Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2024

 
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 2, 2024
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹
 
It is always a special joy to celebrate this great mystery of our Catholic faith, the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
 
And I’m sure that some of you were here with us yesterday for the ordination of our eleven new priests. Thanks be to God! It was a very special ceremony because this is the biggest class of new priests that we have had in many years. So, we praise God for his goodness!
 
Let’s pray for them as they start their ministry in the archdiocese.
 
And I was saying to them in my homily that they are being ordained as priests at an exciting moment.
 
I think we all notice that something exciting is going on in our world, a new movement of the Holy Spirit. We see people coming back to God, coming back to Jesus, coming back to the Church.
 
And I think the Eucharistic Revival that the bishops of the United States have been sponsoring for these past three years is a part of this beautiful movement of the Holy Spirit.
 
You have noticed especially, in so many people coming to receive the sacraments in the last few months.
 
I am excited that we are having, for the first time in a long time, the National Eucharistic Congress — that will be in July in Indianapolis. And as you probably know that already, many Catholics are making a pilgrimage from different parts of the country, carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession, on their way to Indianapolis.
 
So, this really is an exciting time, and I really do believe that Jesus is calling to people, calling to each one of us to deepen our relationship with him in the Eucharist.
 
As we heard in the Gospel today, the Eucharist is the great gift that Jesus left for us, on the night before he died.
 
Jesus leaves us the Eucharist as a sign of his love, the sign of his love for each one of us, as the sign of his desire to share his divine life in tender friendship with each one of us.
 
We all know these beautiful words from the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.²

In the Eucharist, God’s Son again comes to give his Body for the life of the world, to pour out his Blood for the forgiveness of sins.
 
So my brothers and sisters: when we come to Mass, when we kneel before the altar, we are in the presence of the living God, who loves us so much that he shed his own blood for us.
 
In every Eucharist, Jesus is telling you: this is how precious you are to Me. This is the price I was willing to pay, for your love.
 
On the cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” What he was telling us, is that he thirsts for our love.³
 
He longs for us to love him, as he has loved us. He longs for us to share in his divine life, as he shared in our human life.
 
That is why he gives us this great gift of the Eucharist.
 
And this gift that Jesus gives us, is the gift of his very self, in his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. And he gives himself to us to be our daily bread, to be our food, to be the bread that sustains us and strengthens us for the journey of life.
 
And as the earthly bread we eat feeds our bodies, Jesus gives us this bread from heaven to feed our souls.
 
Through the Eucharist, Jesus comes to live in us, and we come to live in him. He brings us into communion with him, he makes us partakers of his own divine nature.
 
St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." ⁴
 
This is what happens in every Eucharist. Jesus, as the bread and wine are transformed into his Body and Blood at the altar, every time we receive our Lord in the Eucharist, Jesus is transforming us, little by little, into his image.
 
So my dear brothers and sisters, this is the miracle of the Eucharist! And it is a miracle of love that he has given to you and to me.
One of the saints said: “Jesus has remained in the Eucharist for love … for you. He has remained … so that by your prayer beside the tabernacle and by receiving him sacramentally, you could fall more in love each day, and help other souls, many souls, to follow the same path."⁵

So let us make that our prayer on this great solemnity.
 
Let us thank Jesus for his beautiful gift of the Eucharist, and let us ask for the grace to go deeper in our love for him.
 
Let us also ask for the grace today to help other souls to discover Jesus and his love in his miracle of the Eucharist.  
 
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whom the Word became flesh, help us to live more and more each day from the Body and Blood of her Son, and to make the Holy Eucharist the center of our lives.

1. Readings: Exod. 24:3–8; Ps. 116:12–13, 15–18; Heb. 9:11–15; Mark 14:12–16, 22–26.