Mass Readings
Reading 1 – Book of Exodus 24:3-8
Reading 2 – Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel – Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Gospel Reflection
Fr Martin Ashe, Parish Priest
We celebrate this Sunday the feast of the Body and the Blood of Christ. Unfortunately, because we are in lockdown at this time we are unable to gather together physically to celebrate this feast. Up until last weekend, we have been aware of more and more people beginning to come back to our masses across the parish of Christ the Light. People were beginning to feel more confident in gathering together in being physically part of the faith community again and to experience that closeness of the Lord in the liturgy and through each other’s presence with each other.
When we gather for the Eucharist, we are being nourished by the Lord through his Word and by receiving him as the Bread of life. For a year and many months we had missed receiving “the living bread from heaven” and experiencing that communion with the Lord. Not only that, we have missed being together with each other where we also find strength and a deepening of our faith. We do not attend the Eucharist purely as individuals, rather we come together as the Body of Christ and we gain strength from each other’s faith as we participate together in our prayer of praise, thanks and petition including our singing together.
Of course in the midst of the lockdown, we have been fortunate for the last year and more to be able participate in the live streaming of the mass each Sunday. This has been especially important in these times of difficulty and uncertainty and we give thanks for that. This has connected us together spiritually as parishioners. At the same time, and for those of us who have been able, have we not also yearned, physically and spiritually to be able to be together on the weekends, on Sundays, to be able to celebrate the gift of the Lord’s saving love for us? The latest outbreak of the virus has put us in lockdown again. Even so, may we continue to have faith in the Lord’s closeness to us in the Eucharist, present for us through our live streaming mass. At the same time, we look forward to be being able to gather together in the near future at our worship centres on the Lord’s day to celebrate his nourishing and life-giving presence for us and for the world of our time.
Photo source: http://holyrosarysite.com/archives/2743/lastsupperjuan-de-flandes15603#gallery