Corpus Christi

[cappie]

Today we celebrate “The Body and Blood of Christ”, or “Corpus Christi”. Holy Thursday, of course, celebrates the institution of the Eucharist, but there’s so much going in Holy Week that it was felt we needed another occasion to commemorate this event than is possible in the shadows of the Passion and death of Jesus. So a day  was added to the calendar in the 13th century as a way to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist outside Holy Week. We celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ in heaven, in the consecrated bread and wine and in human hearts this is one and the same.  

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus' miracles to appear in all four Gospels.  The passage is also connected to the institution of the Eucharist. As in the Last Supper accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and in Paul's account in Corinthians, Jesus takes bread, looks up to heaven, blesses the bread, breaks it, and then gives it to the disciples. In using this exact language, Luke is reminding his readers that in this miracle Jesus is doing more than feeding hungry people. The bread he gives is his body, which he will continue to give as often as the community breaks bread in remembrance of him in the Eucharist.

Here God feeds us with the bread and wine which are the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and doing so incorporates us into the Church, which is the Body of Christ. As part of the Body of Christ, we become part of the very life of God. This is a wonderful and sacred mystery and is at the heart of our life as Christians. In celebrating the Holy Eucharist, we are being obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ, who said the night before he died, as he took, blessed, broke and gave the bread and took, blessed and gave the cup of wine, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’

From the very beginning of the Church, the regular and frequent celebration of the Eucharist was central to the life of the Church. We see it in the Acts of the Apostles as one of the four marks of the Early Church. The group of followers of Jesus after they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.’ [Acts 2: 42]  
 So, even in times of persecution, Christians from all backgrounds, slaves and free, Jew and Greek, rich and poor, would assemble in the largest room in the house of one of the wealthier members of the community, Sunday by Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist together, the Church has known the centrality and importance of this act in which we participate today.  

 The Mass is an occasion in which the people of God take bread and wine in accordance with Christ’s command. We give thanks for all God’s many blessings, and repeat Christ’s own words over that bread and wine.  Those earthly gifts are transformed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, to become the Body and Blood of Christ. Christians receive that Body and Blood of Christ, so that the living Lord might dwell in them, and draw them ever closer into the mystery of his love.

In the Mass, we experience the presence of Christ himself. We are drawn into the saving power of the Cross and plead Christ’s sacrifice made to the Father for us. We make intercession for the living and the dead; and we receive a glimpse of the future glory that is to be ours in heaven.

The Eucharist is a family meal, in which the Christian family is fed. But the host is our Lord and the food is his life.  “Blessed, praised, and adored be our Lord Jesus Christ on his throne of glory in heaven, in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar, and in the hearts of all his faithful people.”