FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 4b-6a; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17, John 6: 51-58

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

Today is the Solemnity of “The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, " which is mostly referred to as Corpus Christi.” In a way, we have already celebrated this feast. We did so on Holy Thursday in Holy Week. On that occasion, the emphasis was on the institution, the gift of the Eucharist to us as one of Jesus’ last acts before his suffering and death. It was, moreover, to be an enduring memorial of that great liberating act by which God’s love would be forever kept before our minds. Today’s Solemnity highlights the Eucharistic Presence, in his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of God the Son. The Corpus Christi celebration acknowledges the Real Presence of the Lord in the form of bread and wine. Naturally, it demands a response from us. Not just awe and wonder, but a response that makes us live in communion.

Each of today’s Scripture readings illuminates some aspect of today’s feast. Let's now look at them to see what light they shed on the whole issue of the Eucharist. The First Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy recounts Moses' advice and warnings to his people not to forget the deeds God had done for them as they traveled through the desert after being freed from the slavery of Egypt. He recalls how God fed the people of Israel in the desert with manna, that miraculous food which Christians later saw as a prefiguration of the Eucharist. In contrast with Exodus 16, however, which presents the gift of manna simply as a miracle of feeding the people, today’s passage interprets this event in a more particular way. The manna is to teach the people of Israel that God’s Word is the source of life on which they must depend. As they relied on manna for life in the desert, so they must also continually depend on the Word of God.

In today's second reading, Paul speaks to a fragmented community in Corinth, where the stronger members did not provide for the weaker members. In addressing this problem, Paul develops his theology by assuming that the Eucharist produces a real effect. To share the body and blood of Christ is to be joined not only to Christ but to each other. One bread and one cup mean one body. And that body is the whole Christ: Jesus and his members. By its very nature, the Eucharist is intended to create a unity; one cannot have it any other way.

He says the Eucharist builds the Church, whose head is Jesus Christ. Participation in the body and blood of Christ is the source of the Church's life and unity as one body. By eating the bread and drinking the cup, Christians are united to Christ in intimate fellowship because the Eucharist is his body and blood. From this Eucharistic fellowship with Christ follows the real union of all the faithful with one another in one body. The Eucharist strengthens the members and is an effective sign of their unity. Through receiving the Eucharist, they were continually transformed to live more Christ-like lives as members of the mystical Body of Christ. They firmly believed that this transformation would have a lasting, eternal effect on their lives.

When Jesus speaks of the Bread of Life, he always makes reference to "the last day", for the Eucharist feeds our souls and already resurrects our bodies. Of course, we do not see this resurrection of our bodies. We do not see it because we have not yet reached "the last day". But this resurrection is quite real. How could we be living the eternal life without already being resurrected with Jesus? For Jesus said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life." This is in the present tense. He who communicates of the Bread of Life "has eternal life", he is already resurrected, body and soul. This is a Mystery, the Mystery of Faith.

He who truly eats the Bread of Life, with a pure and living faith, animated by a true charity towards God and towards men, that person obtains eternal life from God, for he has already reached the end of his life, having renounced everything, having even renounced living another moment on the earth. For faith truly requires this: that we renounce all things in order to have All, that we renounce all that is created in order to have He who is Uncreated: God. To lose all in order to have All, to die to all in order to live to All. This is the Passion and Resurrection in communion with the Son of God, who died and is risen: this is the life of he who believes in the Bread of Life. "This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."

Consequently, our belief in the Eucharist inspires us to desire and even hunger for heavenly things rather than earthly or material things. As human beings, we have natural, inborn desires and longings for happiness, for love, for companionship, for joy, and peace. But so often we try to satisfy these longings with things that couldn’t possibly match up with the capacities our Lord created in us. He made us for himself, and only he can bear the weight of our happiness. If we try to put that weight on food or another person, we would soon realize that our desire is never quenched, and the object on which we misplaced it is consumed, crushed, or abandoned, leaving us still wanting more.

We must look to Christ, who wants to be consumed by us, but not abandoned, so that we can be completely satisfied. Our desires are not too much for Him. In the Eucharist, we receive all the heavenly things our Lord wishes to give us – grace, unity, forgiveness, and peace, even His entire self – if we are only open and are disposed to receiving them. The reality of every individual life becoming renewed by Christ in the Eucharist is ever unique, holding the promise of our own resurrection and eternal life in heaven.