Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for Pentecost - Sunday, June 22, 2025

In 1944, Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac famously said, “The Eucharist makes the Church!” While that may have been clear during the first 1,000 years of the Church, many Catholics seem to have forgotten that premise. Yet, the Eucharist has been and continues to be essential to who we are as Catholics. If you ask me why I became a priest or even why I remained a practicing Catholic given all of the problems that the Church has faced, I would say: “I’m a Catholic priest because the Eucharist makes the Church.” It’s not made of the mistakes and sins of the leaders, or the clergy, or the faithful. NO, the Eucharist makes the Church.

This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi or the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ! This feast celebrates the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It asserts that, in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus is literally and wholly present—body and blood, soul and divinity—under the appearances of bread and wine. On this day, more than any other, we tell the world that Christ really meant the words, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.”

Christ gives us the words that Catholic priests have repeated for nearly 2,000 years to transform simple bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood: “Take and eat, THIS IS MY BODY” and “Take and drink, THIS IS MY BLOOD” and “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.” Through those words of consecration, bread and wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. Not a symbol, not a re-creation, not a re-enactment, but the actual body and blood of Jesus.

St. Augustine said that we must, “believe what we see, see what we believe, and become what we are: the Body of Christ.” When we leave this mass, we must be transformed just as the bread and wine are transformed. The Eucharist makes the Church and the Eucharist makes US.

I smile when I distribute the Eucharist because it is a joy to say, “The Body of Christ.” When you joyfully respond with a loud and convincing “AMEN” (“YES!”) you should smile as well. Then, one with Christ, we must all go out and live that AMEN!

Fr. Mike