This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.  Of course we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ in every celebration of the Eucharist.  On this particular feast day we can perhaps stop and reflect on what the Eucharist might mean for us.

The Eucharist can be understood in different ways. It is multi dimensional.   First, the Eucharist can be seen as the place where I come and receive my weekly nourishment.  It is a choice that I make above all other possible choices I could make on this day and at this hour.  And I make it so that I can receive this spiritual food and listen to this inspired Word of God.  I make this choice to reorient and focus myself on what is important in my life.  

Second, the Eucharist can and has been described as the time in which I receive instruction, moral guidance and inspiration in order that I can go out and put into practice love of neighbour as God has called us to do in Christ.  It is the place where I hear or have heard the gospel call to action.  And it is from here I move out and act in whatever social sphere I move into during the week. 

There is a third possibility and meaning.  The Eucharistic celebration is one in which I do not simply refuel myself nor receive further moral instruction in order to go about what I do in a better way, but a celebration in which I am transformed along with the rest of the gathered group of believers into the body of Christ.  And the important thing here is that I am transformed along with the other members of the believing group.  We are made into a body: a real, live, active, and social body.  This is what we can too often loose sight of in our celebrations.  The individualism of our culture can lead us to think solely about either my choice for nourishment or my instruction for action and forget that most significantly what we are gathering to do is to form ourselves – or allow Christ to form us into his body. 

That is why we form and encourage participation in so many groups beyond the celebration of the Mass.  These help to give shape and life to the body formed in the Eucharist.  These are the lived expression of the body formed in the Eucharist. Today above all let us remember that this meal is the one which forms an active community, a visible body.  And let us pray that we can be open to how Christ wants to shape us and calls us to live in the world.