Corpus Christi A

[cappie]

On Holy Thursday the priest adds extra words to Eucharistic Prayer 1– “on the same night that he was betrayed, that is this night” – and on this feast of Corpus Christi the beauty, joy, and wonder surrounding that night of remembrance is at the heart of our celebration.

“I remember when…”

 I wonder what the disciples recalled as they looked back on that particular night with Jesus.  Ultimately, that meal was not their last with Jesus – but a first and the start of something new, for they too would eat with him after his Resurrection.  Nevertheless,  it has forever been charged with powerful memory.

Each year at the end of Lent, we move so swiftly from this supper scene to the solemnity of Good Friday that we barely have time to think about that miracle  “Take eat, this is my body; do this in remembrance of me.” And so, since 1264, the Church has celebrated this feast of Corpus Christi to reflect more deeply on, and give thanks for, the mystery of the Eucharist.

From the earliest of days, so many theologians have honored this mystery.

For  Thomas Aquinas: “It was to impress the vastness of his love more firmly on the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the last supper.”

700 years later, Henri Nouwen, described the Eucharist as ‘A transcendent physical presence.’  He says,

“This transcendent physical presence is what characterizes the Eucharist.  God in Christ is really here, and yet his physical presence is not characterized by the same limitations of space and time that we know.”

We may all have glimpsed this transcendent physical presence, perhaps at a first mass, a requiem,  in an incense-filled Solemn Mass, or a simple daily Mass, where Christ’s body and blood are medicine for the body and soul.

We approach this feast day with fresh eyes as we ponder what the Eucharist means to each one of us.   

Our primary task as Christians is to worship God and to offer ourselves to him in adoration and service.  And yet, experience shows us that in this kind of offering, we will also receive God’s immeasurable love whether kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament or welcoming the body of Christ as we make for him a throne as we offer up our hands to receive him.  In these intimate moments when we receive Jesus, we are reminded that they are not to remain simply personal or even parochial, for in them we are mysteriously united with the church which is his body here and with those who have gone before, and now enjoy the worship of heaven.

Saint Paul told the emerging Church that “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) Therefore, my story is lived out in communion with God and with others. It is not ‘my mass’ but a sign of the community of the Church one for whom we are inextricably linked.

Being a Eucharistic community is, therefore, not simply  an act of personal piety.  Neither is it a passive encounter, for partaking in the Mass requires active engagement because of the relationship that God has with his people. Thus, the Eucharist transcends language and brings people together as one just as it transcends time and space.   

Today, in our celebration and worship, as we are fed by Jesus in his sacrificial gift of his Body and Blood, we assert our hope in eternity and affirm our faith in Christ’s body, the Church.  We hear, see, and feel again through words and music, word and sacrament, our calling heavenward.  And, at the same time, God reaches out to us so that we can become the same living and loving Body of Christ in the world. What is given is to be taken, blessed, broken and shared.  

Once again, we enter a wonderful mystery of receiving Jesus and one not to be taken lightly but with reverence and preparation; we gather as the body of Christ and consecrate the bread to become the body of Christ, so that we can consume the Body of Christ and become truly the Body of Christ.  This cycle does not end in Church, for once blessed and united in him, we are then sent out to be the Body of Christ in the world.

Blessed, praised, and adored be 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.
Amen.