Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ

Love is amazing. When we fall in love, there is that initial rush of wanting to give our attention to the other. And when there is that mutual look into each other’s eyes….wow.

On TikTok last weekend a person went viral; Whiteyy18. Briefly, Tiktok is a social media platform for videos. People post videos doing and saying all kinds of things. Then others can take these videos and add their own content. So this guy Whiteyy18 is a 21 year old white guy, Canadian. He lip syncs to songs, a lot from the 80’s. Whiteyy, or William, is a good looking young man; great jaw line, perfect teeth, green/blue eyes, and a kind of 80’s haircut. Think Rob Lowe from his younger days. And what he does in these short little videos that have garnered attention is his eyes. He winks and he looks into the camera, and he has this charisma that makes one think he is looking right into you. NOW the viral part is that women of a certain age swoon over this, and make their own videos showing in a funny way their swooning. And then their husbands get on, and complain or surrender to this… they are just hilarious.

It all comes down to that look.

A song came out a few years ago from the Lumineers called “Stubborn Love”. One of my favorites. It speaks of a person who persists in loving another person even though the other doesn’t act always in the best of ways. There is a line that says: “the opposite of love is indifference”. What a powerful phrase.

Love means we are seen, totally seen. Love means to see within, to see a goodness and wish for that goodness to come out in another. Love will transform.  Indifference, we simply do not see and therefore we do not care.

Humans seek love. We seek to be seen and to know that we matter and that there is meaning to this all. We ache for this, it is so profoundly part of who we are.

We seek this in others, and if not in others, we seek to quell the ache through other ways and means and objects that simply cannot fulfill us.

A scary thing is that we can be tempted to believe that the world, the universe does not care about us, or anyone. We can fall into the idea that Reality becomes meaningless.

Here is the Joyful thing: All of Reality, all the universe has been condensed, into a person, a human person.

Jesus, the anointed one, the Son of God, who is the love of God made flesh; all of reality.

We Christians believe that Jesus tells us that God does care for us. God sees us, all of us. Not just some, not just the supposed “good” people, but all. Jesus healed and forgave, welcomed and embraced those society often scoffed, all to reveal that the Father sees all.  Therefore, in and through Jesus Christ we believe and have faith that the world, universe, reality is not cold and uncaring: God loves us, stubbornly, persistently, God loves us.

The Solemnity we celebrate, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, calls us to remember this always. And not only celebrate, but live it.  God expresses God’s self, calls out to us in a personal way. Not through abstract ideas, not in vague philosophies, but in and through human personal interactions. And invites us into a relationship; for our good and the good of all.

God created us to be in relationship with God. God formed covenants with humanity, with human persons time and again; Noah, Abraham and the Hebrews in the desert. God renewed that Covenant again and again.  God fulfilled that covenant in Christ; In a personal way.

Christ shows us the face of God, that God can be experienced in healing, forgiving, in compassion, mercy and generosity.  Ultimately Christ demonstrates to us that there is nothing that can remove God’s sight from us. Even as we killed the Son of God, God still saw our capacity for Goodness, raised Jesus up and gave him back to us.

God sees us.

We can go through the most difficult of times in our lives. Our reality can be difficult to live. There can appear to be so much violence, so much hate and indifference in this world from people. We experience sickness. We lose jobs, homes, relationships break down; we can think that because we don’t seem to fit in, we don’t matter. We can believe that nothing and nobody cares.

We Catholics are so blessed. We have this faith in God’s love. It is not abstract, it is not just an idea. It has flesh and bone; it is tangible. We celebrate the Sacrament of Eucharist to make visible this reality of God.  We come to gather and give thanks that God sees us and cares about us and all people. We gather and give thanks that God loves all, in and through Christ.  We gather and remember that as the Body of Christ our mission is that we become the conduit for which people can experience God’s caring, God’s love. We personally make real God’s love.

Indifference has no place in our hearts, in our minds, in our eyes! Only Love

Love that shows itself in how we welcome all people, no matter who they are, what they look like, how they vote…

Love that shows itself in how we stand up to the indifference in this world, and we speak out for justice towards those oppressed because of their skin color, their gender, their age, their religion…

Love that shows itself in how we go to hospitals, nursing homes, to prisons and jails, to show concern, to see the people.

Love shows itself in being quiet at times, and letting others speak and listening to their story.

God’s love flows in through a husband and wife looking into each other's eyes, touching one another.  It exists with parents embracing their children.

Look and see...