(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Mass-Blog-for-the-Solemnity-of-the-Most-Holy-Body-and-Blood-of-Christ-2025.mp3)
“The Chosen” TV series about Christ’s mission has introduced Christians to various ancient Jewish traditions Jesus grew up with. One of them is the singing of “The Dayenu,” a Hebrew Passover prayer whose title translates as, “It would have been enough.” This is a song of gratitude for all God’s blessings, from bringing the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt to the building of the Holy Temple in Israel. One part states, “If He had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years and had not fed us the manna, it would have been enough.”
As Christians celebrate the solemnity of Christ’s Holy Body and Blood, we should realize that the fruits of God’s mercy and love in our modern life are beyond measure. Just contemplating that God is mindful of me while I’m praying should be enough to sustain my faith. But, taking a cue from the Dayenu, let’s ask ourselves: If God were mindful of my prayer without giving me his precious body and blood to sustain me, would that be enough? No. They are inseparable.
The tragedy of 21st Century life is that somehow we let the passage of time put space between those blessings in our hearts. Eventually we become less mindful of God. We let our hectic schedules interfere with daily contemplation, then wonder why we’re suddenly starving for something we can’t wrap our minds around.
That something is readily resurrected via habitual Eucharistic adoration. In the absence of our own prayerful contemplation, the world will plant doubt about God’s mindfulness in our own minds. A daily dose of God’s grace is enough to help us realize it’s OUR mindfulness that’s been lacking.
Getting enough grace to maintain our faith doesn’t require much. The true miracle of Christ’s feeding thousands with a few loaves and fish was in the leftovers.
When we revisit that miracle in this Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 9:11b-17), put yourself in the apostles’ place. They are faced with feeding multitudes hungering for both spiritual and physical sustenance. Then Jesus tells them, “Give them some food yourselves.” At the same time, he is mindful of what they need.
… looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over [the five loaves and two fish], broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
He left the feeding to his twelve apostles, just as at their last supper together, Jesus supplied them with enough food to satisfy succeeding generations for ages.
As Paul tells us this Sunday,
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Until that coming, as long as we collect, contain and distribute the leftovers of that fruitful ministry, the mindfulness we give back to God WILL be enough to sustain each other. No “WOULD have been” about it. Our challenge while coexisting in this seemingly Godless world is to avoid its greatest tragedy before leaving it. Nineteenth Century Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier warned about it:
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been!'”
–Tom Andel
This blog reinforces our basic need to be fed by Christ in the most essential way. “Unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” Then to drive this point home, Jesus doubles down with “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
This is the bedrock of our Catholic faith and what sets us apart as followers of Christ.
For the 1st 1,500 years of Christianity this was the mainstay, and sadly Satan has been able to split the flock through the reformation. I always marvel at how our protestant friends casually dismiss this essential message of salvation.
Swing and a miss! How sad!!
Participating in the liturgy of the Word is as essential to the Catholic faith as participating in the liturgy of the Eucharist. We believe Christ to be the living Word of God, and we consume Him every time we study the wisdom of the Old and New Testaments. Christ’s Beatitudes are like the Hebrew Deyanu in that they carry forward humanity’s spirit of gratitude for God’s grace and our role in delivering those graces to others. Christ teaches: Blessed are the merciful, the peace makers and those who seek righteousness, for they will receive God’s mercy, peace and His Kingdom. Jesus set a high bar for anyone wishing to enter his Kingdom. In Matthew 19:16, he tells a rich young man to sell all he owns, give the proceeds to the poor and he will have treasure in heaven. He goes away sad. Jesus then says, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” His disciples were astonished by this, and responded, “Who then can be saved?” We Catholics must remember Christ’s answer when considering who controls admission to heaven: “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” When considering my shortcomings as a Christian and a Catholic, I take comfort in this.
I do as well Tbone!