Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for Corpus Christi Sunday.

June 14, 2020

“I am the living bread… come down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” – Jn 6:51

At the center of the Christian life stands the Eucharist. At the center is Jesus. The Eucharist is the primary source of our life in Christ, and it is the summit towards which all the activities of the Church are directed. The Eucharist is the most profound way to be one with Jesus and to express our love of Him. When the Church obeys the command Jesus gave at the Last Supper, “Do this in memory of me,” the sacrifice that Christ offered once for all on the cross becomes present on the altar and the work of our redemption is carried out.

Throughout the past 2000 years, the test of the vitality of the faith of Christians has been measured by the intensity of our dedication to Christ in the Eucharist. For example, at the start of the 4^th century AD, 1600 years ago, in the last and most cruel persecution of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Diocletian (303-313 AD) unleashed several, notoriously violent campaigns against Christians. As a result, many Christians fled from the cities to save their lives. But, after several weeks of being deprived of the Eucharist, most returned to their homes, saying: “We cannot go on without the Eucharist. We cannot live without Christ.” They knew that to return home and gather again for Mass most likely meant death, even of women and children. But they also knew by faith that Jesus’ words are true, (Jn 6:53=54) “…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 has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

On this Corpus Christi Sunday in 2020, only weeks after being unable, due to the Coronavirus, to participate in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacred readings speak to us of the wondrous presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the great blessing of the Risen Lord Jesus remaining with us, not just spiritually but tangibly and truly, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.

It is the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist that has greatly impacted the lives of saints for 20 centuries. Take, for example, St. John Paul II. He was drawn like a magnet to spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist. Early each morning, long before any other activity, he would slip into chapel and be absorbed in prayer. Throughout the day, he returned there to be with Jesus, replenishing his heart with the loving presence of the Redeemer of the world.

Why such a strong attraction to the Eucharist? Love!!! This is where, above all others, he encountered Jesus. A short while after his election as pope, his priest-secretary, Fr. John Magee, could not find the Holy Father anywhere in the papal apartment. He looked everywhere, including the chapel, but found no trace. Then, Fr. Magee returned to the chapel and looked again — on the floor this time — and there he was, lying prostrate before the tabernacle. It soon became known that this pope from Poland made all his major decisions before Jesus in the Eucharist. That was the place where he encountered love, experienced love profoundly, and made it his own.  Jesus tells us in the Gospel today (John 6:57f), “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.” Because Jesus and the Father are one, each dwelling within the other and abiding in the bond of love that is the Holy Spirit, love defines all that God is and does. Jesus, in Holy Communion, invites us to share with Him in the intimate love that He shares with the Father.

Moreover, Jesus, in the Eucharist, compels us to share His love with others. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a great example of one who shared the love of Jesus in remarkable ways. She and her sisters served the poorest of the poor, beginning with those who were dying in the gutters of the streets of Calcutta. Day after day, they went to the dingiest slums, picked up the dying and carried them to a Home for the Dying, and there comforted them until they passed from this world to eternity. Someone asked her, “Mother Teresa, why do you do this social work among those who have no chance of survival? Why do you do this when you could be teaching poor children running in the streets and giving them a future? Mother Teresa replied: “We do not do social work. We serve Jesus in the poorest of the poor… One day, I took a man I had picked up from the street to our Home for the Dying… when I was leaving, he told me, ‘I have lived like an animal on the streets, but I am going to die like an angel. I will die smiling.” So, how did Mother Teresa come to see Jesus in the poorest of the poor? It began early in the morning, with a daily hour of Adoration of Jesus in the Tabernacle, followed by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Because she knelt in amazement at Jesus’ loving presence in the Eucharist, she could see His face in the poorest of the poor. Eucharistic amazement opened the eyes of her heart to see the wisdom of Jesus’ words, “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me.” Eucharistic amazement can compel us, too, to works of mercy for love of Jesus.

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, when we adore Him in the Tabernacle, we are changed; we are created anew. We find strength to love Jesus in those most difficult to love. Our hearts become one with His Sacred Heart. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is more powerful than COVID-19. When we kneel in adoration and amazement before Jesus in the Eucharist, we kneel before the One who suffered death on the Cross and opened the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. We kneel before the One who defeated the power of Satan and atoned for our sins and the sins of the world. The Eucharist is the fountain where we drink the charity of Christ, where we find both the desire and the grace to love whomever He gives us to love. Let us pray for the gift of strong Eucharistic faith like that of the Christian martyrs of 4^th century, who said: “We cannot go on without the Eucharist. We cannot live without Christ.”