THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Year A

Readings

First Reading
Dt 8:2–3, 14b–16a

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 147:12–13, 14–15, 19–20

Second Reading
1 Cor 10:16–17

Gospel
Jn 6:51–58

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

Today’s reading from Deuteronomy, well known to us from the testing of Jesus in the wilderness (Mt 4:4; Lk 4:4), provides a key to the eucharistic discourse in John’s Gospel. It makes the connection between the manna with which God fed the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness, and the word of God. Manna, that bread from heaven, came to be associated with Torah. By devouring “every word that came from the mouth of the Lord,” the people of Israel were nourished as they had been by eating the manna in the wilderness. In today’s Gospel Jesus is proclaiming that the life of God’s people will now be nourished and sustained by the Word of God incarnate, his flesh, which is true food, and his blood, which is true drink.

In all three of today’s readings the gift of bread from heaven, be it manna or Torah or the body and blood of Christ, is a test of those who receive it. This is surely the situation of the Christians in Corinth, who apparently must be persuaded that their participation in the body and blood of Christ is the source of their life and unity as one body.

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul