Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), June 18 2017
Deut 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Cor 10:16-17; John 6:1-58
Brookdale
Today is the feast of the solemnity of the body and blood of Christ. As long as there have been Christians, we have come together to share bread and wine. Historians tell us that today’s second reading was written by Saint Paul about twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Clearly, the Corinthians he wrote to were already gathering regularly to share bread and wine in memory of Jesus. And they believed that by doing so they were sharing in Christ’s body:
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? [1 Cor 10:16]
From the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have believed that Christ was somehow present in the bread and wine, just as Paul tells us that eventually Christ will be all in all. Further, we believe that communion joins us to Christ. As Paul says, when we eat the bread, we participate in Christ’s body. The bread and the wine are sacred symbols, and our participation in them is a sacred mystery.
Today’s Gospel reading also compares the bread of communion to the manna that God gave to the Israelites as food in the desert. Like the manna, Jesus came down from heaven for us, and in the Gospel Jesus promises those who eat this bread everlasting life.
We therefore treat the bread and wine of communion with great reverence. I brought the hosts here today in a special container, called a pyx. Communion wine is held in a chalice, and consecrated hosts are stored in a container called a ciborium, which is kept in a tabernacle. Pyx, chalice, ciborium, and tabernacle are usually decorated to show the great value of what they contain. Priests wear special vestments to celebrate Eucharist and we dress up for Sunday services. We treat these sacred symbols specially in order to honor them, as Christians have done throughout our history.
But that is not the main point. When communion makes us one with Christ, we also become one with each other and celebrate our unity in Christ.
Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. [1 Cor 10:17]
Saint Paul uses the metaphor of the body; we come together as members of one body, the body of Christ.
Christians have traditionally had great reverence for the Eucharistic sharing of bread and wine (or grape juice, in some churches). But sometimes we forget the other body of Christ, our union with each other. This has been true throughout Christian history. Back in the fourth century, the Greek church father John Chrysostom praised his congregation for putting beautiful cloths on the altar, but warned them not to ignore the beggars on the street—because to do that was to dishonor Christ’s body.
Do you want to honor Christ’s body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said: This is my body, and made it so by his words, also said: You saw me hungry and did not feed me, and inasmuch as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. [Mat 25:34ff]. What we do here in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments; what we do outside requires great dedication.
Let us learn, therefore, to be [people] of wisdom and to honor Christ as he desires. [1]
In our own days, Pope Francis has pointed out that our partaking of communion must become “communion with the poor, support for the weak, fraternal attention to those who are struggling to carry the weight of everyday life.”[2] If we understand communion in that way, we can truly fulfill the words of St. Paul, that “we are all one body, because we all partake of the one bread.”
[1] St. John Chrysostom, homily 50, https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/dont-adorn-the-church-but-ignore-the-poor-john-chrysostom/
[2] Pope Francis, Homily on Corpus Christi, June 2015, https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-homily-for-corpus-christi/.