Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16; John 6:51-58
Today’s magnificent Collect, or opening Prayer of the Mass, was written by St. Thomas Aquinas. At least; like almost all the non-scriptural parts of today’s liturgy - hymns, Antiphons, Sequence and the rest - it’s ascribed to St. Thomas. But as with the case of William Shakespeare, there are always theorists about who speculate it could have been by someone else. This Collect is anyway a work of genius: concise and clear; simple, yet profound; euphonious and strong. Of course it was written in Latin, as part of an exclusively Latin language liturgy. But even in translation it remains powerful.
The prayer begins with the word “Deus” “O God”. Usually in a Collect the first word “Deus” would refer to God the Father, whom we habitually address through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. But today the object of our address is Jesus. We call Jesus “God” today very deliberately, because if he were not himself God, the Holy Eucharist would have no meaning.
How can this man give us his flesh to eat? say the Jews in today’s Gospel. It’s actually a jolly good question. Plus - even if he could do this: we wouldn’t any part of it, because eating human flesh is cannibalism. That’s an abomination before both God and man. What possible spiritual good could that do to the eater? Ah, but: if Jesus has truly come down from heaven; if he is truly the eternal Son of the Eternal Father; if he is truly the divine Word made flesh, then he has the necessary power to work this miracle. As a sign of that he has just multiplied the loaves for the crowd on the Mountain. And we definitely do want to eat his flesh, sacramentally but really, under the form of bread, because that makes us one with him, brings us into communion with him, gives us life in him. In this way, by both sign and reality, we come to God, and God comes to us. In holy communion we receive Jesus, and in him we receive God.
Deus, qui nobis sub sacramento mirabili - “O God, who in this wonderful sacrament”. The Blessed Sacrament is wonderful in the fullest sense of that word: causing wonder, amazement, astonishment, awe. It’s wonderful because so great: greater, richer - containing more treasures, gifts and graces - more full of divine love and divine generosity - than our minds could ever fully comprehend. Yet also it’s wonderful because so utterly simple, so readily accessible, so clean and clear. And it’s wonderful because it so exactly answers our needs, as human beings; as forgiven sinners; as disciples of Jesus Christ, destined for union with him in heaven.
Deus, qui nobis sub sacramento mirabili passionis tuae memoriam reliquisti - “ who have left us a memorial of your passion”. “Remember”, said God to Moses in Deuteronomy, multiple times. “Do not forget!” Remember how I saved you from slavery in Egypt, and from death in the wilderness. If the Israelites of old had to remember that, how much more must we Christians remember how Christ died for us, and how his sacrificial death remains always before God, to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25)! So we say: the Holy Eucharist is above all a memorial of Christ’s saving passion. That is, it’s not a memorial of the Last Supper, except in that the memorial of Christ’s saving passion was instituted at the Last Supper. We should presume that such a divine institution would not be weak and half hearted, but strong, and full. So the Holy Eucharist is a memorial of Christ’s saving passion in the strongest possible sense, for it makes all the power of the Cross efficaciously present. We speak of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, because by this means we are able to offer to God the Father the saving death of Christ, and ourselves along with that. By participating in the Mass we participate directly in Christ’s own sacrifice, which remains always the perennial source of our new life in him.
Tribue, quaesumus, ita nos Corporis et Sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerari... “Grant, we pray, that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood.” Here we come to the petition of the Prayer: what it asks for. Our faith tells us that Jesus is here; God is here; and so we offer the Blessed Sacrament the homage of our adoration; the adoration which is due to God alone. And the Church gives us today’s Feast precisely in order to help and encourage us worthily to venerate these sacred mysteries. To do so is good for us, and good for the whole Church. Objectively speaking, nothing is lacking here. In the Blessed Sacrament we have Jesus, so here we have everything, everything, everything. But subjectively, we need the right dispositions to receive what Jesus gives. So: the more veneration we have for this Sacrament, the more fruit we gain from our reception.
Tribue, quaesumus ... ut redemptionis tuae fructum in nobis iugiter sentiamus - “Grant that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruits of your redemption”.
What are the fruits of Redemption? It would be hard to draw up any sort of exhaustive list. The fruits of Redemption are the forgiveness of our sins; freedom from the slavery of sin; adoption into the divine sonship; possession of the Holy Spirit; incorporation as living members into Christ’s Body; communion with his holy Church; fellowship already with the citizens of Heaven. The fruits of our redemption also include interior peace, joy, love; the ability to practise all the virtues; the ability to become ourselves fruitful in gaining others, even many others, for the Kingdom.
But according to the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel, the fruit of the Redemption is above all Life. In the 7 verses we heard today, taken from the end of the Bread of Life discourse in Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel, the word “life” occurs 11 times. Jesus came to give us life: the fullness of life; eternal life; resurrected life; life triumphant over death; his own life with the Father. And he passes this life on to us through his Body and Blood, given to us in the Holy Eucharist as food and drink.
Today we pray that we may perceive, feel, experience this life, this divine and saving presence at work within us. We pray that our veneration of the Blessed Sacrament may be for us a perennial source of consolation, and peace, and joy. As we come before the Lord in adoration today, we ask that he may touch and warm our hearts, in their depths, so that we know we are in God’s very presence, in an encounter of love. May our worship of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament change us, transform us, light us up, so that we may draw from him ever more abundantly the life he wants to give us; the life that endures for ever.