Cycle B - Year I:  

7 June 2015: Solemnity of Corpus Christi
(Liturgical color: White)

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26


The Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist!


Another important feast is celebrated this Sunday: Solemnity of Corpus Christi, or the most holy Body and Blood of Christ.

The Holy Eucharist, or Corpus Christi, is the very center and source of our Christian life. Even after
his ascension, Jesus chose to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Because in the Eucharist we encounter Jesus Himself and receive a foretaste of heavenly glory.

The Gospel proclamation is from St. Mark's version of the Last Supper. We note that his narrative includes a detailed account of the precise preparation that Jesus asks two of His disciples to make in anticipation of the Feast of Passover. The details of this preparation convey within themselves rich messages of how we ought to prepare ourselves properly when we encounter Jesus in His body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.

It is within the holy sacrifice of the Mass that we have our immediate experience of this encounter with Jesus. We are invited to prepare our minds, hearts and bodies in anticipation of the representation of the paschal mystery. That means to say, our minds and hearts and bodies ought to be oriented toward adoration of our Lord, contrition for our sins, thanksgiving for our blessings and crosses and supplications offered with our particular intention in mind.

For Catholics, the doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that in the Holy Eucharist Jesus is literally and wholly present, body and blood, soul and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine.

The great St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that Jesus' presence in the Eucharist is visus, tactus, gustus. That means his presence is not imaginary in our mind. Because when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we actually see, touch, and taste Him. He is an "edible" God, as some theologians would say.

And so as Jesus makes Himself present to us as a gift in the Holy Eucharist at Mass, so too we must prepare ourselves to respond to His gift of self by our proper disposition during Mass. Thus, our bodily postures of kneeling and genuflecting should remind us of who we are about to encounter as we approach the altar for Holy Communion. Even our discipline of an hour fast before receiving the Lord into our bodies and souls should remind us of the purity and sense of mortification we must adopt if we want to imitate Him authentically.

As we prepare to go to Mass, we should ask: "How will I offer myself to God during Mass in order to match Jesus' love and gift of self to me?"  And we will soon discover that as much as we think we are giving ourselves to Jesus, in reality He is never outdone in His generous outpouring of His very life into our own, in the Holy Eucharist.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!