Sr. Molly Fernandes sfn –
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is also known as Corpus Christi, which translates from Latin to “Body of Christ.” This feast originated in France in the mid-thirteenth century and was extended to the whole Church by Pope Urban IV in 1264. This feast calls us to focus on two manifestations of the Body of Christ, the Holy Eucharist and the Church.
At every Mass our attention is called to the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ in it.
What we receive in the small piece of bread or the sip of wine at the Eucharist is the gift of life from Jesus. This is a sharing in the life of God; in the fragility of the bread and wine is strong food, and joyful drink – fruit of God’s creation and work of human hands, where we are nourished and sustained. The spiritual nourishment we receive in the Eucharist draws us closer to Christ in friendship. It helps us to fight against temptation and to be bread for others. It is the gift of God who has become one of us, a gift of love with sacrifice. In the Eucharist God is close in his creation. Pope Benedict writes – ‘we have to rediscover God, not just any God, but the God that has a human face, because when we see Jesus Christ we see God’. Here I am reminded of a true story related by Davey:
For many years after my conversion, I had a difficult time accepting Communion in the meaning of the Catholic Church, as the real body and blood of Christ. One morning, after working the night shift I came home and went to bed. There had been nothing special about the day that had me thinking about my faith; it was just another day. I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.
In a dream, I found myself in a church. It was pure white with everything having a marble-like texture. I was standing in what I can only describe as the choir balcony. I looked down and across the interior of the church I saw Our Blessed Mother. She beckoned me to come down to the lower level, which I did. I came to a large crucifix on the wall and looked up at it. As I did so, Christ’s arms came away from the cross and his hands came together. As he opened his hands, a round disk fell from them.
It seemed to fall very slowly, turning round and round as it descended. I put out my hands to catch the disk, and when I did I saw it was a communion host. I placed it in my mouth. “This is my Body,” was clearly the message. I woke with a start at that point, sweating and fearful, fully expecting God to be in the room with me. Since that night I have not missed receiving Holy Communion.”
Therefore, we need to prepare properly to receive Holy Communion because we tarnish God’s image within us through acts of impurity, injustice, disobedience and the like and receive Holy Communion with fervent love and respect and believing in what we receive. For, 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. 11:27-29).
John Chrysostom says: “What is the Bread actually? The Body of Christ. What do communicants become? The Body of Christ. Just as the bread comes from many grains, which remain themselves and are not distinguished from one another because they are united, so we are united with Christ.”
Yes, the Eucharist builds community, fosters unity as St. Paul teaches in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
Nowhere, neither in John 6, where Jesus first introduced the term “eat my body and drink my blood” or in the elaborate narration of Last Supper in the book of Mathew has it been mentioned that Jesus will be present in the commemoration ceremony which is now known as “Eucharistic ceremony”. Neither has Jesus alluded to it that the food shared will turn into his real body snd wine his blood. He could not have as both blood and human flesh were not permitted materials for human consumption. It is time that these misguided concepts went out of the window.