The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A – Homily (2026)

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 (12)
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58
June 7, 2026

We celebrate the Eucharist week after week.  It can become very routine for us.  The routine can lead to complacency. 

There is nothing routine about the Eucharist.  It isn’t just bread and wine.  We need to remember what the Eucharist is.  To help us remember, our Catholic liturgical calendar includes today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

I emphasis “remember” because I am not just talking about taking a moment to acknowledge the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Rather, when I say “remember,” I am talking about a deep reflection of the ways in which the Eucharist is a gift to us.

Deuteronomy helps us to think back to the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert.  There they found themselves afflicted with earthly hunger.  God responded by feeding them with manna.  It was a food unknown to them.  It was a gift from God.  Yet, Moses said to them, “not by bread alone does one live.”  God has much more to offer than ordinary bread.

The Israelites also struggled to find water in the desert.  God provided them with water from a rock, clearly a miracle from God.

The Holy Spirit will come to give us living water. 

Jesus provides his most clear teaching on the Eucharist in the Bread of Life discourse found in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John.  Then, He declares, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”  It is his “flesh for the life of the world.”

Jesus continues, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

Do you get what this means?

Many in the crowd misunderstood him, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  It sounded like cannibalism to them. 

If Jesus was talking literally about his physical flesh, it would have long ago been completely consumed.  Yet, that does not mean He is talking figuratively either.  He never says “pretend” or “imagine” that the bread we receive is his Body.  He says, “This is my body.” 

Jesus fills us “with the best of wheat.”

Do you get it?  Do you get what it means to participate in the Body and Blood of Christ?  When Paul writes of participation in the “cup of blessing” and “the bread that we break,” the participation of which He speaks is far deeper than just showing up and saying the responses and offering the appropriate postures and gestures.

To participate in the Eucharist is to participate in the Sacrifice of Jesus.  Jesus sacrificed his life for us.  What do you sacrifice in the name of Jesus?  What do you give up to come to Mass?

In participating in Mass, I think of another part of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians that we often us at Mass, “when we eat this bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again” (see 1 Corinthians 11:26).

In the desert, God provided the Israelites with manna for their hunger.  Do you understand that Jesus provides us himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven”?  It is our “true food” and our “true drink.”  It is food for our souls.  It is food for eternal life.  This is what Jesus means when He says, “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Do you get this?

Don’t take this lightly!  It is very important that you get it for when you do, it is life changing.

If you get this, you will want to participate in the Eucharist as much as you can.  You will come every week, perhaps every day if you are able.

If you get what the Eucharist is, it means more than just coming to Mass.  It means living as Jesus teaches.

If you get that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, then you will also want to speak time in Eucharistic Adoration because doing do is spending time in the presence of Jesus.

This Sunday we have a very special opportunity to profess our belief that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.  For able bodied people, after our 10 am Mass, we will have a Eucharistic Procession.

What is a Eucharistic Procession?

It’s a parade but it is much more than a parade. 

Some parades have bands.  The sound we make will profess our faith in Jesus.

Some parades have balloons of Santa Claus or movie/tv characters.  At the center of our parade is Jesus present in Blessed Sacrament that I carry in the Eucharistic Procession.

Signifying the Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we will have some parishioners carry torches.  Jesus is the Light of the World.

We will have an altar server carrying incense.  The incense symbolizes our prayers rising up to our Lord.

We will have a parishioner in front of us leading us with the Processional Crucifix, reminding us of the Sacrifice that we celebrate in the Eucharist, Jesus giving his life for us on the Cross.

Our participation in the Procession serves as a witness of our faith.  Even the police officer leading us is a parishioner who is there because He believes in Jesus.

For those unable to participate in our Eucharistic Procession, I encourage you to pray for those who can and pray that all people come to know Jesus in the Eucharist.