"While eating.". Eating together is really important for our God. The important things, Jesus does at the table, the most moving speeches, the most beloved miracles. In the moment of unity, of intimacy, of the familiarity of love. "He took the bread.". Each gesture is fixed forever in the memory of the disciples, and passes into the memory of the Church and the liturgy. Jesus takes the bread with the strength of his divine will that has awaited this moment for millennia, with the desire of his human will that longs for this hour. He aims to be one with us, throughout history. On an equal footing with each one of us. He takes his life in his hands to offer it to us completely.
"He split it.". He broke bread with his hands. He wants his immolated body to become divine food for all. May it be multiplied and distributed. That by one bread we may become one body. "He gave it to her.". Jesus gives bread to his own: giving himself is the supreme gesture.
It had always been given, never backed out. Available to go from one part of that land to the other, from that lake. To listen and to explain. Now he gives himself again, in a new way. The gift of Jesus asks us and prepares us for the gift of ourselves. "Take.". It offers and gives itself away, but asks us to take it. They go forward thoughtfully, moved. It is God's gift, his grace, but human correspondence is necessary. To take that food that Jesus offers us, his bread which is his body for us, to become one with him.
On the feast of Corpus Christi we pay more attention to the second part of Jesus' phrase: "this is my body", "this is my blood", "this is my body", "this is my blood".We are surprised that Jesus' attention is, instead, on the first part of the sentence, that is, on us. He is inclined towards us, he wants to live with us, to be in communion with us. In his heart we are, above all, us: "Take!". According to Mark, first he offers the chalice and they drink, and only then does he say: this is my blood.
Jesus' desire to give himself and to come to us is great: take, drink. The extraordinary miracle of Transubstantiation is almost secondary. What counts is the love and desire for union, the rest is a consequence for him who can do everything. Today and on other occasions, in the Church we adore, we pray, we carry in procession the body of Christ, we do it with joy and faith, with gratitude.
But for Him, He comes above all to nourish us with Himself, to become part of us, food that sustains us while we live His life in the midst of the world and, therefore, that we can bring, with our life, to the world.
