The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
/Sollemnitas Corpus Christi
Dt. 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; Jn. 6:51-58
14 June 2020
Today is our annual observance of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, also called by the Latin name “Corpus Christi.” Our faith in the Holy Eucharist is one of the most essential and defining doctrines we hold as Catholics. And so, I want to take a moment to clearly speak what we believe as Catholics about the Holy Eucharist.
First, take note of the words you hear in the long prayer at the altar, commonly called the Eucharistic Prayer, which is rich, over and over again, in sacrificial language. This should make you consider and realize that what happens at the Holy Mass is a sacrifice. It is the making present again, here in our midst, of the one saving sacrifice of Jesus’ very offering of self on the Cross. In the Roman Canon, the first Eucharistic Prayer, which your priests here tend to use most often, take note of a summary of some key Old Testament sacrifices that foreshadow what Jesus would do and command of his Church. Coming soon after the consecration, these are the words you hear so often: “Be pleased to look upon these offerings… and to accept them, as once you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek.” All three of these named figures are recounted in the Book of Genesis, after Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden. They show us that sacrifice is needed if man’s expulsion from God’s presence is to be healed and if man is to be in right relationship with God. For the sake of quick review, Abel offered a lamb. Abraham was willing to obey the request to offer his own son. Melchizedek offered bread and wine. Maybe the idiomatic light bulb is already going off for you, meaning you better understand what this prayer of the Church places before us as a foreshadowing of God’s fulfillment in Christ: The foreshadowings of a lamb, a son, and bread and wine come together as one and meet their fulfillment in Christ and his New Covenant sacrifice on the Cross. And, very important, given the memorial Jesus established at the Last Supper and commanded to be continued, the Lord has provided the means for that same sacrifice to be sacramentally present in every age and location of his one Church.
And so, for clarity, Catholics believe that, while the appearance does not change, in fact the bread and wine offered at Holy Mass cease to be the substance of bread and wine and become the true and real living and resurrected Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. This happens by God’s power in both the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Jesus, the Son of God, who acts through a validly ordained Catholic priest such that wherever a Catholic priest follows the Church’s authentic prayer and intends to consecrate bread and wine they become the Body and Blood of the Lord. We call this gift of the Lord’s Real Presence the Holy Eucharist. When received by us we call it Holy Communion. This is what every Catholic must hold and reverence. This is the aspect of our faith placed in focus on Corpus Christi. Because of what we believe about the Holy Eucharist, that it is really Jesus’ presence, then it deserves the utmost reverence and care. No reverence can really be too much. If all we have up here is, and remains, only bread and wine, only a symbol of Jesus, or only a reminder of his sacrifice… then frankly it’s just time to go home.
With all this in mind, I want to teach you today to be judgmental. I know that being judgmental is just about the only capital sin that remains in the minds of most modern men. You can sort of imagine the devil capitalizing on this: “I mean, I’m Satan, but I’m not judgmental. The Big Guy takes care of that.” What I want to teach you today is to be judgmental toward yourself. Not toward anyone else. In a move decades ago when the current Mass texts were being decided by the powers that were, at a time when a wider selection of Scripture was being promoted, our sacred liturgy was curiously stripped of any reading of a very relevant Scripture text for today’s solemnity. It is St. Paul’s witness about the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the implications of that faith, what follows from that Catholic faith. And you find this text that we no longer hear at Mass anymore for some reason in First Corinthians chapter 11, the chapter after the second reading today (cf. 1 Cor. 11:27-31). St. Paul writes to the Church in Corinth, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord…. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” St. Paul says therefore that we should examine ourselves before Holy Communion. Be judgmental! Toward yourself, that is. If all we have here is bread and wine it would be a rather strange thing for St. Paul to say it could be received unworthily in a way that brings guilt on one for profaning, not bread and wine, but the body and blood of the Lord. If all we have here is bread and wine it would be a strange thing to say that receiving it unworthily is to eat and drink judgment on yourself, and is the reason that some have even died. Yet, that is the faith of the Church… because it has always been the faith of the Catholic Church, received directly from the Lord. We heard that very faith proclaimed by Jesus in the Gospel selection today.
The basic idea here is that because of what we believe about the Holy Eucharist there are things we do and things we don’t do toward It. We reverence It and worship It as God’s presence among us. We treat It in a way that clearly speaks that It is not ordinary bread or wine. We adore It in prayer when It is elevated at Holy Mass after the consecration and we adore It displayed in our adoration chapel. We do not omit a genuflection toward the tabernacle or kneeling at Mass, assuming health or knee problems don’t prevent us. We don’t receive It, treat It, or handle It casually. We realize we shouldn’t present ourselves to receive It if we are not Catholic. Even if we are Catholic by baptism, we realize we shouldn’t present ourselves to receive It if we have not been fully practicing the faith. Likewise, we realize we shouldn’t present ourselves to receive It if we are not following an important moral teaching. We examine and judge ourselves and so we go to confession regularly in order to be in a worthy state of grace for receiving Holy Communion. We take care to instruct our children and family and other guests here so they understand and follow proper etiquette and are not confused about reception of Holy Communion. And as we have learned recently, sometimes we simply observe a “spiritual communion” as a means to purify our vision and to build a greater longing for the Lord, just as we also observe a physical fast from food in preparation for Holy Communion. I have said before that some of the best examples and witnesses of Catholic faith in the Holy Eucharist are those who respectfully refrain from receiving Holy Communion when they know they shouldn’t receive It. When someone decides to refrain from Holy Communion we shouldn’t assume anything about that person other than they are a courageous soul, with a well-developed faith, and are showing reverence to the Lord’s Real Presence, just as the person does who worthily receives.
Sacrifice is needed if man’s expulsion from God’s presence is to be healed and if man is to be in right relationship with God. The lamb, the beloved son, and the bread and wine are here joined and fulfilled in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. On Corpus Christi we observe that the perfect sacrifice that pleases God has been offered by the Son on the Cross, and is made present here in the Holy Eucharist. And so, we examine ourselves in order to live in communion with the Lord whose Holy Communion we desire to receive.