Corpus Christi

FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST

The High Feast of the Lamb ((detail)

Ghent altarpiece - Jan Van Eyck 16th c

In many parts of the world (where the Church doesn't celebrate it as a solemnity on the preceeding Thurs), today is the Feast of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ. It is also more commonly known as Corpus Christi. While every Mass/Divine Liturgy in the Catholic Church includes receivng the Eucharist, this day is set aside as a special day to celebrate the institution of the sacrament by Christ at the Last Supper. Because Holy (Maundy) Thursday was during Holy Week & the overall theme of the week was sorrow & penance, the Church felt a need to celebrate the event at another time when it could be done more joyfully.

This feast is a sign of the belief by Catholics of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. This belief is based on the Last Supper portions of the Gospels, where Paul talks about the Eucharist in his epistles (1 Corinthians 11) & esp John 6.

The Office for this feast was composed by by St. Thomas Aquinas. For the feast he composed several hymns that are still deeply loved in the Catholic Church. they include Adoro Te Devote, O Salutaris Hostia, Pange Lingua of which Tantum ergo is a part, & the sequence used in the liturgy for the Mass of the day, Lauda Zion.

St. Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Romans (Chapter 7, written circa 100 AD) had the following to say about the Eucharist: "I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life. " (For those who try & claim the idea of the Real Presence & transubstatiation was a much later development, explain this. He was appointed by St. Peter as bishop of Antioch. He also knew St. John & thus clearly knew what the teachings of the Apostles were, including that of the Eucharist.)

The following was written by St. Thomas Aquinas. It is the 2nd reading from the Office of Readings for today's feast.

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

Let us thank God for the gift that he has given us in this Divine Mystery. In this Sacrament we truly receive the Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior.

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!!!!!