The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Readings)

Reading 1Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16aMoses said to the people:"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,has directed all your journeying in the desert,so as to test you by afflictionand find out whether or not it was your intentionto keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,and then fed you with manna,a food unknown to you and your fathers,in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD."Do not forget the LORD, your God,who brought you out of the land of Egypt,that place of slavery;who guided you through the vast and terrible desertwith its saraph serpents and scorpions,its parched and waterless ground;who brought forth water for you from the flinty rockand fed you in the desert with manna,a food unknown to your fathers."Reading 21 Corinthians 10:16-17Brothers and sisters:The cup of blessing that we bless,is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?The bread that we break,is it not a participation in the body of Christ?Because the loaf of bread is one,we, though many, are one body,for we all partake of the one loaf.GospelJohn 6:51-58Jesus 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 giveis 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 bloodhas 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 bloodremains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent meand I have life because of the Father,so also the one who feeds on mewill 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."