CORPUS DOMINI - Year B

CORPUS DOMINI: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – Year B (Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) Theme: We are the Eucharist – We are the Visible Presence of Jesus in the World Reflection: We are called to be filled with the mystery of God - We have completed the Liturgical Time of Easter with the Ascension and with the Pentecost. We are supposed to re-start and continue with the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year. Though in the weekly Calendar we already started the Ordinary Time, Sundays we still celebrate the feasts of the Lord. In ordering the Calendar this way, the Church intends that we have to participate fully in the mystery of the Lord so that with the vigor of God’s presence we can continue our year. - Participation in the mysteries of Christian faith and the mystery of God is the only motive. The mystery of God is revealed or unveiled to the utmost level in the Paschal event of Jesus and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. We celebrated the paschal time and now it is time to celebrate the mysteries of God before we enter into the ordinary time of the year. Thus, we have the Solemnity of the Trinity in the last Sunday, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ today, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the next. - With the celebration of these feasts we enter into the mystery of God so that we are transformed into testimonies of his presence to the world. Last Sunday, in the Feast of the Trinity, we have celebrated the abyss of love of God, One and Three. Today we are celebrating the Feast of Corpus Domini, as we often call it, in which we remember that the same abyss of love of God is manifested as something very near to us and as something very close to us. Love of God is made itself present to us. In other words, God made himself a person near to us and a presence amidst us. He has come so close to us so much so he offered himself to us as our food and drink. Old Covenant is perfected in the New Covenant - Today’s antiphon of the mass expresses the Lords providence: “I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with the honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Ps 81:16). We are nourished with the finest wheat and our thirst is quenched with the honey from the rock. The verse from the Psalm reveals the truth how God has taken the side of his people in their exodus. The people of Israel had suffered a lot because of the hunger and thirst and they invoked the Lord even to the extent of testing him. Lord, who is always attentive to the prayers of his people, had fed them: he fed his people with the finest of the food – Manna in the desert and with the tastiest drink – Water from the rock. - God, who has provided their physical nourishment to his people, has willed to fill them also with the spiritual nourishment of his Word. For this He has made an alliance (a covenant) with them. His covenant with his people was marked by the blood. This is narrated by today’s first reading: Moses takes the blood, sprinkles it first on the altar and then reads out the commandments of the covenant and when people have given their consent “their amen” to what is read, he sprinkles the blood also on them so that they become part of the covenant (Ex 14:6-8). This order of the alliance, (sprinkling of blood first on the altar, and only finally on the people), shows that it is God himself who takes the initiative to call people to himself, otherwise, by themselves people cannot climb to God because of their infidelity. He wills to be present among his people and he invites people to be open to this presence. - With the sprinkling of the blood the alliance was established between God and his people. Jesus too repeats the same order. First, he reveals Gods loving will to live among his people. Secondly, he invites his disciples to participate in that love by keeping his commandments. And finally, he establishes the new and eternal covenant between God and people by offering his own blood and by instituting the Eucharist. - The covenant Jesus establishes is new and eternal because it supersedes all the sacrifices of the Old Testament and transforms them into perfect sacrifice. The blood of the goat and rams of the Old Testament sacrifices is replaced by the “very blood” of Jesus himself. No more a third element of sacrifice but he himself becomes the victim for the covenant. This makes the New Testament alliance of God in Christ as an everlasting and perfect covenant. This is the mystery we are called to participate in so that we are filled with his presence and with his power to become his carriers of his love. Memorial of the Paschal Mystery – The Fruit of Redemption - The opening prayer of today’s celebration has twofold character: what Christ has left for us – the memorial, and what we receive from it – the benefits. The opening prayer of the mass goes this way: “Lord Jesus Christ, who has left to us the memorial of the Paschal mystery in the admirable sacrament of Eucharist, grant that we adore with the living faith, the mystery of your Body and your Blood, so that we feel within ourselves the benefits of the redemption.” The first part of the prayer reveals the mystery that Jesus has left with us his presence as the memorial celebration and the second part of the prayer is the invocation of faith so that we participate in the fruits of salvation. We reflect for a while on these two aspects of the prayer. - First – the memorial celebration of the paschal mystery: The Eucharist we celebrate every time in the Church is not a repetition of the sacrifice that is offered by Jesus on the cross. It is neither a simple repetition nor a simple acknowledgment. It is not even a mere recalling to our mind what Christ has done. It is more than that. Recalling has the presupposition of forgetting. Instead, it is a memory. It is a memory in which mind is always aware of what has already happened, thus eliminating the element of forgetting of it even for a single moment. Memory is something which remains always and in all times. It is the constant living of what has already happened as if it still takes place right now. It is a commemoration of what has been already accomplished once and for all. It is the same sacrifice of Jesus once fulfilled is now continued in his remembrance: “Do this in memory of me” is the command of Jesus on which the daily Eucharist is celebrated. The mystery is already fulfilled once and for all since Jesus has done it once and for all as the Letter to the Hebrews keeps it evident: “He entered into the sanctuary, once for all, not with the mediation of the blood of rams and goats but in the virtue of his own blood, to obtain in this manner the eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). It cannot be repeated because it is not the blood the animals that was shed and which can often repeated but it was his own blood that was poured out. He knows that we cannot repeat it that’s the reason why he asked us to do it “in his memory”. Therefore, the Eucharist is the memorial celebration of the paschal mystery. - Second – the benefits of redemption: what was left with us by Jesus is the celebration of the Eucharist. We have to celebrate it with the living faith. The prayer helps us to learn to adore the body and blood of Christ. Adoring signifies both “admiration” and “mission”. Admiration of what has been presented to us should lead us to living of it as the part of our Christian mission. The fruits of the celebration do not come to us just with the admiration but with the vocation of it. We both profess our faith and testify it with our life. Both should go hand in hand or one should lead to the other: wonder of the mystery and living of the mystery or wonder leading to the living. - What are the benefits it fetches for us: first of all, by the celebration of the Eucharist, we become the real Eucharist; we become the mystery of love; we become like the one whom we receive in it: alter Christus – another Christ. Secondly, we participate in the promises of its nutrition. Jesus enumerates the fruit of the receiving of his body and blood. In his discourse about the “Living Bread” in St. John’s Gospel, sixth chapter (54-57), Jesus assures what will be the fruit of eating his body and drinking of his blood. He describes the four fruits: the one who eats his body and drinks his blood 1) has eternal life, 2) he will be raised up on the last day, 3) he lives in Jesus and Jesus lives in him and finally 4) he lives for him whom he receives. Jesus willed that he wants to be with them and in them in the form of their spiritual nutriment. For this he wills to make himself Eucharist in which he gives his body and pours out his blood. He calls his disciples to take part in this eternal meal. But at the end of the discourse we see many people walking away from him because they did not comprehend him well. They discussed and disputed among themselves with the questions: how can he give his flesh and blood? And how can we eat his flood and drink his blood? They did not want God to be with and within them. They did not imagine that God can present himself so closely to the people: to be with them and for them. They walked out because their intelligence could not reach God’s will of making alliance with his people in the Eucharist. Thus, the fruit of redemption is this: that our memorial celebration transforms us to be the living and visible Eucharistic presence in the world. Eucharist forms Christian and Christian forms the Eucharist - Eucharist is the fountain of Christian life: there is no Christian life without the celebration of the Eucharist. The true Christian takes his foundation and his force from it as if otherwise he has no breath for his life. This is true and the testimony for this is evident from the beginning of Christian faith and life: o The First Christian Communities gathered to “break the bread” – to celebrate Eucharist – for they knew that it is the only source which keeps them united and makes them a community (Acts 2:43-47 and 4:32-37). o The earlier martyrs testified it: “Without the Sunday’s celebration of the Eucharist we cannot live” was the testimony of the martyrs of Abitene. A martyr and a saint Felix believed that it is Eucharist which makes the Christian and Christian who makes the Eucharist. St. Leo the Great wrote that our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ transforms us into the one whom we receive. o Even in our times the Eucharist has the same unconditional and unchanging effect on the lives of the Christians. It forms the Church because it is only because of this celebration that all gather together. It is the life of the Christian community. It is for this reason, Vatican II exclaims Eucharist as the fountain and peak of all the sacraments. - We participate in the mystery of Eucharist: How blessed we are for we are given the possibility of embracing the Eucharistic presence of Jesus. When we participate in the Holy Mass, when we queue up for the communion reception, we touch Jesus by our hand, we taste him with our tongue, we receive him with our faith and finally we embrace him with our heart. This is the blessedness we are endowed with through our profession of Christian faith. We practically and really Touch, Taste, Feel and Embrace Jesus the Lord. This is the mystery. Still we become part of the mystery because he hold it tight in our heart. One the one hand, it is the will of Jesus to be with us and it was his desire from the beginning; it is for this he had assumed our human nature so that he can touch us (even wash our feet) and he can make himself our food and drink (even to become our body and blood). On the other hand, we are happy to receive the call of Jesus to participate in this mystery; unlike the hearers who went away failing to understand Jesus’ words (John 6:60-71), we have comprehended well his words and professed our faith like that of Peter “Lord, you have words of eternal life” (6:68) and finally become participants of the mystery of Eucharist. - Our preparation should be adequate: In order that our participation is worthy enough of the efficacy of the mystery we need to prepare ourselves well. There are many questions we have to ask ourselves before entering into the Church for the Holy Mass: where am I going? Am I really ready to receive him? Did I really prepare myself? How is my attitude towards receiving the Holy Communion? Am I worthy and well prepared? The preparation would be adequate for the reception of the mystery only when we are able to give answers for these questions. Our preparation should be sincere and authentic because it is not a joke or a game to receive the Lord himself into ourselves. It needs high attention and spiritual purification. We may receive the communion without good adequate preparation but what happens is: the communion becomes only a white host. It will not have any effect in our life just because we have not embraced it with worthy manner. Let us be alert and let us keep watching well our attitude and our presence around the altar. What we receive in the Eucharist should not go into misuse. We cannot give the bread from table to the dogs under it, Jesus warns. His warning is very applicable if we receive the “bread of life” with inadequate behavior. - Mystery is Open to us but the question is: Are we open to the mystery in the same manner? Let us celebrate the feast but let not the feast just a celebration but A Witness of Mystery of Eucharistic Love of Jesus. Our words must become actions. Our coming into the church must become our reaching out to other. On the entrance door of one of the Churches it is written: “Let us enter into the Church to love God and let us go away from the Church to love our neighbors”. Thus, it is we who have to become the “true Eucharist” and it is we who have to become “the real and visible presence of Jesus” in the Church and in the World.