INTRODUCTION
The solemnity of the Corpus Christi or Corpus Domini as the case may be is one of the principal movable feasts in the Church’s liturgical calendar. It could either be celebrated on the thurday or sunday following the sunday of solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity base on the pastoral directives of local churches.
The question we should ask today is: what is the need for this celebration if the Eucharist is celebrated everyday? We can only understand the specificity of the solemnity by making reference to some important historical moments.
1. Historically, the celebration of the Corpus Christi originated in the Diocese of Liege in 1246 in a time and tide in which the Church tried to defend the integrity of the Eucharist against certain heretical teachings.
It was about the errors of Berengar of Tours (French philosopher and archdeacon of the Angers church of western France).
regarding the teaching of the Church on transubstantiation (on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The substances of the bread and wine are transformed to that of the body and blood of Christ by the words of consecration). Berengar taught that no transformation really takes place, but the bread and wine are only symbols of the body and blood of Christ. He was condemned for this in several councils at the end he retracted his theses on the occasion of the Council of Tours of 1055 where he made a profession of faith.
2. Another important moment that will see to the affirmation or the dogmatic definition of the Eucharist was during the Council of Trent. We recall that the doctrine of transubstantiation was rejected by Martin Luther during the protestant reform. Luther rather subscribe to the doctrine of consubstantiation(though existed already before Luther in the Lollardism from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century) which affirmsthat Christ’s body and blood substantially coexist with the consecrated bread and wine. Hence Luther rejected the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The Council of Trent (1545 to 1563) reaffirmed the teaching on the Eucharist and declared that we must honor Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist publicly so that those who observed the Faith of Catholics in the Most Holy Eucharist might be attracted to the Eucharistic Lord and believe in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in this great Sacrament. “The Catholic Church teaches that in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the God-man are really, truly, substantially, and abidingly present together with his soul and divinity by reason of the Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This takes place in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass” (Council of Trent, 1551; CCC # 1374).
The Church has maintained the teaching of the Council of Trent till date. And to exalt and celebrate the centrality of the Eucharist, this day has remained remarkable as the church all over the world is meant to bring the Eucharist Jesus to every street, not as a show but to reaffirm that the Eucharist is at the heart of her cult.
FIRST READING: Exodus 24:3-8
The reading describes how the ancient Israelites were established as God’s special people through a Covenant commitment. The text recounts the solemn enactment of this Covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai. This Covenant (agreement) was decidedly one-sided: God promised to give everything; Israel had only to accept. When Moses recited “all the words (the Ten Commandments) and ordinances of the Lord,” he was declaring the Covenant that God wanted to make with Israel. It came down to this: “I will be your God, you will be My people, and this is how you’ll behave as you live out this Covenant.” Moses commanded that the animal blood (representing the blood of the people doing the offering) shed during the Sinai covenant be divided into two parts: half splashed on the altar, half splashed on the people. Since the altar symbolizes Yahweh’s presence, all the Covenant-makers now have blood splattered on them. It’s both an outward sign that they have made the Covenant and a sign that they will benefit from the life the Covenant offers.
SECOND READING: Hebrews 9:11-15
Among the earliest Christians were some former Jews who had been kicked out of the synagogue rather promptly after they had accepted Jesus. The Letter to the Hebrews was written for their benefit, to help them cope with the loss of things Jewish, like priesthood, Temple, sanctuary and ritual sacrifices. The letter’s strategy is to convince the reader that Jesus and our relationship with him take the place of, and are superior to, the older Jewish institutions. Today’s lesson from this Epistle compares the sacrifice offered by the High Priest in the Temple on the very solemn Day of Atonement, with the sacrifice of true and infinite atonement offered by Christ for us. Paul reminds the Hebrews that this was a new Covenant, one which Jesus entered into with God and us, not with the “the blood of goats and calves but with his own Blood.”
GOSPEL: Mark 14: 12-16.22-26
The Gospel scene is Mark’s account of the last supper and institution of the Eucharist. The evangelist began by making reference to historical and religious context in which the last supper was situated. The markan intention is to configure the last supper within the jewish sacred commemoration of the passover feast for two possible intentions:
1. To ascertain that the Eucharist is a sacred meal for the children of the New Covenant which depicts but perfects the passover meal that accompanied the redemption of the people of the Old Covenant.
2. The Eucharist as a sacrifice of Christ and a perfection of the old order. This is very clear in the words of the blessing of the species. Unlike the jewish rite of blessing of the bread and the cups of wine, Jesus refers them as his own body and blood thus giving a different meaning to the Eucharist. The Eucharist thus assumes a salvific power of the hic et nunc rather than just a commemoration of a historical event.
In summary, the Eucharist can be explained in the certain terminologies such as: Covenant, passover and sacrifice. They are all interwoven:
1. From the Old Covenant the the New Covenant
Jesus instituted the Eucharist in deliberate allusion to, and fulfillment of, what happened on Mount Sinai. He replaced Moses as the God-chosen mediator, establishing the New Covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), by using his own Blood rather than that of sacrificial animals. By sacramentally consuming the Body and Blood of the God-Man, we, the final-age people of God, are interiorly transformed through the most perfect possible union with God. Jesus creates a faithful people intimately united with God by means of his sacramental Blood.
2. Jewish Passover transformed into the Eucharistic celebration:
Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist while eating the Passover meal, the feast on which the Jews gathered annually to commemorate their ancestors’ deliverance from Egyptian slavery. This foundational event began the night God “passed over” the Israelites to punish their oppressors who resisted His will. Israel was “saved through blood” of sacrificial lambs sprinkled on doorways. (There are some modern Bible scholars who doubt whether Jesus’ Last Supper was strictly a Passover meal because many items of the Passover meal are not mentioned). In the second half of today’s Gospel, Jesus’ words and gestures are understood as mediating the fullness of salvation through Blood that would be his own. That night he offered “the Blood of the (New) Covenant,” as Blood to be drunk rather than sprinkled. Moreover, since it was his own, this Blood needed no further identification with God by splashing against an altar. Finally, the Blood was “to be poured out for you and for many (a Semitism for ‘all’).” Thus, the new and perfect Paschal Lamb accomplished for people of every nation what Mosaic sacrifices only imperfectly achieved for the Jews. Giving of both “Body” and “Blood” establishes the context of Jesus’ sacrificial death, a New Covenant sealed with his Blood.
The sacrament of the sacrifice of Christ:
Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist during the Last Supper as a Sacramental banquet and a sacrificial offering. As a Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist is an outward sign in and through which we meet Jesus who shares his life of grace with us. “In the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist the Body and Blood, together with the soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC#1374). In this Sacrament of the Eucharist, we do meet Jesus, the Risen Lord who comes to us under signs of Bread and Wine to nourish and strengthen us for our journey through life. The Eucharistic Meal is a great mystery because during the Eucharistic celebration the substance of bread and wine are converted into the substance of the risen Jesus’ Body and Blood, while their appearances (or “accidents”) remain. We believe in this transformation of bread and wine (called Transubstantiation), because Jesus unequivocally taught it and authorized his apostles to repeat it. As a Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist imparts to us Jesus’ abiding presence in our souls. In addition, we share in his Divine life, which is an assurance of eternal life and the basis for the conviction that we are children of God the Father. God shares His life with Jesus and with all other people. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of our union with Jesus. In this Sacrament, Jesus gives us his own Body, broken for us on the cross and his precious Blood poured out for us, in order that our sins may be forgiven. The Eucharistic celebration is also a sacrifice because it is the re-presentation or re-living in an unbloody manner of Christ’s Death on Good Friday and of his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. By means of signs, symbols and prayers, we share in Christ’s passion, death and Resurrection made really present for us in an unbloody manner. This re-presenting, this re-living of the One Sacrifice of Christ, which is the heart and point of every Mass, assures us of Jesus’ love for us and of his forgiveness of our sins. Through this sacrifice, the risen Jesus becomes present on the altar, offering himself to the Father through the ministry of the priest.
Life Messages:
1) We need to prepare properly to receive Holy Communion:
We have tarnished God’s image within us through acts of impurity, injustice, disobedience and the like. Hence, there is always need for repentance, and a need for the Sacramental confession of grave sins, before we receive Holy Communion. We should remember the warning given by St. Paul: “Whoever, therefore, eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the Body and Blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the Body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (1 Cor. 11:27-9). Hence, let us receive Holy Communion with fervent love and respect — not merely as a matter of routine. St. Paul is speaking also of the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e., the people of God gathered at the altar. Such a union, plainly, means that our outward piety towards the consecrated Bread and Wine cannot coexist with rudeness, unkindness, slander, cruelty, gossiping or any other breach of charity toward our brothers and sisters.
2) We need to become Christ-bearers and -conveyers:
By receiving Holy Communion we become Christ-bearers as Mary was, with the duty of conveying Christ to others at home and in the workplace, as love, mercy, forgiveness and humble and sacrificial service.
As we celebrate this great feast of Faith, let us worship what St. Thomas Aquinas did not hesitate to call, “the greatest miracle that Christ ever worked on earth .”….. My Body …….. My Blood“. Before the greatness of this mystery, let us exclaim with St. Augustine, “O Sacrament of devotion! O Sign of unity! O Bond of charity!” Let us also repeat St. Thomas Aquinas’ prayer of devotion in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament: “O Sacrament most holy! O Sacrament Divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!” (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
3. What does this solemnity mean for us hic et nunc, here and now?:
The Church wants to reaffirm and insist on the centrality and indispensability of the Eucharist in her life and in the life of each of us. The Eucharist is the culmination of all the liturgical celebrations of the Church. The Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist, it follows that the connection between one and the other is very close. In other words, the Church cannot exist or survive without the Eucharist and there is no Eucharist without the Church. Consequently, conceiving the Eucharist means at the same time conceiving the Church. This was the teaching of Vatican Council II on the sacred liturgy … sacrosantum concilium. And we will also find some in the encyclical letter “ecclesia de Eucharistia” of Pope Saint John Paul II. Today let us contemplate this total and precious gift of Jesus to us, and pray that we too may become the Eucharist that nourishes the life of others especially the poor.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist
as the memorial of your suffering and death.
May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood help us to experience the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
