The Solemnity we celebrate today, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, has a rich historical context. As the narrative goes, the origin of this feast traces back to a priest's struggle with his belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. His faith was waning, but one day, as he consecrated the host, it began to bleed during Mass. This miraculous event rekindled his faith and that of his congregation. In honor of this event, that community started celebrating...
The Solemnity we celebrate today, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, has a rich historical context. As the narrative goes, the origin of this feast traces back to a priest's struggle with his belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. His faith was waning, but one day, as he consecrated the host, it began to bleed during Mass. This miraculous event rekindled his faith and that of his congregation. In honor of this event, that community started celebrating Corpus Christi, a tradition that has now spread throughout the Church.
At first, the focus of the celebration was on the miracle that happened to the host. As time passed, however, and especially since the Second Vatican Council, our celebration has focused on the spiritual nourishment we receive in communion with the whole Church when we eat the Body of Christ and drink His Blood.
God has joined us together, all of us, in a relationship that goes far beyond anything of our own creation. This relationship is marked by something more than human. It means that we now encounter God by turning our attention deep into the center of our own lives and those around us, especially in our worship together, because, as St. Augustine points out, that is where God has chosen to be with us. It means that the way we treat one another is the way we treat Christ. Jesus said that whatever we do for one another, we do for Him.
At the heart of our faith in Christ is our commitment to morality, an ethic of love for one another. And it is to a very particular understanding and practice of love that we are called as Christians. Jesus set the standard simply enough: we are to love one another as God has loved us. While we may call others to task for their actions, our attitude toward others can never be what we might think the other deserves or what feels right to us at the moment. Instead, our attitude must mirror God's own attitude.
Again, in Christ's words, we must love our enemies if we are to be His people, His Body. A radical calling? Yes, but one which Jesus carried out in His own life.
Every week, every day, the Church commemorates the mystery of our profound connection with God. We do not just acknowledge and respect this mystery, but we actively participate in it and bring it to life. Our worship, partaking in the Eucharist, is the conduit through which God has chosen to unite with us. God could have chosen numerous ways to establish this intimacy with His people, but He chose this food, this drink. God selected the very human act of eating as how He would elevate us beyond our humanity. This level of intimacy is beyond comprehension, beyond imagination; it necessitates faith.
And so, the Eucharist is integral to what it means to be the community of the Church. We not only partake in the Body and Blood of Christ, but every time we gather together in God's name and work to bring about the justice of which the Gospel speaks, we are the Body of Christ on earth.
St. Paul tells the Corinthians: "Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it." In her prayer, St. Theresa tells us, "Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet but yours."
As we celebrate the Eucharist today and every day, as we partake together in the One Bread and the One Cup, as we eat the real Body of our God and Savior, let us be mindful that we, the Church, are the Body of Christ on earth and that, as such, we are called to be the hands and feet, the instruments of God's love to all people, so that, through our actions of love, care, and concern, all people may witness the love and care and concern of God who acts in and through each one of us.
