Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Susan Gunn, MOGC Director, shares about her visit to the East Deanery AIDS Relief Program in Nairobi and how it illustrates that the Eucharist inspires solidarity with those on the margins.

When I traveled to Kenya recently, the Maryknoll missioners there made sure I visited families living on the margins of Nairobi, in arguably some of the most desperate slums in the world. Like other places of glaring human suffering, once you see it, you will never forget it.  

More densely populated than Manhattan, the working-class neighborhood of Tassia Estate contains a mix of concrete apartment buildings and tightly packed dwellings that accommodate a large population of low-wage workers and their families. The area struggles with poor drainage, flooding during heavy rains, and garbage collection issues. Because buildings are densely packed and roads are narrow, the area is occasionally prone to devastating fires that spread quickly. 

There I met Mwikali, a single mother of four children, two of them young adults living on their own and two teenagers still living with her in a one-room apartment that has no running water or private bath. Mwikali is HIV positive and has remained well enough to work and care for her children thanks to food and medication given to her by the Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Program, founded by Maryknoll and operated by the local archdiocese.  

In the dust and heat of the slum, the physical reality of hunger is never an abstraction. When I think about Mwikali, a mother who admitted to skipping meals so her children can eat, Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John take on a raw, urgent weight. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 

To a community intimately acquainted with scarcity, bread is not just a symbol; it is life itself. 

The vocation of Maryknoll missioners is to accompany those living on the margins of society, to be in solidarity with them, finding the face of Christ in those the world deems disposable. It is a reality that makes Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, resonate deeply throughout our church. When the Holy Father speaks about solidarity in paragraph 88, he says it is not a mere political strategy or a fleeting emotional response to poverty. Instead, it is a spiritual imperative that “finds its source in the mystery of Christ and is nourished by the Eucharist.” 

Every Sunday, our diverse, fractured, and beautiful global church gathers around wooden altars around the world. We bring our exhaustion, our grief, and our systemic struggles. When we share the bread, we are participating in what Pope Leo calls the “sacrament of unity.” In this holy meal, Christ the Living Bread does not offer an escape from our harsh earthly realities; rather, He enters directly into them. He breaks Himself so that we might be put back together as one body. 

In paragraph 88 of the encyclical, Pope Leo says beautifully that the Eucharist “teaches us how to share.” In a globalized world increasingly fragmented by technological divides and stark economic inequalities, this teaching is revolutionary.  

For our community, sharing the Eucharist is an act of defiance against the narrative of scarcity. It transforms us from isolated individuals fighting for survival into a collective “one heart and one soul.” If we are truly nourished by the same Bread of Life, then the hunger of my neighbor becomes my own hunger, and their liberation becomes my responsibility. 

Jesus promises that those who feed on Him will abide in Him, and He in them. This mutual abiding is the heartbeat of mission. It sends us out from the altar back into the margins, fortified to dismantle the structures that starve God’s children, both physically and spiritually.  

Pope Leo XIV challenges us to view unity not just as a comforting gift to receive, but as an important “responsibility to be fulfilled.” When we conclude the Mass and go back out into the world, we carry that responsibility in our bodies, striving to become the living bread of solidarity for a hungry world. 

Susan Gunn has served as the Director of Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns since 2018.

Photo: Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Program, courtesy of Marykoll Society.