10TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME CORPUS CHRISTI
Solemnity
SAINT BARNABAS THE APOSTLE
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 80: 17
He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.
Collect
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16
Moses said to the people: “Remember how the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart – whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Do not become proud of heart. Do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: who guided you through this vast and dreadful wilderness, a land of fiery serpents, scorpions, thirst; who in this waterless place brought you water from the hardest rock; who in this wilderness fed you with manna that your fathers had not known.”
Psalm 147: 12-15, 19-20
R/ O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Zion, praise your God! He has strengthened the bars of your gates he has blessed the children within you.
He established peace on your borders, he feeds you with finest wheat. He sends out his word to the earth and swiftly runs his command.
He makes his word known to Jacob, to Israel his laws and decrees. He has not dealt thus with other nations; he has not taught them his decrees.
Second reading: 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17
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. The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.
Gospel Acclamation: Jn 6: 51
Alleluia, alleluia! I am the living bread which has come down from heaven, says the Lord. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever. Alleluia!
Gospel: John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowd: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” Then the Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they said. Jesus replied: “I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.”
Prayer over the Offerings
Grant your Church, O Lord, we pray, the gifts of unity and peace, whose signs are to be seen in mystery in the offerings we here present. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Jn 6: 57
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him, says the Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Grant, O Lord, we pray, that we may delight for all eternity in that share in your divine life, which is foreshadowed in the present age by our reception of your precious Body and Blood. Who live and reign for ever and ever.
Meditation
Today we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the Body and Blood of Christ. It is Jesus who gives himself as food; essential food for our life. The texts of this Sunday prepare us to welcome this gift of God. The temptation today is to believe that our success comes only from the genius of men. Remember! Never forget to feed on the Word of God and the Eucharist, the Bread that came down from heaven, Jesus himself. His flesh and blood are food that gives eternal life. We must feed on his teaching and drink his words. They are those of the Son who brings us the life of the Father. But to welcome this gift, we must leave our certainties and our human reasoning. We must have a poor man’s heart, completely open to him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. The Eucharist is “Bread of Life”. This feast today must rekindle our desire for communion with God to “remain in him and he in us.”