51-58

Jesus speaks here both literally and sacra-mentally. The life He gives us is not a natural one, but a supernatural one. The body He refers to is His post-resurrection glorified humanity.