Importance: 1) The Holy Eucharist as our spiritual food on Holy Thursday and Jesus’ mother Mary as our mother on Good Friday are the two last precious gifts given to us by Jesus. 2) Corpus Christi is the celebration of the abiding presence of a loving God as Emmanuel – God with us – in order to give collective thanks to our Lord living with us in the Eucharist. 3) The feast gives us an occasion to learn more about the importance and value of the “Real Presence” so that we may appreciate the Sacrament better and receive maximum benefit from It.
We believe in the “Real Presence” of Jesus
in the Holy Eucharist because 1) Jesus promised it after miraculously feeding
the 5000. 2) Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist during his Last Supper. 3)
Jesus commanded his disciples to repeat it. 4) “Nothing is impossible for God.”
We explain the real presence of Jesus in
the Holy Eucharist by: “transubstantiation” which means that the substance of
the consecrated bread and wine is changed to the risen Jesus’ glorified Body
and Blood by the action of the Holy Spirit, and its accidents (like color,
shape, taste etc.), remain the same.
Scripture lessons: This year's readings for
this feast emphasize the theme of the priesthood of Jesus. Today’s first
reading describes how the priest-king Melchizedek offered a
thanksgiving-sacrifice of bread and wine to God for the welfare of the
patriarch Abraham, and shows how the event prefigured the Eucharistic sacrifice
of the Priest-King Jesus. In the second reading, St. Paul gives the earliest
account of what Jesus said and did during the last meal he celebrated with his
followers, interpreting it as a sacrifice. Today’s gospel describes
Jesus’ miraculous feeding of five thousand people by multiplying five loaves of
bread and two fish. Theologically, this feeding is a prefiguring of Jesus’ gift
of the Eucharistic bread that would spiritually nourish those who believed in
him.
A sacrament and a sacrifice: Jesus
instituted the Holy Eucharist both as a sacramental banquet and a sacrificial
offering. As a sacrament a) the Eucharist is a visible sign that gives us God’s
grace and God’s life and b) as a meal it nourishes our souls. As a sacrifice a)
the Eucharistic celebration is a re-presentation or re-enactment of Jesus’
sacrifice on Calvary, completed in His Resurrection. b) We offer Jesus’
sacrifice to God the Father for the remission of our sins, using signs and
symbols.
Life messages: 1) Let us appreciate the “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Holy
Eucharist, by receiving him with true repentance for our sins, due preparation
and reverence. 2) Let us offer our lives on the altar along with Jesus’
sacrifice, asking pardon for our sins, expressing gratitude for the blessings
we have received and presenting our needs and petitions on the altar. 3) Let us
be 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, through love, mercy, forgiveness and humble and
sacrificial service.
THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
[C] (CORPUS CHRISTI) GEN 14:18-20; I COR 11: 23-26; LUKE 9: 11b-17
# 1: Communion on the moon: The Lord's
Supper ensures that we can remember Jesus from any place. Apollo 11 landed on
the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most remember astronaut Neil Armstrong's
first words as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step
for man, one giant leap for mankind." But few know about the first meal
eaten on the moon. Dennis Fisher reports that Buzz Aldrin, the NASA Astronaut
had taken aboard the spacecraft a tiny pyx provided by his Catholic pastor.
Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the
events of the day and give thanks. Then, blacking out the broadcast for
privacy, Aldrin read, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Then, silently, he gave thanks for
their successful journey to the moon and received Jesus in the Holy Eucharist
surrendering moon to Jesus. Next he descended on the moon and walked on it with
Neil Armstrong. (Dan Gulley: "Communion on the Moon": Our Daily
Bread: June/July/August, 2007). His actions remind us that in the Lord's
Supper, God's children can share the life of Jesus from any place on Earth —
and even from the moon. God is everywhere, and our worship should reflect this
reality. In Psalm 139 we are told that wherever we go, God is intimately
present with us. Buzz Aldrin celebrated that experience on the surface of the
moon. Thousands of miles from earth, he took time to commune with the One who
created, redeemed, and established fellowship with him. (Dennis Fisher)
(http://www.smithvillechurch.org/html/body_remembering_jesus_on_the_moon.html)
&(https://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2007/07/20/devotion.aspx)
(Email dated June 9, 2012) Dear Fr. Tony,
I read your anecdote 'Communion on the
Moon' with some amusement. Buzz Aldrin is Roman Catholic. He was an altar
server to an uncle of mine Fr. Dennis Barry in St. Martin's Church, La Mesa,
California. My uncle said Mass in his hotel room with Buzz as him as the altar
server the day before his trip to the Moon; and I have photographs of that Mass
with Buzz holding the wine and water at the Offertory. My uncle gave Buzz the
Body of Christ to take to the Moon with him and that was his first 'meal on the
moon'. I later met Buzz Aldrin at my uncle's funeral in La Mesa in 1986. So
Buzz was not an Episcopalian. Thank you for your splendid service and keep up
the good work. God Bless. Fr. Eddie Collins.)) Correction made in the anecdote.
Fr. Tony
# 2: The greatest work of art in St.
Peter’s Basilica: "One of the seminarians who gives tours of St. Peter’s
told me of an interesting incident. He was leading a group of Japanese tourists
who knew absolutely nothing of our faith. With particular care he explained the
great masterpieces of art, sculpture and architecture. He finally concluded at
the Blessed Sacrament Chapel trying his best to explain quickly what it was. As
the group dispersed, an elderly man, who had been particularly attentive stayed
behind, and said, 'Pardon me. Would you explain again this “Blessed
Sacrament?”' Our student did, after which the man exclaimed, 'Ah, if this is
so, what is in this chapel is a greater work of art than anything else in this basilica.'”
(Msgr. Timothy M Dolan in Priests of the Third Millennium, 2000 p. 226).
Today’s feast of Corpus Christi is intended to make us value and appreciate the
worth of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
Introduction: The feast and its objectives: Today, we celebrate the
solemn feast of Corpus Christi. It is a doctrinal feast established for
three purposes: 1) to give God collective thanks for Christ’s abiding
presence with us in the Eucharist and to honor him there; 2) to instruct the
people in the mystery, faith and devotion surrounding the Eucharist, and 3) to
teach us to appreciate and make use of the great gift of the Holy Eucharist,
both as a sacrament and as a sacrifice. In the three-year cycle of the Sunday
liturgy, there is a different theme each year for this Feast of the Body and
Blood of Christ. In Cycle A the theme is the Eucharist as our food and
drink; in Cycle B the emphasis is on the Eucharist as the sign of the covenant;
and in Cycle C the theme focuses on the priesthood of Jesus. Although we
celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the Church
wants to emphasize its importance by a special feast, formerly called “Corpus
Christi.” It was Pope Urban IV who extended the feast to the universal Church.
This is one of the few feasts left in which we observe a procession and a sung
“Sequence.”
The historical development: Today's
celebration of the Body and Blood of the Lord originated in the Diocese of
Liege in 1246 as the feast of Corpus Christi. In the reforms of Vatican
II, Corpus Christi was joined with the feast of the Precious Blood (July 1) to
become the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord. We celebrate today
Christ's gift of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our life together as
the Church. The Council of Trent (1545 to 1563), 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."
The Biblical foundation: Our belief in this
Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist derives from the literal interpretation
of the promise of Christ to give us his Body and Blood for our spiritual food
and drink, as found in St. John's Gospel, Chapter 6, and also in the four
independent accounts of the fulfillment of this promise at the Last Supper (Mt.
26; Mk. 14; Lk. 22; 1 Cor. 11). Eucharistic theologians explain the Real
Presence by a process called transubstantiation: the entire “substance” of
bread and wine is changed into the risen and glorified Body and Blood of
Christ, retaining only the “accidents” (taste, color, shape) of bread and wine.
Can there be a religion in which God is closer to man than our Catholic
Christianity? Jesus does not believe that he is humiliating himself in
coming to us and giving himself to us in his flesh and blood.
Today’s Scripture readings contain three
themes: the Eucharist as blessing or praise of God (action of Melchizedek in
Gen 14: 18-20), the Eucharist as memorial of what Jesus did at the Last Supper
(1 Cor 11: 21-26) and the Eucharist as food for the multitudes (Lk 9: 11-17).
The never-ending supply of bread with which Jesus fed the multitude prefigured
his own Body, the consecrated Bread that sustains us until he comes again.
The Eucharist is also a re-enactment of Christ’s sacrificial self-giving.
The Jews offered animal sacrifices to God, believing that life was in the
blood and animal blood was a substitute for human lifeblood. Following this
Jewish tradition, Jesus offered his own lifeblood as a substitute for the
lifeblood of all human beings and sealed the covenant made between God
and humankind (1 Cor 11:25), bringing new life to the world. The Corpus Christi
readings remind us of Jesus’ offering of his Body and Blood which serves in the
Church as a lasting memorial of His saving death for us. We renew Jesus’ covenant
by participating in the banquet of his Body and Blood, a banquet that, through
his death, gives us life.
First reading: Genesis 14: 18-20: Abram was
the earlier name of the patriarch Abraham, founder of the Chosen People who
became our ancestors in the faith. This story tells us how Melchizedek, the
neighboring Canaanite king and "priest of God Most High,"
welcomed Abram as he returned after defeating some local
"kings" who had kidnapped his brother Lot, and recovering from them
the captured property. Both Melchizedek himself and the character of his
offering prefigure Jesus. In an act of thanksgiving, this mysterious
king-priest blessed Abraham, offered bread and wine to God and shared it with
Abraham. Abraham affirms his faith in the true God whose name he knows and to
whom he has sworn an oath (v.22). Jesus became known as "a priest
according to the order of Melchizedek"(Psalm 110: 4). Jesus, priest
and king, is the Eternal Priest and King of Kings who offered a sacrifice of
Bread and Wine during his Last Supper. Jesus is infinitely greater than
Melchizedek, in that he is the sacrifice and the offering, the Bread and Wine.
Melchizedek offered a gift of gratitude to God. Jesus’ gift is also called the
Eucharist, meaning thanksgiving. Like Melchizedek’s offering of gratitude to
God, the Eucharist is our sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for all that He has
accomplished in and through Jesus. Although the bread and wine mentioned in
Genesis 14 are highly suggestive of the Eucharist for us, the sacrificial meal
originally probably had no Eucharistic significance beyond reminding us of the
hospitality which should be part of every celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Second Reading, I Cor 11: 21-26: Today, on
the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we listen to Paul's account of the
Last Supper. This is one of the few places in his writings where Paul solemnly
states that he is handing on a tradition possibly originating in the mid-30s.
Paul supports the authenticity of his interpretation of the Last Supper of
Jesus, describing it as a direct revelation received from the risen Jesus. Then
he gives the earliest account of what Jesus said and did during the last meal
He celebrated with His followers. The words Paul quotes are very similar to
those ascribed to Jesus in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. This
earliest written account of the institution of the Lord's Supper in the New
Testament emphasizes Jesus' action of self-giving as expressed in the words
over the bread and the cup and his double command to repeat his own action.
Paul has to be very clear about his authority here, because he's correcting the
Corinthians severely. Misconduct at the Eucharist is one of several abuses for
which the Apostle takes them to task. To proclaim the death of the Lord is to
confess one's faith in the whole mystery of Christ and all that he means for
us. The refusal of some of the Corinthian converts to imitate Jesus’ death by
dying to their own vested interests had been creating chaos in church
gatherings. Paul believes that since Jesus gave us the Eucharist in the context
of his dying for our sake, we should experience it only in the context of our
dying to ourselves for his sake. Thus, all Christ’s disciples are challenged to
promote community, to be united and to hold possessions in common.
Today’s gospel: Theologically, the
miraculous feeding of the crowd of five thousand men could be understood as a
type or prefiguring of Jesus’ gift of the Eucharistic Bread that would
spiritually nourish those who believed in him. Christologically, the taking,
breaking and giving of the loaves anticipated the “taking” of Jesus in the
garden, the “breaking” of his body during his passion and Jesus’ “giving” of
himself as a sacrifice for the sins of humankind. The description of the miracle
also points out the disciples' role in the miraculous feeding of the multitude.
Only after they give him what little they have can Jesus bless, break and give
it back to them to distribute to the hungry crowd. Luke tells us that
Jesus demands all his followers to “share what little they have” when they
gather for the Lord’s Supper. No matter how insignificant or small our gift, it
could be the very thing Jesus blesses to satisfy the hunger of those around us.
To die by becoming one with each other and to die by sharing ourselves are at
the heart of the Eucharist. If those elements are missing, our rubrics and
actions are meaningless. In Greek the word koinonia is used by the Christian
writers to describe both the Eucharistic communion and the communion of wealth.
For the first Christian communities the two things were the same (cfr.
Ac.2:42-45).
Exegesis: Theological
significance: Center and culmination of Christian life. Vatican II states that
as a sacrifice "the Holy Eucharist is the center and culmination of
Christian life" (Lumen Gentium, 11). Why? 1) Because it
enables us to participate in Christ’s sacrifice as a present reality and to
benefit from its fruits in our own lives. 2) Because it helps us to
worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the most perfect way. 3)
Because it strengthens our charity and unity with Jesus and each other in a
joint offering of His Body and Blood to the Father. 4) Because it gives
us a lasting memorial of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, reminding
us of our obligation to make loving sacrifices for others. The Eucharist
is the mystery of our faith, the mystery of our hope, the mystery of our
charity. Why do we celebrate the Eucharist some 2,000 years later?
We do this because Jesus told us to do so: “Do this in memory of me.”
St. Augustine in the 5th century said it best when he said: “It is your
mystery, the mystery of your life that has been placed on the altar.”
This Holy Memorial is known by various names: 1) "The Eucharist”
because Jesus offered Himself to God the Father as an act of thanksgiving;
2) "The Lord’s Supper"--or “Breaking of the Bread”-- because we
celebrate it as a meal; 3) "Holy Communion" because, we become
one with Christ by receiving Him; and 4) "Holy Mass” (holy sending),
because it gives us a mission: “Go in peace to love and serve others.”
Jesus replaces the Old Covenant with the
New Covenant: Jesus instituted the Eucharist in deliberate allusion to, and
fulfillment of, what happened on Mount Sinai. He replaced Moses as the
divinely 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 the divinity. Jesus creates a
faithful people intimately united with God by means of his sacramental Blood.
The Jewish Passover is 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 the
divinity by splashing against an altar. Finally, the Blood was "to
be poured out on behalf of the 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 and the sacrifice: 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 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 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. 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 might 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 receive this message of unity and sacrificial love:
The Eucharist, (the Body and Blood of Christ), teaches us the importance of
community, the bond that results from this sacrifice. Just as numerous
grains of wheat are pounded together to make the host, and many grapes are
crushed together to make the wine, so we become unified in this sacrifice.
Our Lord chose these elements in order to show us that we ought to be
united with one another and to allow and work with the Holy Spirit as He transforms
us into Our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the head and we are the Body.
Together we are one. That which unites us is our willingness to
sacrifice our time and talents for our fellow members in Christ’s Mystical
Body. This is symbolized by our sharing in the same Bread and the same
Cup. Hence, Holy Communion should strengthen our sense of unity and
love.
2) 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.
3) Let us 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!"