Hearing The Word

A weekly newsletter delivering context and insight into the Sunday Gospels.

June 7, 2026

Corpus Christi

John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;

whoever eats this bread will live forever;

and the bread that I will give

is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 

Jesus said to them,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you do not have life within you. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day. 

For my flesh is true food,

and my blood is true drink. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me and I in him. 

Just as the living Father sent me

and I have life because of the Father,

so also the one who feeds on me

will have life because of me. 

This is the bread that came down from heaven. 

Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,

whoever eats this bread will live forever."



+

Wisdom Perfected in Sacrificial Love



Rev. Jordan Kelly, O.P.

Chaplain to the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters at the Convent of Divine Love + Philadelphia, Pa.

Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the gift of wisdom is the perfection of charity (IIa.IIae, q. 45, a.2). This perfection rests in the union created by the intellect (wisdom) and the will (charity). In the 71 verses which comprise the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus shows us the perfect demonstration of wisdom (vv. 1 – 50) promised us by His love for us shown especially through the gift of the Eucharist (vv. 51 – 58).

The first 50 verses of Saint John’s Gospel speak of Jesus as the very “wisdom” of the Father. This wisdom is Christ’s invitation to believe in Him to fulfill the Father’s call to believe in the One whom the Father has sent. The repeated invitation to believe in the Father, and to believe in the Christ whom the Father has sent.

Today’s Gospel brings us to the “promise” of who Christ truly is in our life. Jesus no longer speaks of Himself as the “bread of life”, but rather as the “living bread”. Christ is the living bread who gives us eternal life; Christ is the living bread who saves us from eternal corruption (cf. St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V) as we are given the seed of the Resurrection by our eating and drinking of Christ’s Body and Blood. The challenge is for us to be truly present to the moment of grace when we come to receive the Eucharist: do I with the full awareness of all my faculties eat and drink of this saving body and blood?

Christ knows what we need. We need Christ Himself and loving us, sacrificed His own Body on the Cross so that we will live forever. What tremendous love!

Let us feast upon this true living bread.

The Glory of the Eucharist

~Jeannette Williams

Our Lady of Scared Heart +Hilltown, Pa.

Corpus Christi is my favorite feast. I named my daughter Christina after this feast day. In my humble opinion, it is the most important of feasts, because all of Jesus’ love is rolled up in the Eucharist. St. Maximilian Kolbe said, “If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.” Angels can’t receive Holy Communion. Yet Jesus said to us mere humans, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him.” In the Eucharist, Jesus the Bridegroom unites with each of us, the Bride. We are united to God!

“I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven.” The Eucharist is Heaven on earth! When we kneel before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, we are both on earth and in the heavenly throne room, because Jesus, in His glorified Body, is outside space and time. So when we kneel before Him in Adoration, we are in the here and now; we are in the eternity of Heaven; and we are present at every moment of His life, from His Incarnation to His Resurrection, which was all gathered together at the Last Supper when He said, “This is My Body, given for you.”

The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.” There is no greater sign of Jesus’ love than the Eucharist. He has hidden His identity in the Eucharist even more than when He was a baby in the manger. He has made Himself even more helpless than when He was nailed to the cross. He has done all this so that He could be with us.

When I started visiting Jesus frequently during the week, my spiritual life changed. Now, to me, nothing matters more than Jesus in the Eucharist. And now, all my prayers for my children focus on growing their faith in Jesus in the Eucharist – or bringing them back to Him – because when they have that love for Him in the Eucharist, everything else will fall into place.

Jesus is in the tabernacle, and He wants us to visit Him, so that He can lavish His love upon us. But we, too, will comfort Him when we go to Him and return His love. So please, visit often! As St. Gemma Galgani said, “Let us go to Jesus. He is all alone and hardly anyone thinks of Him. Poor Jesus!”