Weekend Reflections for 6/16/17

Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, 2017

There's no such thing as a kiss. You can't put it under a glass on the mantle. It's first and foremost an action, one which re-presents the reality it signifies, and one which furthers, activates, and sustains by its realness.  It's reality is inseparably embedded in the material world. So too the Body and Blood of the Lord. The ultimate reality of Christ's death and resurrection is embedded in what was once bread and wine. It's before all else an action, a communion with the Divine, and with all those in Christ, the Living and those in glory. It transforms us into Christ who saves. It is the grateful eating and drinking of salvation which transforms us so that we become what we receive. We do well when we reverence the transformed elements because the great action of God in Christ is present there in matter, the eternal present in that which changes.

Francis X. Ryan, SJ