CORPUS CHRISTI THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
BACKGROUND
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is also known as the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, which translates from Latin to “Body of Christ.” This feast originated in France in the mid-thirteenth century. and was extended to the whole Church by Pope Urban IV in 1264 as a universal feast of the Church, to be celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. Today in the United States the feast is celebrated on following Sunday.
The Eucharist is foretold in many ways in Scripture. In the Old Testament it is the chosen people fed in the desert with manna from heaven. “Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness, so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart…: He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD” Deuteronomy 8:2-3
In the New Testament we have two miracles of multiplication of loaves and fishes to physically feed the people and the announcement of Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well that He is the living water that gives life. In John’s Gospel, chapter 6, we have the Bread of Life discourse.
BREAD OF LIFE DISCOURSE
It was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…..
I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” JOHN 6:31-34, 48
The Eucharist is one of seven Sacraments. “The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.
At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again…to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection…a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, and a bond of charity.
COMMENTARY
A new Pew Research survey finds that most self-described Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist. In fact, seven-in-ten Catholics (70%) say they personally believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.” Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (30%) say they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” What a shame, so many missing Jesus’ own words. In Jesus we trust!
The Priest, acting in the Person of Christ, and speaking Christ’s words at the consecration, transmits Christ’s words to make His presence real in the Eucharist. We call this transubstantiation. Transubstantiation does no violence to the appearances of the bread and wine, but on the deepest level of their reality, they have been changed, becoming the Body and Blood of Christ.
The incarnate Logos (Word of God), Christ, is the fullest revelation of God that we can possess on earth. The Eucharist is the sacramental extension of the Incarnation. “Abide in me, and I in you” John 15:4. . . . I am the vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5 “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” John 6:54
Inasmuch as we participate in the Eucharist, we participate in Christ’s sacrifice. This communion with Christ in His sacrifice enables us to share communion with one another. This communion is the foundation and condition for the unity of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.
CONCLUSION
Just as we need to nourish our physical bodies in order to have strength to work and to live well, so too we need to nourish our souls to have spiritual strength, the ability to learn and understand the ways of the Lord, and work for the building up of the Kingdom, to live well spiritually now and for eternity. Nourished by this heavenly food we carry on the work of Christ and His Church.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. John 6:56 Jesus gave himself for you on Calvary and gives himself for you again in Holy Communion. It is the one sacrifice on Calvary extended through time to us at Mass. Some misunderstand and think Catholics say Jesus is sacrificed again during every Mass. No, it is the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary which is extended through time to us in every Mass
Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:26-28
JESUS INSTITUTES THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST AT THE LAST SUPPER
When we receive the Eucharist in Holy Communion, the Priest says, “the Body of Christ” and we say “Amen.”
Our “Amen” means we recognize and acknowledge the real presence, body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, and by mystery we are part of that Mystical Body of Christ.
When we consume the Eucharist it is not us changing Jesus but Jesus changing us by sharing His divinity with us!
Though ascending into heaven after His resurrection, Jesus wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us “to the end,” even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease!
THIS IS THE BREAD COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN
TAKE AND RECEIVE, THIS IS MY BODY
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus,
I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there
and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.