We live in a society that has been slowly eroded from reality; we live in a society that has been based upon people's beliefs, as varied and bizarre as they are.
A society built upon people's beliefs may sound right; however, the problem is that in our current society belief as been equated with opinion. When someone says they believe they are actually saying they hold this opinion, this opinion which may change, and may change often.
We must, if we are to salvage society and restore order, must not base our life on beliefs that we hold, we must base our life on reality that holds firm our belief.
This is what we celebrate in today's Feast of Corpus Christi.
We do not celebrate our belief in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist; we celebrate, rather, the gift of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, that directs our belief and gives it a direction that always finds its meaning in the depth of reality. Our beliefs do not determine reality but it is reality that determines our belief.
We believe that all reality comes from God for he spoke and it was made. In the story of Genesis, in the beginning, we encounter a God who speaks and his words bring about reality, his words are the foundation of creation itself. This is real.
In today's Gospel, we encounter, Jesus, the Son of God, who speaks and he brings about reality: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Eucharist is not about trusting what we believe; the Eucharist is about trusting reality and letting what Jesus speaks bring life to our belief. He speaks and thus we believe.
As you open your hands today and say 'Amen'; you are saying 'yes' to reality; you are allowing the truth of things to restore and reorder your life and society. Only reality and truth can bring about a transformation; only then does our belief have true meaning and true depth that leads us to the one who brought us into meaning and feeds us on the journey: "for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink."
It is true, now we can believe. Our faith has substance because the substance of our faith is real and this reality is rooted in the words of God, for man live not on bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God, and today the word that directs us to reality are these: "for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink" and "this is my body given for you."
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