Bread for the World

The next three days before the beautiful Solemnity of Corpus et Sanguinis Christi may be marked as a 'Triduum'. The Lord's sublime gift of the Holy Eucharist is so central to our lives that, in so many ways, our thoughts, reflections and contemplation often dwells upon It. However, just as we have just celebrated a Feast, highlighting our faith in the Triune God, confessing the One Whom we worship and adore and in Whom live and move and have our being to be a Trinity in Unity, so too, it is desirable and fitting to focus upon the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, present in the Eucharist. This we shall do, of course, on Thursday -unless one has the misfortune to live in a diocese where holy days of obligation tend not to fall on weekdays! But, in addition, I should like to present here on the three days preceding the Feast, excerpts from a reflection by the then-Cardinal Ratzinger; what he calls a 'Meditation for the Feast of Corpus Christi':

"Why is there so much hunger in the world? Why must some children die of hunger, while others are smothered in an overabundance? Why must poor Lazarus watch in vain even today for crumbs falling from the rich glutton's table, without ever being able to cross the threshold to him? Certainly not because the earth cannot produce enough bread for everyone. In Western nations, some farmers are paid to destroy the fruits of the earth so as to keep prices steady, while elsewhere people are starving. The human mind is more resourceful in discovering new means of destruction than new means to support life. It is more ingenious in making weapons of destruction plentifully available in every corner of the world than it is to bringing bread to those places. Why is all this so? Because our souls are undernourished, because our hearts are blind and hardened. Our hearts are not showing our minds the way. The world is not in order, because our hearts are not in order, because they lack love, which would show the way to justice...

In order for there to be bread for all, the heart of man must be nourished first. In order for justice to be done among men, justice must grow in our hearts, and this does not grow without God and without the basic food of his Word. This Word became flesh, became man, so that we can receive it, so that it can become our food. Because man is too small to be able to reach God, God himself became small so that he could become our food and so that we could receive love from his love and the world might become his kingdom. These connections are what the Feast of Corpus Christi are about..."

An excellent homily by fr Leon Pereira OP for the Feast of Corpus Christi has just been posted online. Do take the time to read it here.

The photo above was taken in Manila, the Philippines last year - children are scavenging in bags of refuse, looking for scraps of food.