Today we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.  We once called it the “Feast of Corpus Christi”.
There was a priest, who was also a man of science, called Teihard de Chardin.  He wrote many books in the 1950’s and was, by some church officials, judged to be a heretic.  Nevertheless, what he wrote about the eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, expressed more about this great mystery than any theologian of his time.

Teihard had been a chaplain for the French troops during the first world war.  He later wrote, that when he celebrated Mass for the soldiers, he was celebrating the Lord ’s Supper “on the altar of the world”.  He believed that every celebration of the Eucharist was limitless.  It touched every corner of the world.  He believed that through the Eucharistic celebration, Christ gathers to himself the entire universe.  For him, Christ in the Eucharistic mystery stretches out and touches everyone, everywhere – The Eucharist stretches out to infinity.  Teihard used to pray this prayer; “Grant, my God, that when we approach the altar to take our communion, we may always see the infinite vistas hidden within this bread in which you are disguised”.

Today we are invited to accept that when we take holy communion we are united with the entire universe – We are in solidarity with every person everywhere.  When we receive communion we are united with Christ and so we are in solidarity with every human being. What an amazing gift this is!