Reflection for Sunday 7th June, 2026

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ ‐Solemnity

The Feast of Corpus Christi (John: Chapter 6)

Today’s Gospel is taken from John Chapter 6 which tells us about three kinds of bread… bread for bodily hunger, bread to nourish faith, and the divine bread of the Eucharist. With the first bread Jesus fed a multitude through the miraculous multiplication of five loaves and two fish.

Next day, people came back to him, perhaps for another free dinner! In John’s Gospel, miracles are regarded as signs to advance in faith. So, Jesus then asked his audience to move on from ordinary bread to the bread that endures to eternal life.

The second kind of bread will satisfy the hungers of the spirit. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger; whoever believes in me will never thirst.” To believe in Jesus means a commitment to follow his ideals and teaching … as the way, the truth and the life. People who knew Jesus from childhood found it hard to make this commitment. (John 6:42-43)

On the night before he died, at the Last Supper, he gave the blessed bread to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, given up for you.” And giving them the cup of wine, he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.”

After bread for the body and the bread of faith, Jesus raised their minds to the third bread (John 6: 51-58). He spoke in the future tense because this bread had not yet been given. “The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” It is no surprise that the people were deeply puzzled by this. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat.” So, Jesus repeated his promise in seven further statements. Seven is always the divine number in John’s Gospel. People were still puzzled but Jesus explained that they would understand this future bread only in the light of the resurrection.

“What if you should see the Son of man ascend to where he was before”(John 6:62). It is the Risen Lord whom we meet in the Eucharist. On the night before he died, at the Last Supper, he gave the blessed bread to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, given up for you.” And giving them the cup of wine, he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.”

For some thirty years the Son of God was on earth in a human body of flesh and blood. Now he is embodied in the consecrated bread and wine. “In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross which he poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin.” (Catechism 1365). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The earliest writer about the Eucharist was St. Paul. “The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ” (1 Cor.10:16).

Holy Communion is not merely a symbol of God’s presence. It is a real presence.
May all who have strayed away from the Eucharist discover what they have missed.