We need, all of us, desperately need to become Apostles of the Holy Eucharist…for our country needs us to do so if it is to survive!

This Sunday the Church solemnly celebrates the feast of the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist has been a central and constant teaching of the Church since the time of the Apostles. And for over 1500 years all Christians were united in belief in the Real Presence, which is known as Mysterium Fidei--THE Mystery of our Faith!

The mystery of the truth that we celebrate today is that Jesus makes it possible that we can experience Him, not only in a picture, or in our mind as a memory, or even only in His Spiritual presence, but Jesus makes it possible that we can experience Him literally in the flesh, along with His blood, and His human heart and soul. Jesus promised He would remain with us until the end of the world' and He keeps that promise by being truly present in all the tabernacles of the world.

We simply believe in the Real Presence because Jesus has said it to be so. We can’t figure out the true bodily presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist or do a scientific analysis to determine the mechanics behind this great mystery; in fact, all our senses fail us before the reality of the Holy Eucharist; we must, in faith, simply take Jesus at His word. Or otherwise we call Him a liar. After all He is God, and as God He can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Because in the Real Presence Jesus is still on earth in His Human body, we too, through faith, can encounter the God made Man as did those privilege souls who were alive when Jesus visibly walked on the face of the earth. However, we are more privilege than they for we can encounter Him in an even deeper way by actually receiving His body and blood, by actually receiving His very Person into our own body and our soul. Through this Holy Communion we can become literally “wedded” to God Himself become one flesh with Him; we can then become united in love to the Father, Holy Spirit in the Son…this is why the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist is also known as the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb."

Today's feast, called in Latin Corpus Christi, was inaugurated in the 13th century because of a miracle of the Holy Eucharist at Orvietto in Italy. While the priest was consecrating the bread it dripped real visible blood on to the altar linen. As a result, St. Thomas Aquinas was commissioned to write the songs that we sing on this great feast day; the Pange Lingua and the Salutaris. Each year in Orvietto, on the feast of Corpus Christi, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession and preceded by this same miraculous cloth still bearing the stain of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ.

People may ask why don't we have such miracles in our churches now? But we do, we have the greatest of all miracles, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At every Holy Mass the bread and wine are transformed, literally change into real the real flesh and blood of Jesus; but this miracle normally can only be seen through the eyes of faith, but is nonetheless real.

Through the miracle of Transubstantiation Jesus Himself becomes present among us again in his resurrected Body and Blood, along with His Soul and Divinity. And in this Real Presence Jesus remains physically on earth for us. And He not only becomes our heavenly food, but He becomes the way for us to adore the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit in order that we can become one with God in love. And in this union the Holy Eucharist becomes the way for the Divine Mercy of God to flow out to the whole world.

But this Divine Mercy can only flow out from the Holy Eucharist through the hearts of those who truly believe; that is, through the hearts of those who have faith and live this faith out by humbly adoring the Holy Eucharist as the true and living God. Though adoration and worthy reception of Jesus the faithful become one with Jesus and become His instruments of His mercy. Through our belief, adoration, hope and love of the Real Presence of Jesus, we are to become Apostles of the Holy Eucharist in order to become channels of grace and mercy for the conversion and salvation of the entire world.

Faith tells us with certainty that Jesus is really present for you and for me in every Catholic Church where Holy Mass is validly celebrated; and He remains really present in the tabernacle even after Holy Mass for us to come and adore Him and so experience Him and His love for us. The more we spend time with Him outside of Holy Mass the more we are enable to celebrate the Mass well, in Spirit and in truth, and so the more we can get out of the Mass. Our holy Father Benedict said at his corpus christi homily, "For to really communicate with another person I must get to know him, I must be able to be in silence close to him, to hear him and to look at him with love. "True love and true friendship always live of the reciprocity of looks, of intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration, so that the encounter is lived profoundly, in a personal not a superficial way. And, unfortunately, if this personal dimension is lacking, even Holy Communion itself within holy Mass can become, on our part, a superficial gesture," (Corpus Christi homily) because our hearts and minds aren't in it.

So the question for us today is, “will you and I in faith, be there really present for Jesus; will you and I spend time with Him; will you and I keep Him company and adore, trust and love Him in the Holy Eucharist. Can we not watch just one hour with Him in prayer at least once per week? If we really believe that He is truly present on our altars or in our tabernacles we will come and spend time with Him whenever and however much we can. It's a matter of love His for us and ours for Him.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He waits in the tabernacle as a prisoner of love for those who would, in love, come and adore Him and adore the Father through Him in the Holy Spirit. Let us worship Him and pray to Him on behalf of all those who neither do not believe, or believe and ignore and so do not love. Let us receive Him in Holy Communion with faith, reverence, purity and love; let us never receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin, or as if it were merely some kind of special bread. And as we receive Him, let us offer ourselves fully to Him in love, in response to Him offering His total self to us in the Holy Eucharist so that we may become “Apostles of the Holy Eucharist.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus allows His first followers to leave Him when they cannot accept that He would give them His flesh as real food and His blood as real drink.  Millions today have also walked away from this Truth—the Mystery of Faith.  Today is our chance, however, to express our faith, our hope and trust, our love for Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist, the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Today, as believing Catholics, and as Free Americans, we celebrate this feast day. Because we are free we can with faith in His Real Presence, take Jesus in procession out into our streets. Currently as you know our religious freedom is punder ferocious assault. We cant be naive; there can come a day when we wont be able to practice our faith in public. Go and see the movie “For the Greater Glory” now in theaters if you want to see what can happen even in our country, what is already starting to happen…this is no exaggeration; it is deadly, eternally serious. We need to pray for our freedom, but even more we need to pray for the conversion of our great nation.

This past Friday thousands of believers rallied in our cities for our religious freedom and to protest the HHS Mandate. Hopefully as many believers will participate in Corpus Christi processions around the country as well. For what good does it do us to rally for religious freedom if we aren't willing to practice our faith in public; and what a public act of faith it is to take our Eucharistic Lord out into our streets. They want us, at least for now, to worship The Eucharist behind these walls, but they surely don't want us to declare our faith in the Holy Eucharist publicly by a Eucharistic procession. But we must take Jesus to the streets for their conversion and the conversion of our communities and our country.

As Fr John Hardon said, We can say and say with complete security; the single most powerful means on earth for the conversion of America is for Catholic Americans to mobilize a crusade of intense and constant prayer before the Holy Eucharist for the conversion of our nation. We need, all of us, desperately need to become Apostles of the Holy Eucharist…for our country needs us to do so if it is to survive and if our families are to survive!

It all begins with our own faith, hope and love of Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist; but to increase our faith, hope and love we need to come on bended knee whenever and as often as we can before Jesus’ Eucharistic presence and adore Him as the true and living God among us hidden in the little white Host. Let be ever more aware that Jesus is constantly in our midst and with us. His true presence is a concrete, close presence among our homes; it is as a “beating Heart” (of our families, our parish), of our city, of our country? As a result, this Sacrament of the Charity of Christ, of the love of Christ must permeate the whole of our daily life. ” (cf. Pope Benedict homily on corpus Christi 2012). What Holy Father is saying is that The Holy Eucharist must become our heart.

Holy Mary Mother of the Eucharist who is Jesus, through your powerful intercession, obtain for us the grace of an increase of Faith in, Hope in and Love for Your Divine Son—Jesus, who is still on earth truly present in the Holy Eucharist—The Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar! Help us to adore Him so that we might become lovers of the Eucharist Lord, Apostles of the Holy Eucharist and so channels of Divine Grace and Divine Mercy for the conversion and salvation of our nation and of souls. Amen!