Corpus Christi — Year B (2003)

Fr. Timothy Castor

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord — or as it was traditionally called. Corpus Christi — was originally celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. Thursday was chosen because of its connection with Holy Thursday, when our Blessed Lord instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. But it was decided to choose a Thursday after the seasons of Lent and Easter so that this great mystery of our faith could be suitably celebrated with all the solemnity and joy the people of God could muster.

Some time after this Feast was established in the Church (in the Thirteenth Century), the Christian people developed customs by which they could show honor to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament and give thanks and praise for this great gift. This is when the custom of Corpus Christi processions began. In addition to the main altar in the church, three altars would be set up outside, so that there would be one at each point of the compass. The people, to show their love for Jesus, would lavishly decorate these altars. And, after Mass, singing hymns of praise, carrying torches and incense and bells, the clergy and the people would process with the monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament from the church to each of the altars where a passage from the Gospels would be read and Benediction would be given as they knelt on the ground in humble adoration.

Some of you might remember this custom from years ago. Sadly, it has vanished from many places around the world. In my opinion this is a great loss because it robs the Catholic faithful of a great source of joy and encouragement in their faith. In recent years, however, here at the Cathedral, we’ve restored the custom of the Corpus Christi procession in a simplified form, which we will observe following the 10:30 Mass on Sunday. We don’t have the outdoor altars, but we will have a beautiful procession around the Church, with candles and incense and song. And then, in Our Lady’s Chapel, we will have adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar all afternoon, with Benediction at 4:00 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity to show your love for Jesus present in the Most Holy Eucharist, and I hope you will all make an effort to take part in the celebration — if you can’t make it to the procession, at least stop in at some point during the day to worship our Eucharistic Lord and tell him how much you love him.

In the first reading today, Moses reminds the Hebrew people of the covenant the Lord made with them through the blood of sacrificial animals, and the people respond by pledging their obedience to God’s Law. The New Testament book of Hebrews (from which we heard in today’s second reading), we are told that God has made an infinitely greater covenant with us through the Blood of his only Son. In today’s Gospel, as Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist, he says, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many." Every time we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, this is the Precious Blood which is poured out for us — the same Blood which was shed on Calvary’s Cross, because it is the same sacrifice as that of Calvary. It is the Blood of our crucified, risen and living Lord Jesus Christ.

While every Mass is a renewal of that New Covenant, the celebration of Corpus Christi is a special reminder of that Covenant, and a special opportunity for us to renew our faith in this tremendous gift from God: the gift of the true Body and Blood of his only Son to be our food and drink, nourishing our souls and bodies as we await our promised land, eternal happiness in heaven. That is why we gather today to sing praise, to rejoice and to give thanks — the word Eucharist literally means thanksgiving.  

And what are we giving thanks for? We are thanking God for what is arguably the greatest mystery of our Faith — a mystery which theologians have given the name transubstantiation: that in the Eucharist, ordinary bread and wine are miraculously transformed in their very substance — their very essence — into the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The reality of bread and wine ceases to be, while the accidents (all the nonessential qualities — the outward appearances) remain. When you and I receive Holy Communion, we eat and drink what appear to be a little wafer of bread and a sip of wine. In reality, we are receiving the living God, Jesus Christ our Lord — his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, whole and entire. What a tremendous gift! And what a awesome mystery.

All this seems to defy reason. It certainly goes against what our senses perceive, and it has been the cause of terrible divisions among the Christian people. So why do we Catholics persist in clinging to this troublesome and seemingly outdated doctrine? We do so for a very simple reason: We have decided to take Jesus at his word; to believe that what he says is simply and literally true. And we hear his word at every Mass when the priest repeats what Jesus said at the Last Supper — words taken from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

But this is not all that Jesus has said concerning the Eucharist. The sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel is known as the "Bread of Life Discourse". It is a sublimely beautiful exposition of Our Blessed Lord’s teaching on the Holy Eucharist. I’d invite you to read all 71 verses when you have the time, and to meditate upon them (perhaps when you come for adoration today!). But listen now to just a few words from this chapter. Jesus is teaching the people who have gathered in the synagogue at Capernaum:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is 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 blood has 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 blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will 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." 

How could our Blessed Lord be more clear or more precise? But, sadly, the account goes on: "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"’ and "After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him." It’s interesting that our Lord doesn’t try to stop them; he doesn’t say. Wait! Come back! You misunderstood me! On the contrary, he turns to the twelve and asks if they will leave him too. Those disciples who turned away understood all too well the meaning of Jesus’ words, and they simply couldn’t accept it. Let it never be said of any of us that we turned our backs on Jesus because his teaching was too hard to accept.

And let it never be said of us that we were too busy to give thanks to God for his greatest gift to us. Later today we will have a special opportunity to do just that. I hope many of you will come to the procession and to exposition — not out of a sense of obligation, but to show your love for Jesus, and to offer him your thanks, your praise, your adoration. This is what we hope to be doing for all eternity in the supreme happiness of heaven, so why not start now, in this valley of tears?

© 2003, Rev. Timothy W. Castor