COMMUNION WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST

SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI – Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16

In the calendar of the Universal Church, the solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated on the Thursday after the Holy Trinity. However, the celebration is done on the following Sunday in the countries where that Thursday is a working day. There should be no need for a special celebration of the Eucharist since it is celebrated every Sunday, but, in her wisdom, aware that we are carried by habit, Mother Church gives us this liturgical celebration for us to focus on some essential themes.

The first reading, taken from the book of Deuteronomy, presents the manna as pointing to the Eucharist as the true bread from heaven. Like the manna received by the people in their wandering in the desert, the Eucharist is the true viaticum, that is, the bread for the journey. We must be fed with this bread to become strong enough to proceed and reach the finishing line. Due to our weakness, we fall and go astray. On our own, we will never arrive unless we are fed with this special food.

In the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they will not have eternal life and enter the Kingdom of God without eating this food. And the reason for that is that, by eating this food, we enter into a special bond with Jesus, receiving life from Him as He receives from the Father. A true communion is established between Jesus and us and, through Jesus, with the Father.

Jesus makes it very clear that the food He gives us is his body and his blood. “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.” Indeed, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him.” (Jn 6;51-58)

In the second reading, taken from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul echoes Jesus’ words by telling us that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, we enter into communion with the blood and the body of Christ. This was the belief of the early Church and is still our belief today. We cannot approach the table of the Lord without a strong belief that we receive the body and blood of Christ to become one with Him. “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.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)