This weekend, the second weekend after Pentecost, the Church celebrates the Body and Blood of Jesus. In the deepest of ways, our God is wanting us to know God is with us, and that closeness is as physically close to us as is our food and drink. As we celebrate this great feast, it is important to keep in mind and heart the community aspect of the Eucharist, because one of the dangers of Eucharistic devotion, it seems to me, is that it can easily be reduced to just “me and Jesus. “
The second reading, from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, reminds us of the communal aspect, when Paul tells us, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” It was easier to be aware of this in the early church when the Eucharistic celebration really was one loaf, and each person had a piece of the same loaf. It was always shared in community, like a meal. Now, however, hosts are manufactured in individual form for convenience. And as we receive the host, we could be tempted to think of it as a gift just for me, and not for us. Further, when we gather for adoration, we can be tempted to shut out the world and just pray about our own problems or issues. Instead, we always have to keep in mind how important community was and is for Jesus. We also learned during Covid how important community is for us. Remember how much we missed one another! Remember how much we longed to be together! Indeed, this is something that fills me with such hope and such joy—seeing you stream together, entering our church on Sunday, and then looking out at the beautiful composition of you all as you pray together at Sunday mass. We gather together because we recognize we need one another. We need communion, to share, to be One, together.
Let us pray for those who cannot be with us physically but who are in communion with us: those who are sick, and feel alone; those who are detained, those in the immigration detention facility in Otay Mesa, or in our city jail, or state or federal prisons. May they know they are One with us.