The Bread and Wine We Offer:
The Body and Blood of Christ Sunday 2026
June 7, 2026
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Deuteronomy 8:2-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
By celebrating the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Church reminds us of two things: God will always nourish us, and through our partaking of the Eucharist, we become, as St. Paul pointed out, the Universal Body and Blood of Christ. Through our full participation in the Eucharist, we see that our faith is nourished. Faith is first and foremost an action. Faith is proof of what we believe. Faith becomes our capacity for loving action.
The Gospel reminds us that Jesus is the Living Bread and he invites us to drink his Blood, and we become what and who we eat. The Gospel writes, “The one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” By sharing in this meal of faith, we become the living, eternal Body and Blood of the Universal Christ. We become love in action.
Let’s talk about what we do when we gather for Eucharist. After we ask for God’s mercy and sing “Glory to God,” the priest says, “Let us pray.” There might be an awkward brief silence and then the priest picks up his book and says a short prayer. It is not that the priest forgot his place or what he is to do next. This is a privileged moment if presented rightly. This is your moment to remember all that has happened during the week, the accomplishments and struggles, all the stuff of daily life, and you are to raise them up to God’s consciousness. Once that is done, the priest collects your prayers and lifts them up to God, the Father, God, the Parent. All the stuff of your week is gathered and offered to God. We offer to God all of our human experiences.
During the offertory, the community offers to God bread and wine as a token gift of gratitude. These are the parts of the meal that Jesus blessed at the Passover supper and asked us to remember. When we offer bread, it is not merely wafers of wheat. The bread is designed to symbolize all human effort, all that you set out to do in the last week. It is your labor, study, research, gardening, cooking – all forms of work and striving. This bread contains every effort that we expend to make our lives pleasing to God and to one another.
We also offer wine, which is something that was first crushed, like grapes. Wine represents whatever crushes the efforts of humanity. This includes all the suffering that people will experience – any pain, anguish, grief, frustration, confusion, failures, and losses. We offer to God anything that hinders and diminishes our strivings. The bread and the wine represent the totality of human life and experience. We place it upon the altar for the Holy Spirit to transform them as the priest raises them up on your behalf. They are brought into the Living Body and Blood of Christ, who seeks to enrich humanity by bringing everyone together in charity.
The communion that we receive is a spiritual and physical union of hearts, minds, and bodies of all who are gathered. When we seek communion, we affirm our covenant with God, which entails naturally care for the person next to us. We agree to create unity in Christ as we live and move and have our being in Him. As we participate, we are changed and transformed over time, little by little, into Christ.
When we celebrate the Eucharist, through the Holy Spirit, God transforms us to make us more like Christ. We raise our human labors and our sufferings, alongside the bread and wine, and we are the object of God’s transformation. Let us offer ourselves to our God as fully as we can. Let us raise all that we carry with us so God may touch them with grace. We are profoundly changed, and so are our efforts and sufferings, so that we can be shared with a hungering world.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (1 Kings 17) The LORD then said to Elijah: “Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”
Tuesday: (1 Kings 17) The brook near where Elijah was hiding ran dry, because no rain had fallen in the land. So the LORD said to Elijah: “Move on to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have designated a widow there to provide for you.” He left and went to Zarephath.
Wednesday: (1 Kings 18) Elijah appealed to all the people and said, "How long will you straddle the issue? If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." The people, however, did not answer him.
Thursday: (Acts 11) In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
Friday (Deuteronomy 7) Moses said to the people: "You are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
Saturday (1 Kings 19) Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 5) When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Tuesday: (Matthew 5) You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Wednesday (Matthew 5) Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
Thursday (Matthew 5) I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
Friday (Matthew 11) Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.
Saturday (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all.
Saints of the Week
June 9: Ephrem, deacon and doctor (306-373), was born in the area that is now Iraq. He was ordained a deacon and refused priestly ordination. After Persians conquered his hometown, Ephrem lived in seclusion where he wrote scriptural commentaries and hymns. He was the first to introduce hymns into public worship.
June 9: Joseph de Anchieta, S.J., priest (1534-1597), was from the Canary Islands and became a leading missionary to Brazil. He was one of the founders of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero. He is considered the first Brazilian writer and is regarded as a considerate evangelizer of the native Brazilian population. Alongside the Jesuit Manuel de Nobrega, he created stable colonial establishments in the new country.
June 11: Barnabas, apostle (d. 61), was a Jew from Cyprus who joined the early Christians in Jerusalem to build up the church. His name means "son of encouragement." He accepted Paul into his community and worked alongside him for many years to convert the Gentiles. He was stoned to death in his native Cyprus. He was a towering authority to the early church.
Friday: The Sacred Heart of Jesus is set on the Friday following Corpus Christi. The heart of Jesus is adored as a symbol of divine, spiritual, and human love. Its devotion grew during the Middle Ages and was transformed in the 17th century when Mary Margaret Alocoque and her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude La Colombiere, reinvigorated the devotion.
Saturday: The Immaculate Heart of Mary began as a devotion in the 17th century. In 1944, the feast was extended to the Western Church. Her heart signifies her sanctity and love as the Mother of God.
June 13: Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor (1195-1231), became a biblical scholar who eventually joined the Franciscans. Francis sent him to preach in northern Italy, first in Bologna and then Padua. He very especially beloved because of his pastoral care, but he died at age 36.
This Week in Jesuit History
- June 7, 1556. Peter Canisius becomes the first provincial superior of the newly constituted Province of Upper Germany.
- June 8, 1889. Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins died at the age of 44 in Dublin. His final words were "I am so happy, so happy." He wrote, "I wish that my pieces could at some time become known but in some spontaneous way ... and without my forcing."
- June 9, 1597. The death of Blessed Jose de Ancieta, Brazil's most famous missionary and the founder of the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.
- June 10, 1537. Ignatius and his companions were given minor orders at the house of Bishop Vincenzo Negusanti in Venice, Italy.
- June 11, 1742. The Chinese and Malabar Rites were forbidden by Pope Benedict XIV; persecution broke out at once in China.
- June 12, 1928. Fr. General Ledochowski responded negatively to the idea of intercollegiate sports at Jesuit colleges because he feared the loss of study time and the amount of travel involved.
- June 13, 1557. The death of King John III of Portugal, at whose request Francis Xavier and others were sent to India.
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