The Body and Blood of Jesus is the sure source of strength in life and our eternal joy in heaven Homily for the Solemnity of the most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Corpus Christi 11th June 2023

Homily for the Solemnity of the most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

 

Dt 8:2-3,14b-16a; Ps 147

1 Cor 10:16-17; 

Jn 6:51-58.

Beloved friends in the Eucharistic Lord, the Holy Mother Church invites us today to celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast is  celebrated usually on the Thursday following the Trinity Sunday or transferred to the Sunday after it as it is the case here. The feast was instituted to honour the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament to rekindle faith against theories that reduced the Eucharist to mere symbol or metaphor, as it is still happening across the world today. Two notable events were said to have also encouraged the promulgation of the feast, namely: a vision of St. Juliana of  Cornillon and the Miracle at Bolsena of a Priest who demonstrated doubt of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. It was Proclaimed a liturgical celebration in 1264 by Pope Urban IV but did not enter into the liturgical calendar until 1317 when it became solemnly celebrated universally.

The Solemnity honours Jesus Christ as really, truly and substantially Present in the Eucharist. This Presence happens through the change which the Church calls transubstantiation (“change of substance”), when at the Consecration during Mass, the priest says the words which Christ Himself pronounced over bread and wine: “This is My Body,” “This is the chalice of My Blood,” “Do this in remembrance of Me”. 

In the first reading we hear of the experience of the Jews in the desert and how God fed them with manna from heaven to sustain them in their pilgrim journey to the promised land. That manna was a symbol of what is to come, the real food by which God will sustain His pilgrim people on their journey to the promised land of heaven. While those who ate manna in the desert bowed to death, Jesus in the Gospel affirms that “Whoever eats this bread will live forever”. Indeed what Jesus is offering is not just a material bread falling from heaven but it is His body and body intentionally offered and freely given. He declares Himself as the living bread that came down from heaven saying: “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”. This bread gives life to both body and soul.

In the beautiful Gospel, represented in part here, Jesus says: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. Whoever eats this bread will live Forever. In these we see the depth of love, wonder of the Sacrament of Christ love. We live because He lives. His life is the vitality of our lives. Thus, in Him we live, move and have our being. Without His life in us, there is no life in us. The Eucharist is Life.

What Jesus teaches, the Church believes, and she continues to teach. Although many still doubt the truth of His presence in the Eucharist many miracles, among which are those of Lanciano, Italy (8th Century), Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy (1236), Santarém, Portugal (13th Century), Cascia, Italy (1330), Amsterdam, Holland (1345) and even of recent times at Chirattakonam, India (2001), Tixtla, Mexico (2006), Sokolka, Poland(2008), Legnica, Poland (2013) among others, continue to inspire faith in the Eucharist and to remind us that the words Jesus spoke are spirit and truth. He who is Emmanuel, God with us, remains always with us in the Eucharist and comes to us always. As we eat of Him we become one with Him and are inspired to live in communion with one another as St. Paul encouraged in the second reading. 

May the Lord grant us true love for the Eucharist and help to celebrate and receive it worthily always. May the Body and Blood of Jesus remain for us sure source of strength in life and our eternal joy in heaven. Amen! Let us love the Eucharist more and approach it with every sense of holiness and dignity required!

I wish you a Glorious celebration of the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ and a Fulfilling week!