by Br. Mark Orcutt, O.S.B.

     The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is not just a memorial of an historical event which took place some 2000 years ago at the Last Supper but it reminds us of the ever-present Jesus living among us.  We can honestly say He has not left us orphans, but desired to remain forever with us in the fullness of His humanity and His divinity.  In the Eucharist Jesus is really Emmanuel, God with us.

     The Eucharist is not only Jesus really living among us but it is Jesus become our Sustenance.  Our second reading today speaks of this when relating the institution of the Sacrament, Jesus “took bread, and giving thanks, broke it, and said, ‘Take ye and eat for this is My Body’”.  Jesus made Himself our food in order to assimilate us to Himself, to make us live His life, to make us live in Him as He Himself lives in His Father.  The Eucharist is the sacrament of unification and at the same time is the clearest and most convincing proof that God calls us, pleads with us, to come into intimate union with Himself.

     The Father was not satisfied with giving us His only Son to suffer and die for us in the flesh.  He wished for Him to remain with us forever, preserving His real presence and His sacrifice in the Eucharist.  The Eucharist makes the presence of Jesus permanent. In the consecrated Host we find the same Jesus Mary brought into the world wrapped in swaddling clothes, who sweat blood, received the kiss of a traitor, died on the Cross and rose from the dead for us. Jesus is present in the Eucharist with all His divinity and all His humanity.  He is not a passive object for our adoration; He is living.  He sees us, listens to our prayers and answers them with His graces.  As Jesus, disguised as a traveler, on the road to Emmaus taught the disciples, He, under the Eucharistic veil illumines our souls with His love.

     Jesus is there in the consecrated Host, true God and true Man; as He became incarnate for us, so for us too, He has hidden Himself under the Sacred Species.  There He waits for us, longs for us, is always ready to welcome and listen to us.  We always have need of contact with Jesus and we find Him present in the Eucharist.  Here on earth we are never closer to Him than we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

     O Jesus, You are always with us, yesterday, today and forever; always the same in eternity by the unchanging of Your divine Person; always the same in time by the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

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