Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ - Corpus Christi

First reading: Exodus 24:3-8
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 116
Second reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel reading: Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

"'Take this,' He said, 'this is My Body'".

From the gospel of Mark, we find a brief account of the Last
Supper. It begins with the scene wherein Jesus' disciples asked
their Master where He wished to celebrate the Passover supper.
Jesus gave His disciples instructions to go into the city, follow
a man carrying a water jar until he enters into a house, and then
ask the owner of the house for a guest-room for them to eat the
Passover meal. As the disciples followed Jesus' instructions,
they found it just as Jesus told them - and they were given an
upstairs room, spacious and all in order. It is in this upstairs
room where Jesus ate the Last Supper with His apostles. This
gospel passage of Mark reflects what we always hear in the Mass
as the bread and wine is consecrated:


"...He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
'Take this,' He said, 'this is My Body.' He likewise took a cup...
He said to them: 'This is my blood...to be poured out on behalf
of many'".

If we place ourselves in the shoes of the apostles, we would
probably not know or understand well what Jesus meant by this
action of His during the Last Supper. In the gospels, we are
always made aware that even the apostles of Jesus did not
understand what He was teaching or doing. They did not understand
the parables of Jesus unless Jesus explained it to them. This is
because Jesus speaks very deeply about the mystery of God, and the
life God has destined for us. And one of the deep mysteries in
which Jesus speaks about before His disciples, is the mystery of
His Body and Blood. This is the mystery and the miracle which we
witness everyday in the celebration of the Eucharist: the
transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and the Blood
of Christ Jesus - "Corpus Christi".

Just as our bodies need nourishment, so that we may obtain the
strength we need to work well, and be at the service of our
family, and our brothers and sisters in Christ, so too our soul
needs to be nourished with spiritual food. Jesus is our spiritual
food. He is the Bread that came down from Heaven. He who eats
this Bread will have eternal life. By the sacrifice of Jesus on
the Cross, He has given us His very self, so that when we eat and
drink His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we shall also receive
the fruits of the Resurrection: new life, that leads to eternal
life, and communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

First reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33
Second reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel reading: Matthew 28:16-20

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations".

For the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the gospel of Matthew,
chapter 28, verses 16-20, will be proclaimed in the Sunday Mass.
This gospel passage is found at the very end of Matthew's gospel.
Since it concludes his gospel, Matthew has Jesus proclaim a very
important mandate: His missionary mandate to His disciples. And
this missionary mandate to go to all peoples and make disciples of
all nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is a command not only His
apostles are to carry out, but we also are to follow and obey. By
doing so, we shall have the knowledge and understanding that the
Lord is with us "always, until the end of the world!"

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, is a doctrine that has been
fought over for us by the Church Fathers of the early Christian
eras. In the early Christian Church, Christian doctrine was
slowly being formed, as these Church Fathers, in docility to the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, discerned how to pass on orthodox
teaching to the succeeding generations. What the Church Fathers
have achieved has become an essential part of our Catholic
tradition. Therefore, even if we do not see the word or term
"Trinity" in the Bible, this is because it has become part of our
Catholic tradition - one that involves the life, prayer, and work
of the apostolic community and their successor bishops and
clergy.

We will know how essential the Trinity is in our life because we
begin every prayer and celebration of the Eucharist by invoking
the Blessed Trinity with the sign of the cross. And also, we
realize how essential this doctrine is when we recall how John
Paul II prepared the Jubilee Year 2000, with a year for the Son
(1997), a year for the Holy Spirit (1998), and a year of the
Father (1999). This is how important the Holy Trinity is in our
Christian lives and for the whole Catholic Church. Our task now
is to teach this important doctrine to our children, so that when
they grow up to be fully mature Catholics, they too will pass on
this very important doctrine and teaching of the Church, to their
own children.