HOMILY OF CORPUS CHRISTI SUNDAY
Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, John 6:51-58
THEME: OUR PARTICIPATION IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
It is a clear fact that our dietary choices directly impact our health, as the nutrients and substances we consume shape our bodies and well-being. This same applies to our spiritual life, it needs the appropriate spiritual food because we are both body and spirit.
If the body is sick, it sends signals to the brain, and we feel pain. Every part of the body is important, except the vestigial organs like the appendix, wisdom teeth, coccyx (tailbone), and certain muscles, which have lost their original function through evolution and are now functionally obsolete. The central nervous system coordinates the operation of the body system.
However, the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the head. Christ the head, is the Lord who minister perfect health to his body the church. Anytime we fall sick because of our sins, the Lord who is the head, knows. He prompts us with his spirit to go for treatment. He invites us to align ourselves with him through the sacrament of reconciliation. There, through his priest, he listens to us as our heavenly doctor, he gives us penance, and thus prepares us to receive his body and blood, the ultimate remedy for our sick souls.
Moreover, the Lord has given us the confessional as a spiritual laboratory where we are divinely detoxified and are made clean. In the state of grace, we can approach Jesus in the Holy Eucharist for spiritual nourishment.
Furthermore, our participation in the body of Christ should bring to our consciousness the social dimension to our individual choices. Even the sins we commit as individuals affect the other members of the body. That is why, having reconciled with Christ, the head in the sacrament of confession, we still make an act of contrition to one another during the penitential rite at the Holy Mass. And we say, “
I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned through my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sister, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
We may be imperfect however, the church is holy through the special grace of Jesus Christ who have sacrificed himself for her and endow her with the sacraments as means of salvation.
Hence, we cannot take our membership for granted and forget our participation in the body of Christ. While we work to profess our faith in the church, let us bear witness to Christ through our lives. Let us be conscious that we belong to a family where our life is knitted to others. Whatever we do has a bearing on the church; it affects the faith of our brothers and sisters, it has a bearing on the mission of Christ on earth. We are one body in Christ.
May we be enriched daily as we partake in the body of Christ, and may our participation help us to bear effective witness to the gospel of human salvation. Amen.
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