This is my body – Take ye and eat. This is my blood, take ye and drink.”

These words were pronounced by the Lord at a moment of his life when He was full of emotion and feeling. On the one side He was feeling so much of love for His disciples. And this He expressed in word – “With great desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you.” And with this sentiment primarily in his heart, He was to institute His priesthood and empower His chosen disciples to change bread and wine into his precious body and blood, and commission them to do this in perpetuity, for the sake of all those who would follow Him. “Do this in commemoration of me” – He said, so that His followers – that means all of us would be fed with this redeeming flesh and blood, and that Jesus Christ would be with us all days, even unto the end of time, again fulfilling His own promise where He said – “I will not leave you orphans, I will be with you even unto the end of time.”

While this is one aspect of that momentous event, the other side of the picture is the tremendous feeling that Jesus had at this moment of His life. What was His psychological disposition? Here he is full of love for His disciples and wants to be with all those who would follow Him until the end of time. And for them He is prepared to lay down His life – “Greater love than this no man hath than a man lay down his life for his friends.” But on the other He has this tremendous painful and frightful feeling that He is on the verge of betrayal by one of the very ones whom He loves so much while others would leave Him alone and flee – much worse deny Him. He knew this very well for He said – “Amen, I say to you one of you will betray me.” (Mt 26:21). And when the deeply distressed disciples who were seated with Him at table asked one by one – “Surely it is not I, Lord?” Jesus answered “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one to betray me.” And so it happened.

My dear friends, this brings us to the crux of Christ’s teaching – His command of love. “By this shall men know that you are my disciples – if you have love one for another.” And He goes further – “Love your enemies.” (Lk 6:27) Then we have the incident where the Pharisees ask the Lord – “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to them – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt 22: 36-40)

All this in synthesis is - Jesus being the Son of God loved us and became man to offer His life as a ransom for many – for all of us. And this He did while we were still His enemies by the fact of our sin. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans in Chapter 5 Verse 7 onwards writes – “Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also boast of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” All the events that preceded show us that Christ through all this worked out a reconciliation between God and ungrateful, sinful mankind.

My dear friends, the key sentiment in Christianity is reconciliation. Christ has told this in word. He has shown this by the example of His own life. And this is the demand He made of his disciples –forgive your enemies and be reconciled. And that is true Love. Quite often we observe the first part of the commandment of Christ where we love God or at least qualm our consciences by pretending to do so, when we come to church regularly, attend devotions like what we partook of today. But whether we observe the second part which the Lord says is equally important for He emphasizes “the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” This is quite another question. And often this is the scandal of Christianity or rather of Christians. They go to church, but do not live Christianity.

We celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi at a time when our country is at a crossroad. Today, there are people who claim that we have achieved victory in battle. And this is true. While we could be happy that we have fought and subdued terror, we must remember that it is only victory in battle and not victory in war. Victory in war is still to be achieved because war is much in the hearts  of people and not only in weapons. And this victory in war will come only when the wrath, anger, hatred and ill-feeling that lingers in the hearts of men and women are finally driven away and these hearts are reconciled in love. And reconciliation is possible only if we take on the armour of Christ and that is loving forgiveness.

We can proudly say that it is only Christianity that teaches the doctrine of forgiveness that paves the way for reconciliation. We do not have the burden of our sins lingering on from life to life with us, if we are able to be truly repentant and beg God’s pardon. And God will pardon us only if we pardon others who have sinned against us. This is what we say daily in prayer as the Lord taught us – “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

So, my dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we proclaim that we are Christians – followers of Jesus Christ. And that is what we are. But who can claim to be a sincere follower if he or she does not do what the master tells him? He then, as St. John tells us is a liar. And no liar reaches the gates of Paradise.

The message of the Lord to all of us living in this decisive and critical moment of our country’s history is that we be reconciled and work for the reconciliation of our people. There have been mistakes, injustices, criminality in the past. But if we are going to live forever with the festering wounds of the past, their bitter odour will never cease. Jesus with His new teaching ended the era of the Old Testament where it said – “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” He rather taught us the healing power of love.

We are fortunate that we as Christians – our Christian family comprise all the contending groups in the country. This is a unique privilege that no other religious denomination could equally claim. Therefore, let us live accepting the challenge that the Lord is presenting to us in this crucial moment of our country’s history as he says – But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you….. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them (Lk 6:27-32). Surely, brothers and sisters we are Christians and not sinners.

Let us therefore firmly resolve that we, each one of us, whatever our racial or political affiliation would become agents of reconciliation who will carry the message of Christ in its fullness to the four ends of our country and make this country one family living in brotherhood and peace based on equality, liberty and fraternity.