The Feast of Corpus Christi – June 22, 2014

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ!  The Eucharist!  The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian Life.  The Church has always been very clear in its teaching that the Eucharist, while looking like bread and wine, are in reality the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ..  Most other faith communities, while they celebrate what they refer to as the Lord’s Supper, differ from our Faith in that they merely believe that the communion is symbolic, that the bread and wine, or indeed the crackers and grape juice represent the body and blood of Jesus, but remain at all times just crackers and juice.

If we look closely at the readings for today, we will gain an insight into the Eucharist.

In the first reading, taken from the book of Deuteronomy in the Torah, we see the Hebrews, who have been brought out of Egypt by Moses, wandering through the desert.  As usual, they have hardened their hearts, and are complaining to Moses, and through Moses to God that they are starving, that they have been abandoned by God, and ultimately, that it would have been better to remain slaves in Egypt with food to eat, than to wander freely, feeling the pangs of hunger.  The Lord wanted to test the Hebrews, to make them totally dependent on Him, to humble them.  He fed them, just when they thought that they could go no further. He sent Manna from Heaven, and only allowed them to gather enough for one day’s meal, even though they wanted to gather more, to keep some in reserve. God wanted to feed the Hebrews miraculously, so they would realize that everything they needed came directly from God, right down to bread and water.

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

Our second reading, taken from the First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the people of Corinth, seeks to remove all doubt from their minds as to the true nature of the Eucharistic feast.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

This letter makes it very clear that Paul believed that the bread and wine, originally taken from the Pesach meal, has been transformed into the very Body and Blood of Jesus.

Finally, we hear from the Apostle who Jesus loved, John the Evangelist.  Jesus, has just finished teaching the crowds that he is the living bread.

“ I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life f the world is my flesh.”

“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; ⁵⁴ he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”

The Jews, back in the desert in the time of Moses, were given very specific dietary commands, which had to be kept in order for them to remain ritually pure.  These dietary laws were of vital importance.  Now, hearing Jesus tell them they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to gain eternal life that as many as half of Jesus’ disciples got up and left him, rather than trying to wrap their mind around this talk of eating and drinking human flesh and blood.

Now seriously…, Jesus used metaphors, he taught using parables. If he was speaking symbolically, if he wasn’t being literal, wouldn’t this have been the perfect place for Jesus to tell the disciples who were walking away, “Whoa, I wasn’t being literal here!  I wouldn’t expect you to really eat and drink my flesh and blood.  I was just trying to make a point here…”  But instead, this is what Jesus says:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; ⁵⁴ he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”

So this is vital.  Jesus is talking about eternal life, an eternal life of supreme happiness and joy with Jesus, in heaven, and conversely, by contrast, of an eternal life of supreme misery, without him.

Just like the Jews in the Torah, just like all of us now, we are always looking for proof, something we can take to the bank, so to speak. To the contrary, Jesus is looking for us to believe him, without the miracles, taking him at his word. 

Now there are many instances of Eucharistic miracles that have been well documented and attested to though out the history of the Church.  One of most recent Eucharistic miracles occurred in Fatima, Portugal in 1916.  As the Angel of Peace was preparing the three children for the visitation of our Lady, he showed them a consecrated Host which dripped the Precious Blood of our Lord into a Chalice that he held beneath.

In Siena, Italy, on August 17^th, 1730 a consecrated host which had been profanely discarded, thrown away, was placed into water, in order to let it dissolve, and so be disposed of in a proper and respectful way, did not dissolve. In fact, not only did it not dissolve, it bled.  Not only did it bleed, it was kept and examined by a scientist in the 20^th Century, and the scientist, not knowing what he was examining, declared that what he was given was human flesh, flesh from the heart, flesh from the heart of a person who had been horribly beaten and tortured.

In Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy in 1263, a German priest named Peter, on a pilgrimage to Rome, stopped in Bolsena.  He was a pious priest, but he was having a difficult time believing that Jesus Christ was actually present in the Consecrated Host.  While he was celebrating the Holy Mass in a Church above the tomb of Saint Christina, the host started to bleed, the blood running down his hands and onto the Corporal and Altar.  The priest was so frightened that he asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was residing.  Pope Urban, after examining the priest, and the bleeding Consecrated Host and the blood on the Corporal, issued a Papal Bull, which instituted the very Solemnity that we are celebrating here today.

Do we believe?  Hopefully, most of us would say yes.  Do we declare our belief with our actions?  Do we declare our belief in the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ with our awe and respect?  Upon entering this Church, do we respectfully fall to our knees in prayer, or do we stop to make small talk to our neighbor?  After Mass, do we kneel and offer prayers of Thanksgiving, or do we run to our cars to hurry home for the rest of a game on TV?  If we are being honest, our Church is experiencing a crisis of faith, or rather, a crisis of lack of faith, in the Real Presence.

The gift of belief, the gift of Faith is a grace that we have not earned, a grace that we have been freely given.  What we do with that faith will in some measure manifest our true beliefs.  Will we let our faith in the Real Presence wither and die, or will we, inflamed with a passionate love for our Lord in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, evidence our faith by our actions?