The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
As we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi the meaning of this feast most probably is a no-brainer for us. As believers we have the Eucharist at the very core of our Catholic life. We strongly believe that Christ intended that we have his real presence in bread and wine; that for this reason at the Last Supper Jess took the bread and wine and gave it to his disciples and said that it was his body and blood; and that by doing this in memory of Jesus, he becomes present to us in a real and concrete way. But what we consider undoubtedly to be integral part of our faith has also always been the topic of intense controversy. As early as Paul’s times (today’s second reading), there were misconceptions about the Eucharist. A few decades later John in his gospel would dedicate an entire chapter (Chapter 6: bread of life discourse) to remove doubts about the real presence of Christ in bread and wine.
About the 11th Century a major controversy hit the Christian world. Berangarius of Tours was a rationalist and a theologian. His argument was simple. He said that the mind does not play games. If after consecration we see bread it is still got to be bread and when we see wine it is still got to be wine. If the bread and wine did become the body of Christ then we would see it because the mind does not play games. So he proposed that the bread and wine were not really the body and blood but only spiritually Christ. Councils were held to deal with the controversy. At two Lateran Councils in 1078 and 1079, Berangarius withdrew his teachings, but only half-heartedly. The feast of Corpus Christi as we know it evolved a little after this controversy. Juliane of Liege was a religious woman of an unrecognized religious order. She had a vision about this feast and with the efforts of the bishop of Liege she strived for the feast to be established in the church. Pope Urban VI in 1294 set this feast as permanent annual event.
But controversies have not ceased. There still are doubts about the real presence of Christ and there still are misconceptions about the Eucharist. Today, I would like to emphasize three points about the Eucharist that might be useful for us today. Even as we have gathered as believers we can still have misconceptions about the Eucharist.
- Bread and Wine: The Body and Blood of Christ. For me the Eucharist is an experience of the wisdom of God. Sometimes there are people who tell us that Christianity and everything associated with it is a scam; that early Christians fabricated the Christian story after they stole the dead body of Christ and claimed that he had risen from the dead. But then, there are ideas and concepts in scripture that were written over thousands of years that simply cannot be fabricated even if someone wanted to. For example, that fact that in today’s first reading from the book of Genesis the high-priest Melchizedek offers Abraham bread and wine and that, centuries later Christ would offer bread and wine at the Last Supper, this cannot just be fabricated. The miracle of the multiplication of loaves adds even greater significance the meaning of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Only the great wisdom of God could figure a way for the God universe to be present to us in humble bread and simple wine. In our scientific and technological age, like Berangarius, it may be very hard to fathom that bread and wine is transformed into the body and blood of Christ. It may be very hard to believe that two loaves and five fish fed over five thousand people. It may even hard for many to believe that God is real. But If we just allow God to be God; if we can merely believe that the wisdom of God far exceeds human capacities; and if we can believe that in God’s love God chooses to dwell among us, then the Eucharist makes perfect sense. For me the real presence of Christ in bread and wine is an absolute object of my devotion, veneration and worship.
- The Eucharist is a proclamation of a community. The Eucharist and the body and blood of Christ are more than a matter of personal devotion and veneration. For many people, the Eucharist and Eucharistic devotion is just that – a personal devotion. I find Paul’s reflection on the Eucharist in today’s second reading very enlightening. After saying that he is handing on to the Corinthians the tradition of the Last Supper that he received from the Lord, he says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” Paul was actually dealing with a misconception about the Eucharist. In Corinth, the more wealthy people, instead of waiting for the daily laborers to return from work, went ahead with the meal. At the Eucharist, then, were those who were left hungry. So Paul would say to the Corinthians that when they gather together they were doing more harm than good. For Paul, people gathered to celebrate the Eucharist were not just loosely connected or it was not just a personal experience. Rather, intentionally and deliberately the community must proclaim the love, self-giving, and sacrifice the cross of Christ stood for; the Eucharist must bear witness to the compassion, the reconciliation, and unity Jesus brought.
People have always been tempted to treat the Eucharist merely as a matter of personal devotion. They come to fulfill their personal obligation, to show their love for God and to receive the body and blood of Christ. All these motivations are fine. But if that is all that the Eucharist means to us then we have a problem. The Eucharist, more than a personal devotion, is the act of a community. The Eucharist must stand for what Christ stood for. If the Eucharist does not also reflect our relationship with the rest of the community, then, as Paul would say, we are doing more harm than good. If our gathering does not proclaim what the cross, death and resurrection of Jesus stands for, then we failing to bear witness to Christ.
- We are what we eat! People conscious about eating healthy often say, “We are what we eat.” But there is no other place where this is truer than the Eucharist. By eating organic food, I do not become organic food. By eating a burger I do not become a cow. Paul thinks differently. He tells the Corinthians that because we eat the One Bread and participate in the One Cup that we now are transformed into what we eat. “Now you are Christ’s body and individually parts of it,” he stressed. In other words, we are what we eat. We eat the body of Christ and we become the body of Christ. The body of Christ is on the altar and the body of Christ is in the pews. The Body of Christ should be the object of worship and the body of Christ in the pew should be the object of our love and affection.
It is not uncommon that people are great in church but outside they are intolerable. For example, the spouse could be very holy and respected in Church but impossible to live with at home. A parent might be good to all the kids in church but impatient and unkind to his or own kids at home. A person might pray and sing well at church but be very prejudiced, bigoted, judgmental and intolerant at home and work. Abuses in the church and abuses at home stem from the dichotomy that exists between the Christ we worship on the altar and the Christ we recognize in the pew. Folks, we are what we eat! We should be what we celebrate!