«Be what you see, and receive what you are»
You see on God's altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all that faith demands. Faith, however, seeks understanding... How can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the cup, how can that be his blood?"
These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body of Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: «Now you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it» (1Cor 12,17). If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord's altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You reply "Amen" to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words "The body of Christ" and you reply "Amen." Be, then, a member of Christ's body, so that your "Amen" may accord with the truth.
Yes, but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our own, but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of this sacrament: «Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one body» (1Cor 10,17). Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for there you will find unity, truth, piety, and love. He says, «one loaf»: and who this one loaf? «We, though we are many, form one body». Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but of many. Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.
| Sunday, June 02, 2013 The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Solemnity) |
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