Today the Roman Catholic church worldwide celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus. The major difference between today’s celebration and the celebration we have every Holy Thursday evening is that the celebration on Holy Thursday represents the last supper that our Lord Jesus had on earth before his agony, the last meal before his passion after one of his disciples betrayed him. Holy Thursday celebration was a farewell, which evokes the feeling of agony within us the followers of Jesus Christ. However, today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ with happiness, with eternal hope. Today we celebrate the consubstantiality of the blood and body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, there was a consubstantial change from host and wine to the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Unlike other Christian faithfuls, the catholic church recognizes that within the host and wine is the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Today’s celebration is rooted in the teachings of the church. It marks the spiritual extension of the Holy Communion in our life, our work, family, and everything.
Today we are also celebrating a Patron of the church – St. Anthony of Padua, who was born in the 12th century at Lisbon Portugal, and he died in Padua Italy. All his life, he espoused the body and blood of Christ in his daily missionary life. Through his actions and work he constantly demonstrated the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and drew many souls to God. Before I came here fifteen years ago, when I was still at the South Cathedral Beijing diocese, I never thought I would come to Shenzhen to serve the people here in the South because I belonged to the Beijing diocese. Then, my patron saint was the Immaculate Virgin Mary. But as God may have it, I came here 2007, and served for 1,167 days; I went back to Beijing afterwards and started another mission at a parish close to the Great Wall. There I served more than 2,848 days, and in that time, I also adopted my patron as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, not knowing I would come back here again four years ago. When I came back, I renewed my patron as St. Anthony of Padua. My goal of adopting St. Anthony as my patron is so that just like him, I will work to ensure that everyone and everything that is associated with St. Anthony church Shenzhen brings the word of God to life through their actions. We have achieved a lot since I came back, and we thank St. Anthony of Padua for his inspiration.
As Christians it is not just enough to read the word of God, sing to God and observe several guidelines of the church, we must also ensure that our actions speak louder than our voice. That is what St. Anthony represents and teaches us. Through our actions we can convert the neighbours around us.
As we celebrate today, may our actions draw people close to God, that they may come and receive the precious blood and body of our Lord Jesus Christ and they will have life in abundance. With the blood and body of Jesus Christ we are strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed, and we can navigate the challenges of life. Receiving the Holy body and blood of Jesus Christ gives us a special human value. Without it, we will be slaves to money and worldly possessions. The body and blood of Jesus Christ can give us the insight and wisdom to become owners of businesses instead of allowing money to control us, most importantly we will get eternal life from the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray to St. Anthony of Padua and ask for his intercession that we may obtain all the graces that comes with the body and blood of Christ. Just like the host and wine went through various transformations to become host and wine, so did our Lord Jesus Christ, from suffering and dying for us, to bringing us salvation and we can receive him through the transformed host and wine.
Let us reflect what the ‘amen” we say when we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ means to us. It means we believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, that we will love Him forever and ever, that we will open our life and receive him, that we can receive eternal life from Him and many more. We must reflect what that “amen” means to us always.
St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us.