On this All Souls Day I want you and I to focus on the body of Christ.

The Body of Christ —“ the Church with you and me as its members. The Body of Christ with our deceased relatives, friends, and benefactors as its members. The Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

The Body of Christ is what we are and what we are becoming. Each day that we come to Holy Mass we are being transformed. We are transformed in a way that requires us to give up our appearances and our facades. We are transformed in a way that requires us to become what God has always intended for us to be.

When we receive Holy Communion we are changed. We are primarily nourished spiritually. We are made part of Christ. Jesus Christ is taking us unto Himself. This is unlike regular eating, where the food we ingest strictly becomes part of us. At the same time we are fortified by the bread so that the ‘staff of life’ strengthens us for the Holy work ahead of us.

How does this transformation occur? It occurs in the most mysterious and magnificent way, through our reception of our Lord, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In his Summa Theologiae (3a.75.1), St Thomas Aquinas addresses the question: ‘Is Christ is really and truly present in the Holy Eucharist, or is He only there in a figurative way, as a sign or symbol.’ St. Thomas’ belief, and ours, is that Jesus Christ is really the Holy Eucharist. He is here body, soul, humanity, and divinity, because Jesus desires to maintain friendship with us. There is no more bread or wine, it is Him.

St. Thomas summed it all up by making several points:

· The charity of Christ led him to take a real body, to become human and unite that body to the Godhead to save us.
· The law of friendship requires that friends should live together in union.
· Jesus promised us his bodily presence.
· Jesus has not left us without his bodily presence in our pilgrimage to heaven.
· Jesus specifically told us, —He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.—

These thoughts from the passages in St. Thomas’ work are truly wonderful. They tell us what we know by instinct. Friends and lovers cherish each other’s bodily presence. Our bodies are the very means of our communion.

Some Protestant churches do not believe in the real presence as we do. Their theology has boiled down the relationship with Christ to an —I and thou— personal communion. The Body of Christ is more than Jesus and me.

The Body of Christ is all of us together. God and I are not alone. I am not alone in my joys, sufferings, happiness, sadness, struggle or triumph. I am joined to Christ and to the entire Christian community everywhere and throughout all time.

Jesus Christ is indeed real and present with us and for us. The bread and cup are his visible body. When Jesus says, —This is my body. This is my blood— He is telling us: —Here I am for you. I love you. I died for you. I forgive you. I fill you with my Spirit. I give you eternal life. Come, come feast upon me. I am the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.—

Today we conduct this immemorial remembrance for our deceased brothers and sisters. We reaffirm that they are not gone, wiped out of existence, but that they are present here with us spiritually as they pray and intercede for us in heaven.

In the funeral liturgy we remember that those who have died were baptized into the Body of Christ, made members of His Holy Church. We remember too that they ate the Bread of Life and drank from the Cup of eternal salvation.

In the Holy Eucharist we, the Body of Christ, encounter the source of our life and salvation —“ Jesus Christ, God and man. We eat His flesh and drink His blood. We chew on Him and digest Him so we can become more like Him, less like us.

When you approach the Eucharist today, and I encourage you to approach Holy Communion as often as it is available, know that you are purified and sanctified by God’s grace. Know that you are regenerated into our Lord’s very body, and that you are joined to the entire Body of Christ, living and deceased, militant and triumphant.

May our prayers for our beloved dead be blessed and received this day through the merits won for us by Him who is our Lord, Jesus Christ, and through His grace may we all be joined together in the Kingdom of God.

[My special thanks to Al Kimel from the Pontifications Blog for the inspiration for this homily]