On Corpus Christi we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist, the “source and summit of the Christian life” and our Catholic faith. The mission and the very identity of the Church spring from the Eucharist. The last meal Jesus shared with His disciples, known through generations as the Last Supper, was, in fact, a beginning, rather than an end. It is an everlasting beginning for us as a Eucharistic people. On that night, Jesus gave of Himself to the disciples when He declared Himself to be their food and drink. In calling on them to ‘take and eat’, to ‘take and drink’, Jesus was asking them to give themselves to Him, just as He was giving Himself to them.
Our familiarity with the Mass can sometimes dull our senses to the full significance of the Eucharist, but each time we gather for the Eucharistic celebration, that is exactly what we are being asked to do when we hear the words of the dismissal : ‘The mass is now ended; go and proclaim the Good News of the Lord’. The Eucharist is our food for the journey of life to help us in that endeavour and to remind us that Christ is with us always, to the end of time.