We are finishing our Triduum of the Visitation where, every year, we put ourselves at the school of Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jeanne de Chantal. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Over the years, the Church has felt the need to dedicate a Sunday, in addition to Holy Thursday, when we remember the institution of the Eucharist, to the Mystery of the Eucharist.
The Tradition of the Church, to designate!’ Eucharist, uses the expression “Sacrament of Love”. I thought of Francis de Sales, who received the title of “Doctor of Divine Love”.
He says, on the subject of the Eucharist, in his seventeenth-century language: “It is the Sun of spiritual exercises, the center of the Christian religion, the heart of devotion. An ineffable mystery that includes the abyss of divine charity. »
These words are in line with what the Second Vatican Council says: “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church. The Eucharist contains the whole spiritual treasure of the Church, that is, Christ himself, who is our Passover, the Living Bread. »
The Eucharist is God’s great gift to men, the gift of his Son, the Bread of God.
It is he who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.
We gather to celebrate the Eucharist together, to celebrate the Lord who died and rose again. We are as if immersed in the Paschal Mystery.
What happens at the Last Supper? What happened at that moment? When Jesus says, “This is my Body, which is given for you. This is my Blood, shed for you and for many. What happens in this gesture? Jesus anticipates the event of Calvary, he accepts out of love the whole Passion, with its violence, even to the point of death on the cross. By accepting it in this way, he transforms it into an act of giving, of the total gift of himself, which goes through suffering and death, in order to attain the Resurrection and give life to the world.
Every time we celebrate!’ In the Eucharist, we are invited to let ourselves be traversed by this Mystery.
By celebrating the Saviour together, who died and rose again, the community that is the Church is constituted.
Gather around !’ Eucharist, in the presence of the Lord, people different in age, social condition, political ideas… The Eucharist can never be a private matter, reserved for people who have chosen each other out of affinity or friendship. The Eucharist is a public worship that has nothing esoteric or exclusive. We don’t choose who we meet. We come and find ourselves next to one another, united by faith and called to become one Body, sharing the one Bread which is Christ. We are united beyond our differences, we open up to one another to become one from him.
The Eucharist is instituted so that we may become brothers. So that, from scattered strangers, indifferent to each other, we may become one, equals and friends. It is given to us so that, from an apathetic, selfish mass, internally worked by divisions and hostilities, we may become a people, a true people, a believer and a friend. “People of one heart and one soul”. {Paul VI–1965)
We are invited to live in coherence with the Eucharist.
Today’s feast of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord also has as its object to revive in us faith in the Real, substantial, permanent Presence of Christ under the Eucharistic species.
The consecrated bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ.
“We believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, beneath what continues to appear in our senses in the same way as before, is a true, real and substantial Presence,” confesses St. Paul VI in his famous Profession of Faith.
That’s why we can worship it. The Eucharistic celebration is linked to adoration and adoration, to celebration.
The act of adoration outside of Mass prolongs and intensifies what is realized in the Eucharistic celebration.
I think of the thousands of men and women in the history of the Church who have dedicated their lives to the Eucharist, who have drawn charity from silent adoration before the Real Presence of the Lord in the Church!’ Eucharist. I think of Blessed Charles de Foucault who spent whole nights in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the middle of the desert. I think of the parishioners of the Curé d’Ars, intrigued by their parish priest who also spends whole nights in front of the Tabernacle. Or to Saint Mother Teresa, who passes from adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to the service of the poorest and the dying, considering that it is the same act.
Do we still have the humble and simple heart to kneel before the Lord present in our midst?
We prostrate ourselves before a God who is first bent towards Man, like the Good Samaritan, to help him and bring him back to life. And he knelt before us to wash our dirty feet.
To adore the body of Christ means to believe that there, in this piece of bread, there is really Christ who gives his true meaning to life.
Saint John Paul compares adoration with the Apostle John, who rests his head on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper to receive charity and rest.
We receive Christ as food, we commune with the Body and Blood of the Lord.
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has Eternal Life.”
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” “My Flesh is true food and My Blood is true drink.”
God became man to save us, but he wanted to go further, he became food so that we could be nourished by him, so that we could become other him.
“Participation in the Body and Blood of Christ has no other result than to make us pass into the one we receive,” says the Council.
In this way we become “Christ doors”. His Body and Blood are pouring out into our members. In this way, we become partakers of the divine nature.
It is good that we rekindle in ourselves, on this feast day, our awareness of what we celebrate and receive in the Eucharist. That we question our relationship to the Eucharist. How we approach the Eucharist.
Do the intentions of our hearts, do our ways of life tend to be consistent with the Eucharist? Where are we?
To conclude, I give you a thought from the Curé of Ars:
“Oh! My children, what does Our Lord do in the Sacrament of His love? He took his kind heart to love us. From this heart comes a perspiration of tenderness and mercy to drown the sins of the world. »
“The food of the soul is the body and blood of a God. If you thought about it, you could lose yourself for eternity in this abyss of love! »
“Don’t say you’re not worthy. It’s true: you’re not worthy of it, but you need it. »
May we be granted an increase of Charity on this feast.
Yves Le Saux, Bishop of Annecy
Source:Homilies at the Basilica – The Visitation of Saint Mary of Annecy (visitationannecy.org)