The Body of Christ

For a moment I want you to think about what we are doing here at Mass today. We are in the presence of God himself. And this God is not an impersonal God he is a God who has walked among us breathed the same air as us.  The feast today shows us how personal this God of ours is how he comes to us and we take and eat. So what then I asked myself becomes of us? I read this week a wonderful phrase that I think sums up what happens to us. We become Tabernacles of the living Christ we become a place where Jesus resides. God then lives in us this work of art this beautiful person created in his image and likeness. When I read this and thought about it. I thought to myself no wonder we sat Lord I am not worthy because we are not and that makes it all the more special because none of us are worthy and yet Jesus comes to us and resides in us. When we come up to communion or a blessing we are coming as we are we come with our brokenness our life and ask Jesus to fill us again with is love. And what do we say when the host Jesus is presented to us. It is not a thank you or cheers mate as I have heard but we say amen out loud because what we are saying in that Amen is Yes you are coming to me yes I believe as we hold our Lord and God in our hands not worthy but thankful for this wonderful gift. 

This gift is also a gift in abundance we hear in the Gospel today that there was much left over after the feeding of the multitude they had enough food all they wanted. Jesus never leaves us without there is always plenty of him to go round for all of us. From what seems like little it goes around to us all. We are fed by Jesus to enhance this tabernacle of the living Jesus. But, I know that there are some who cannot take Communion you are also fed Jesus does not leave any of us hungry. We are fed by our desire to know him more by feeding on his word by learning more about him. 

So if we are tabernacles of the living Christ we are not worthy and never will be and given this gift freely then this feast of Corpus Christi the body of Christ takes on in my mind a fresh understanding . For filled with is love and his very self we become the Body of Christ with all its many different faces and sizes we become living tabancles for the world outside these walls. For what we have received here should change our lives and the lives of others. By becoming living tabernacles we are then his body to the world. The gathering of the community the fellowship that we have the development of the parish here in Brighton in an outward show of who we are. We strive then to become more the Body of Christ. For a gift is not something that we lock away into a box getting it out whenever it suits us. This gift is for the world its for others. As a community our vision should be one that reaches out to others but we can only do this if we nourish ourselves first. This is why we are doing Alpha here after the Summer to help us all grow and develop as living tabernacles as people who love to be part of that body the Church the Body of Christ. 

So when we come up to receive Jesus when we hold out our hands to take him in our hearts and minds let us renew our Amen to Jesus and say yes I do believe yes although I am weak although I am not worthy and sometimes don’t feel worthy that we can grow together as a community to love and be living tabernacles of Jesus.