Today we celebrate “The Body and Blood of Christ”, or “Corpus Christi”. It’s a feast added to the calendar in the 13th century as a way to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist outside Holy Week. Holy Thursday, of course, celebrates the institution of the Eucharist, but there’s so much going on otherwise that day that it was felt we needed another occasion to commemorate this event and in a more festive way than is possible in the shadows of the Passion.
Christ glorified in heaven, Christ glorified in the Sacrament, Christ glorified in human hearts. And, yet, not three Christs glorified, but one Christ glorified—Christ’s glories are one and indivisible, co-equal and coeternal. None exists separately from the other. The Body and Blood of Christ in heaven, in the consecrated bread and wine and in human hearts is one and the same.
Here God feeds us with the bread and wine which are the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and doing so incorporates us into the Church, which is the Body of Christ. As part of the Body of Christ, we become part of the very life of God himself. This is a wonderful and sacred mystery and is at the heart of our life as Christians. In celebrating the Holy Eucharist, we are being obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ, who said the night before he died, as he took, blessed, broke and gave the bread and took, blessed and gave the cup of wine, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’
From the very beginning of the Church, the regular and frequent celebration of the Eucharist was central to the life of the Church. We see it in the Acts of the Apostles as one of the four marks of the Early Church. The group of followers of Jesus after they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.’ [Acts 2: 42] ‘The breaking of bread’ is a clear reference to the celebration of the Eucharist, and the importance of the celebration of the Eucharist from the earliest days and its centrality to the life of the Church .
The gospels too are clear that our Lord Jesus Christ was explicit in his in the Gospel ‘I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.’ [John 6: 53 – 57]
So, even in times of persecution, when Christians from all backgrounds, slaves and free, Jew and Greek, rich and poor, would assemble in the largest room in the house of one of the wealthier members of the Church, Sunday by Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist together, the Church has known the centrality and importance of this act in which we participate today. In the early days Christians would generally take home enough of the consecrated species to allow them to receive Holy Communion at home each day until they could come together again the following Sunday. ‘Do this as often’,’ said the Lord, as often as you eat and drink.
For us, for whom the reception of Holy Communion is weekly or more frequent, the risk is of over-familiarity with the Eucharist. We can tend to take for granted the wonderful gift we receive. Too easily we ignore the reality of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. We become careless as we approach him who gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. We fail to recognise in the bread and wine the body and blood our Lord gave on the Cross for the life of the world. We must always guard against this complacency. The Holy Eucharist is a family meal, in which the Christian family is fed. But the host is our Lord and the food is his life. Without this wonderful gift, we know we cannot live truly as part of his Body; the task would be too hard. But we must never become casual in 0ur devotion to our Lord, as we prepare to meet him, hidden humbly under the forms of bread and wine. Thus does the Eucharist make present the Covenant that sanctifies us, purifies us and unites us in marvellous communion with God.