There are four things that Jesus did to the people in this Sunday’s Gospel: first, he taught them; second, he healed those who needed to be cured; third, he fed them with loaves and fishes; and fourth, he made sure that they had left over food or “food-to-go” as we call it now.

Let me focus on this last task that Jesus did. I’d like to interpret this “food-to-go” as the Sacrament of the Eucharist. After all, don’t we hear about it as food for the journey; the Sacrament that would give us strength as we all wait for the eternal banquet in heaven? This Sunday we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Once again, the Church reminds us that our communion with Christ in his Body and Blood is Christ’s assurance of his presence and his promise, of his unceasing covenant of love with us as we walk the path of discipleship. Like a good father or mother, our Lord does not want us to languish in spiritual hunger and thirst. By instituting the Eucharist, commanding his disciples to “do this in memory of him”, he has given us spiritual provisions that include his words of eternal life, his real presence in the Body and Blood, and the promise of his Second Coming.

This communion through the Eucharist is never intended to be a mere personal affair, an “I” and “Jesus” event only. By the fact that it is celebrated in liturgical context, it is also a communion with our brothers and sisters, with all members of the Church, the Body of Christ. This communion with members of the Body of Christ is grace because it promotes unity, faith, hope, and charity.

Our communion through the Eucharist must allow us to enter deeply into the paschal mystery—the death, resurrection, and the second coming of Christ. Now this dynamic event transforms as individuals and community. This Christ-event, the Paschal Mystery, becomes part of us so that we too experience our dying and rising to new life. It allows us also to become a Sacrament of God’s love for the whole world. In other words, our reception of the Eucharist and our participation in the Paschal Mystery makes us reflect Jesus to others. As we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we become living signs of the Body of Christ.

I hope that this celebration of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ makes us aware of the profound meaning, richness, and beauty of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. God has indeed blessed us, Catholic Christians, with this food for the journey! May we never take this sacred gift for granted!