Sunday, June 2, 2024
This year marks the 760th celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for “Body of Christ”), also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In 1264, Pope Urban IV issued the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo, which declared the Feast of Corpus Christi for the entire Latin Church on the Thursday following the eight-day celebration of Pentecost, Octave of Pentecost. From the beginning, the Feast was celebrated on a Thursday, but starting in 1970, following Vatican II, among changes to the General Roman Calendar, the feasts of Epiphany, Ascension, and Corpus Christi were allowed to be transferred to a Sunday. Corpus Christi moved from Thursday to the Sunday after the feast of the Trinity. For older folks who remember celebrating Corpus Christi on a Sunday prior to 1970, it was because the United States had already been permitted to celebrate the feast on a Sunday almost a century earlier.
Of the seven sacraments celebrated by the Church, the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the greatest, for it is Jesus Himself. At the Last Supper, Jesus shared the bread and wine and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25). The Church has since followed Jesus’ command in sharing the consecrated bread and wine.
Food is more than nourishment and sustenance for the body. It can be transformative. Jesus gives Himself to us through bread and wine, which are commonplace everywhere. Bread and wine are referenced in the Bible from the early chapters of the Book of Genesis. These two elements help us remember God’s love and sacrifice for us and that He dwells in us. ”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6:56). Through the Eucharist, we relive the sacrifice of Jesus.
Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The bread and wine, representing the Body and Blood of Christ, are not merely symbolic. In the Eucharistic Prayer, through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit, the bread becomes the Body of Christ, and wine becomes the Blood of Christ, while their physical properties do not change. This is what the Church calls Transubstantiation. “It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.” (Catechism §1375)
Let us pray the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble himself like this and hide under the form of a little bread for our salvation.”
Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord.