And Mary said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.' And the angel departed from her - Luke 1:38.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race - Saint Bede the Venerable.
So what are we called to do as Catholic Christians by this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ we are celebrating today? We are called to: (a) acknowledge and honor the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist; (b) to thank God for remaining with us through the gift of His Son in the Eucharist; and, (c) to be grateful to God for feeding and strengthening us with the Body and Blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters, today’s Solemnity is a wake up call for us to acknowledge the kingship of Christ, show our loyalty to Him, establish His kingdom in our world, actively participate in it, proclaim it, promote it and expand it through our lives and our apostolate. So let us renew our relationship with Him by loving Him, the King of Kings, through our love for our neighbors in our practice of the corporal works of mercy.
My dear brothers and sisters, today’s Solemnity calls us to be one in God, in the Holy Trinity, to stay away from greed, jealousy and envy, rather focus on proclaiming God and living out His love in our thoughts, words and actions, so as to bring unity and peace into our lives and into our world.
