Florida Catholic | Sunday Word

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Corpus Christi

May 25, 2008 :: Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Ps 147:12-15, 19-20; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Jn 6:51-58

FATHER DAVID SCOTCHIE

One genre of movies is called “road movies.” On the road, Thelma and Louise discovered the dignity of themselves as women. In “Ice Age,” the herd isn’t just people like you, but can include even your enemies. A family, taking a cross-country trip in their VW bus to get their young daughter into the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant becomes a better family. In road movies, the outward road trip is a metaphor for inner transformation.

The original road movie was the Exodus. Moses led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Along the way, the people changed.

At first the Israelites were so hungry and thirsty that slavery in Egypt looked better than death in the desert. When God fed them with manna from heaven and water from the rock, they learned to trust the Lord God. The Israelites went from being slaves of Egyptians to being the people of God.

The Second Vatican Council described the church as a pilgrim people. Not people with funny black hats and Indians on Plymouth Rock, the council meant that we are a pilgrim people on a journey to God.

Everyone needs food for a journey. On our journey to God, Jesus does not just give us food for the journey. He is our food. “I am the living bread” (Jn 6:51).

Just as manna from heaven fed the people on their journey to the Promised Land, the eucharistic body of Christ feeds us in our life in Christ.

Just as water from the rock gave drink to the thirsty people, the eucharistic blood of Christ is our drink.

Last week we celebrated Trinity Sunday. The teaching on the Trinity, however, can seem abstract and distant.

This week we celebrate Corpus Christ, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The body and blood of Christ makes the Trinity as close as the Communion we can touch with our hands and the cup we drink.

Fed by Christ himself on our journey to God, this is our Communion.

To take to prayer: Spend a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament sometime this week.

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