THIS IS MY BODY; THIS IS MY BLOOD

THE SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI - Mark 14:12-16,22-26

The Church has dedicated this solemnity to celebrate the Eucharist, putting the stress on the bread of life that is the body of Christ. We may ask ourselves why, since we celebrate the Eucharist every day and in a special way every Sunday. As humans, we lose easily the sharpness of our senses and become dull and mindless in what we do. This feast was established to help us strengthen our faith and remind us of the essential aspects of the Eucharist. Thursday is the day of the Eucharist since Jesus ate the Last Supper on a Thursday evening. Thus the solemnity of Corpus Christi is supposed to be celebrated on the Thursday following the Sunday of the Holy Trinity. However, in the countries where that Thursday is not a holiday, the feast is transferred to the following Sunday.

We call the Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament because in it we celebrate the great mysteries of our salvation, mainly the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this Most Blessed Sacrament, we enter in communion with Jesus Christ to become with him one body. And being one with Him, we become children of God. The celebration of this solemnity helps us not to lose sight of the body and blood of Christ, who offered Himself as the sacrifice that seals the New Covenant. We are people of the New Covenant, who have been reconciled with God through Jesus’ passion and death: “his death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant.” (Hb 9:15).

In the Last Supper, Jesus gave the meaning and purpose of his death: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many.” (Mk 14:24). He brought about the New Covenant and in it, he offers himself in sacrifice. He is the High Priest and at the same time the sacrifice without blemish which is acceptable to God. As we celebrate the Most Blessed Sacrament, we are called to offer the Sacrifice of the New Covenant, the perfect sacrifice, the sacrifice of the People of God, in which we offer ourselves with Jesus. 

In this Solemnity of the Body of Christ, we are called to the faith that the bread we eat is the body of Christ and the cup of blessing from which we drink is a share in the blood of Christ. We believe it and that belief we keep the faith of the Church, expressed since the beginning in writings of the Fathers of the Church. In his first Apology, Saint Justin wrote:

“And this food is called among us Eucharistia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” – (First Apology, 66)