Sir, give us this bread - The Feast of Corpus Christi

Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you - for you alone? (St. Therese of Lisieux)

"I am the bread of life," and "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Yet as a result of hearing Jesus proclaim, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:35-66).

The Feast of Corpus Christi reminds us that we possess an immense treasure. When a Catholic priest takes a little piece of unleavened bread and repeats the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, "This is my body", and when he takes a small of amount of wine in a chalice and says, "This is my blood", the bread is no longer bread and the wine is no longer wine. At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we participate in a marvelous miracle, the miracle called, in the Latin Rite, transubstantiation. East or West, the mystery is still the same; words cannot express it.

With the many distractions of our modern culture, the buzz of media and demands of the workplace, it is all too easy to begin to adopt a somewhat indifferent attitude toward the sacred gift of Eucharist. It is often as if we are asleep. We are not awake to reality; not fully aware of the immense gravity of the unfathomable graces God has freely given us in Eucharist. We go along on our way each day, and there in the Tabernacles around the world is Christ's body and blood, our Savior who patiently waits for us to notice him, love him, and adore him; yet he so often waits alone and unnoticed.