Theme: The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
READINGS: Genesis 14:18-20 / 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 / Luke 9:11B-17
Solemn feast of Corpus Christi
The Solemn Feast of Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday after the Solemn Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity. In many countries, however, Corpus Christi is celebrated on the Sunday that follows that Thursday. Corpus Christi is a celebration of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In the first place, the real presence means that in the Eucharist, the bread becomes truly the body of Christ (Latin = Corpus Christi) and the wine the blood of Christ.
It appears that as far as a conscious expression of faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is concerned, some of us have become like crowd (in the Gospel of John) who enjoyed the multiplication of loaves and fish but did not believe that Jesus had come down from heaven. When they heard him say that he had come down from heaven, they retorted: do we not know his father, Joseph the carpenter, and the mother as well; how can he claim he has come down from heaven? (John 6:35-42). Similarly, some of us have become so familiar with the Holy Communion that we sometimes doubt that it is truly the body and blood of Christ.
Those who did not believe Jesus’ claim as being the bread of life that had come down from heaven were shocked the more, when he said: ‘If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live. This started an angry argument among them. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.… For my flesh is real food and blood is real drink”’ (John 6:51-55). Consequently many of his followers left him.
Now if Jesus did not mean what he was saying (that he will give us his flesh and blood), or if he was using a mere figure of speech, he would have called the deserting followers back to clarify his teaching. Rather, he turned to the twelve apostles and asked them if they also wished to leave him. Peter, then, responded: ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God’ (John 6:68-69).
However, it was not until the Last Supper that Jesus gave us the sacrament of his body and blood. At the Last Supper, Jesus did not say: ‘Take and eat, this is LIKE my body’; neither did he say: ‘…this REPRESENTS my body’; nor did he say: ‘…this is a SYMBOL of my body.’ He simply said: ‘…this IS my body.’ Likewise, with the cup of wine, he did not use the words LIKE/REPRESENTS/SYMBOL; rather, he simply said: ‘This IS my blood ….’ (Mark 14:22-26). We, therefore, believe that in the Eucharist, the bread becomes the true body of Christ and the wine the true blood of Christ.
Let me illustrate the above point with a BBC news item I heard four years ago: four members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) were detained in Libya for illegally possessing, among other things, a camera in the form of a pen and a recorder in the form of a wrist watch. Would they have been detained for possessing an ordinary pen and wrist watch? No! They were detained because they possessed a camera (though in the form of pen) and a recorder (though in the form of a wrist watch). Similarly, in the Eucharist, though the form is bread it is truly the body of Christ; though the form is wine, it is truly the blood of Christ! That is why St. Paul asks those whose appreciation of the Eucharist is limited by the forms of bread and wine: ‘Is the bread we break not a communion in the body of Christ? Is the cup we drink not a communion in the blood?’ (1 Cor. 10:16). Subsequently, he states categorically: ‘It follows that if anyone eats the Lord’s bread or drinks from this cup in a way unworthy of him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord’s body and blood’ (1 Cor. 11:27). It is clear that St. Paul does not say the person sins against the blessed bread and blessed wine, nor simply against the bread and wine.
Furthermore, as a living person’s body and blood are not separated but they are together with his mind and soul, so in the Eucharist we have altogether the body, blood, soul and divinity of our living Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we call the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. That is why we should receive the Eucharist with due reverence; and we can adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. May the Lord we receive and adore in the Holy Eucharist bless and protect us always. Amen!
(Several Eucharistic Miracles have taken place in the history of the church to confirm the teaching in the real presence of the Lord. One of the recent ones occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the present Pope was the Archbishop. You may view the video below
By Very Rev. Fr. John Louis
