A COMMUNION WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST

SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Immediately after the resurrection, the disciples began what has been kept up to now: they gathered on the first day of the week to read the Scriptures, to pray and to partake of the bread, doing this in obedience to Jesus who had given them this commandment: “Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Co 11:24). Since then, the Eucharistic celebration has been in the centre of the Church. There is no true Church without the Eucharist since it is through the Eucharist that we make one body with Jesus Christ. He said: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.” (Jn 6:57).

In the middle of the second century, Saint Justin wrote about the Eucharist:

“This food we call Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate by God's word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. For the apostles in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, thus handed down what was commanded them: that Jesus, taking bread and having given thanks, said, "Do this for my memorial, this is my body"; and likewise taking the cup and giving thanks he said, "This is my blood"; and gave it to them alone.”(nº 66)

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes it clear that “the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ” and “the blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ”. That’s why, as St, Justin says, “we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink”; they are the body and the blood of Christ and, when we receive them, we are in communion with Jesus Christ, becoming one with him. And through this communion with Christ, we become one body with Christ. St. Paul stresses this truth saying: “The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.” The Eucharist builds the Church by building us up as the body of Christ. The communion with the body and blood of Christ is a guarantee of eternal life:

“I tell you most solemnly,

if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood

has eternal life,

and I shall raise him up on the last day.” (Jn 6:53-54)