DAILY SCRIPTURE READINGS (DSR) 📚 COMMUNITY, Sun Jun 07th, 2026 ... The Solemnity Of The Most Holy Body And Blood Of Christ, Year A
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."
Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R. (12) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Laud, O Zion, your salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:
Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.
Special theme for glad thanksgiving
Is the quick'ning and the living
Bread today before you set:
From his hands of old partaken,
As we know, by faith unshaken,
Where the Twelve at supper met.
Full and clear ring out your chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
From your heart let praises burst:
For today the feast is holden,
When the institution olden
Of that supper was rehearsed.
Here the new law's new oblation,
By the new king's revelation,
Ends the form of ancient rite:
Now the new the old effaces,
Truth away the shadow chases,
Light dispels the gloom of night.
What he did at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne'er to cease:
And his rule for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.
This the truth each Christian learns,
Bread into his flesh he turns,
To his precious blood the wine:
Sight has fail'd, nor thought conceives,
But a dauntless faith believes,
Resting on a pow'r divine.
Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things are all we see:
Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
Yet in either wondrous token
Christ entire we know to be.
Whoso of this food partakes,
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:
Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Eats of him who cannot waste.
Bad and good the feast are sharing,
Of what divers dooms preparing,
Endless death, or endless life.
Life to these, to those damnation,
See how like participation
Is with unlike issues rife.
When the sacrament is broken,
Doubt not, but believe 'tis spoken,
That each sever'd outward token
doth the very whole contain.
Nought the precious gift divides,
Breaking but the sign betides
Jesus still the same abides,
still unbroken does remain.
The shorter form of the sequence begins here.
Lo! the angel's food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.
You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav'nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
FOCUS AND LITURGY OF THE WORD
I will never forget the last time I missed Sunday Mass. I was eleven years old and my dad, brother, and myself joined some family and friends on a hiking weekend on Pike’s Peak. It was a fun-filled trek, but due to bad weather and slow children, we got down the mountain later than we expected on Sunday. We had picked out a Church for Mass in advance, but by the time we got there we had missed their last service. In the days before smart phones, we struggled to find other options. I remember us pulling into a Church and just pulling on the locked doors, hoping we could get lucky. By Sunday evening we had given up and started the long drive home.
When we eventually pulled back into Wichita, my dad parked the car in the garage, took a deep breath, and said to my brother and I: I know you boys loved that trip, and so did I. But we won’t ever go on it again, because I won’t ever put you in a situation to miss Mass ever again. My brother and I were annoyed. We didn’t do anything wrong; we truly tried our best. Why the big deal?
In the years that followed, I learned to truly value that experience. I’m glad my dad was so serious about Sunday Mass. I’m grateful that it was a non-negotiable, and that everything else came second to the Lord. I haven’t missed Mass since that day 24 years ago.
This weekend, we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It should be celebrated with great pomp and circumstance, as it is the reminder of the Source and Summit of our Faith! Holy Mass, Adoration, the reception of Holy Communion, are all highways of grace and mercy pouring into our hearts. Our lives are enriched and strengthened by this Bread of Angels, granted to us by our merciful God. Of course, receiving Holy Communion, sitting in Adoration, and attending Sunday Mass are helpful… but does it really matter if I skip it?
The real question is… what is more important? Sure, we have busy schedules, family functions, sporting events, and fun vacations. Those are all worthy and important. But if Jesus Christ truly died on a Cross, rose from the dead, and gave me His Body and Blood to eat and drink, is there anything more important? If the Mass really is the re-presentation of Calvary, what could be a priority over that? And if it is true that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you, then is there really any reason I would avoid it?
The longer I have been a priest, the more sympathetic I have become to the busy schedules of family life. The complexities of modern life are real and exhausting. But I also have become more grateful for my dad’s line in the sand. Things are fun, and life is busy, but if what I purport to believe about the Eucharist is real, it must take pride of place. When I don’t make the most important thing the most important thing, everything else crashes. We’ve seen that with our young people and families… divided, disordered, wounded lives, because we’ve refused to give anything up for Jesus.
A priest once told me, you can’t control most things in your life, but you can almost always control if you get to Mass on Sunday. If Jesus has really made me promises about who He is and what the Eucharist is, why wouldn’t I put everything second to that. Control what we can control and come to Mass each Sunday. Even though I was annoyed at the time, I’m grateful that my dad knew his priorities. Do we know ours?
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