The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
Ultimately, only God can satisfy the hunger of the human heart.
Today’s feast of Corpus Christi drives this truth home for us. In the first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses explains to the Israelites that God gave them the manna “in order to show [them] that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.” The manna served this pedagogical function both by its miraculous nature—it would appear every morning on the ground—as well as by the fact that the people could not store it up, except on the day preceding the sabbath (cf. Exod 16:4–31). Satisfaction of the Israelites physical hunger thus depended on their complete reliance upon and obedience to God.
Of course, our spiritual hunger as humans is even more fundamental. And it is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh and the “living bread that came down from heaven,” who satisfies this hunger. Thus he declares in today’s Gospel, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Jesus’s Body and Blood, given to us as “true food” and “true drink” in the Eucharist, symbolically and truly answer our spiritual hunger. They are, in essence, the true “daily bread” which we ask for in the Our Father, far greater than the manna of old.
As we ponder the mystery of Jesus’s Body and Blood really given to us today in the Eucharist, let us ask that this spiritual food may increase our hunger for the Lord, such that our hearts may be drawn onward to our heavenly calling, the place where at last our hunger will be satisfied by sharing in loving communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.