Corpus Christi

   How sweet, O Lord, is Thy Spirit who, to show Thy sweetness to Thy sons send them from heaven a most sweet bread, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty. (Wisdom16:20-21; Luke 1:52)



   The feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) was last Thursday, June 7. The "External Solemnity" of the feast was celebrated on Sunday, June 10, in the United States. Pope Benedict XVI took the occasion to recommend Eucharistic Adoration, set aside, sadly, after Vatican II. He told us that to spend time praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle is necessary for our spiritual growth. I was reading today, what he said in 2011. "The Eucharist is like a beating heart giving life to the mystical Body of the Church, which is a social organization entirely founded on its spiritual yet tangible bond with Christ.  "Without the Eucharist the Church would simply cease to exist."  Why else would the enemies of the Church mock and try to diminish the meaning of the Eucharist, blaspheming and subjecting it to obscenities of the most dreadful kind.

   Christ redeemed us on the cross and instituted the Holy Eucharist on the night before His passion at the Last Supper. We keep His command to "do this in commemoration of Me" at each and every Mass. The altar has been said to be an extension of Calvary. The Mass "shows the death of the Lord" (St. Paul's Epistle 1 Cor. 9:23-29).

   Jesus is priest and victim. He offers the sacrifice and He is the sacrifice. At the consecration mere bread becomes the Body of Christ. Mere wine becomes His Precious Blood.  And yet, because Christ could die only once, and the Mass is a re-presentation, if you will, of His sacrifice, His blood is not separated from His body, as in actual death. So, when a Catholic receives either the host or the chalice, he/she receives Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, whole and entire. This is a mystery that confounds too many people. Christ instituted the Eucharist (thanksgiving) in the form of food so that we could be united with Him. The host becomes the "wheat" which feeds our souls. Christ said He would be with us until the end of the world. He gave us Himself, His gift to us, to sustain us spiritually until we are with Him forever in heaven.  Is Christ my personal Savior? It doesn't get more personal than this.

   Realizing that there are three divine persons in one God, it stands to reason that when we receive Christ into our souls we are indeed making our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost. The Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost dwell within our souls unless we sin and lose God's friendship.

   "This is a hard saying." When Christ told his followers that unless they would "eat my body and drink my blood," they would not have life in them, meaning eternal life, most of the people walked away. When Our Lord asked the remaining disciples if they, too, would go, Peter answered," Where should we go? You have the words of eternal life." Is it hard to believe that bread and wine, still under their earthly appearance, could possibly be the Body and Blood of Christ? Yes. It is a matter of Faith. Peter demonstrated that gift of Faith, as did the other apostles.

   In St. Paul's Epistle, mentioned above, Our Lord says, after He gave the bread and wine to the apostles: "For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord until He come. "  Paul makes it clear that the Eucharist is real. He says, "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and the Blood of the Lord.......For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord.

   Listen to St. Augustine. "Men aim, by means of food and drink, not to be hungry or thirsty any more, but they can only attain to truth through that unique food and drink which makes those who receive it steadfast and incorruptible.....(speaking of the Communion of Saints, the Mystical Body with Christ as its head) therefore our Lord in leaving us His Body and Blood, chose for this purpose substances, the unity of which, is composed of several parts, one single loaf made of many grains of wheat; one kind of wine formed from juice mixed with many grapes."

   Pope Benedict said the following in his Corpus Christi address: "The Letter to the Hebrews....speaks to us precisely of the novelty (newness) of the priesthood of Christ, 'high priest of the good things that have come '(Hebrews 9:11), but it does not say that the priesthood is finished. Christ 'is the mediator of a new covenant' (Hebrews 9:15), established in His blood, which purifies our 'conscience from dead works' (Hebrews 9:14). He did not abolish the sacred, but brought it to fulfillment, inaugurating a new worship, whih is, yes, fully spiritual but which however, so long as we are journeying in time, makes use again of signs and rites, of which there will be no need only at the end, in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will no longer be a temple (cf.Revelation 21:22). Thanks to Christ, the sacred is more true, more intense and, as happens with the Commandments, also more exacting!"

   The Pope speaks of "rites." He went on to say that Christ, when He instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, put himself in place of the ancient sacrifices, "but he did so  within a rite (the changing of bread and wine). He commanded the Apostles to perpetuate, as the supreme sign of the true sacred, which is Himself."

   Again, remembering how the Israelites revered the Ark of the Covenant, the Presence of God among them, as they carried it with them, and before them, borne by the Levites (priests), incensed and accompanied by music and songs, we have a procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi.  A consecrated Host, fittingly displayed in an ornate monstrance, is carried in procession after the Mass, with incense and hymns, such as Pange lingua - Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, Of His Flesh the mystery sing; Of His Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our immortal King.....

   Spending time in silence and contemplation, in front of the tabernacle in church, or attending a Holy Hour of Adoration, is a consoling and fulfilling way of keeping close to the Body and Blood of Christ, always with us, until we can receive Him again in Holy Communion.

               May the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul to life everlasting. Amen