Feast of Corpus Christi The Most Precious Body And Blood of Jesus
June 6th, 2010
"The Lord fed His people with finest wheat and honey, their hunger was satisfied"
(Psalm 81. 16)
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the Kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to Him and said, -“Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place”. But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat”. They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish. Unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” for they were about five thousand men.
Jesus gives his disciples who have just returned from preaching and curing God’s people, a new charge. They are to feed Gods people with the Eucharist.
Apart from the account of the Passion and death of Jesus, the ‘feeding of the multitude’ is the only story recorded in all four Gospels. It pointed towards the great event of Holy Thursday – the institution of the Eucharist. At the heart of the Eucharist is the self-giving of Christ. The Eucharist is the centre of our faith. At every Eucharist we live again our solidarity with suffering humanity before God. It is a constant challenge to our daily lives. It is the heart and summit of the Church’s life.
How wonderful to think that Jesus fed five thousand people just because of the generosity of the little boy who gave away the contents of his lunch basket – five barley loaves and two fish!
Jesus’ kingdom mission is fulfilled, in God’s promise of feeding hungry creation. May our faith in the Eucharist give radiance to our whole life!
Prayer
Lord Jesus you give your body and blood in the Eucharist as a sign that even now we share your life.
May we come to possess it completely in your kingdom. Amen.
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
