This Sunday, June 19, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Latin for the Body of Christ. The Church wisely gives us this celebration to highlight the greatest gift that Christ has left to the Church and the world, His very presence.

 

The faith and teaching of the Church are well enough known and can be stated succinctly: On Holy Thursday night, at the Last Supper, Jesus celebrated the first Mass with the Apostles. He took bread and said, “This is my body.” He took the chalice filled with wine and said, “This is my blood.” He then told the Apostles, “Do this in memory of me.”

 

From the earliest days, those who gathered in faith in Jesus understood that by these words and actions, He had entrusted to them the truth of this deep mystery. Not merely in symbol, but through the gracious will of God, the bread retains its sensible form, but has become the body of Jesus. The wine too, in a way that goes beyond our senses, is the blood of Jesus. And at every Mass we are, like the Apostles, invited to share the intimacy with Christ that transforms us in preparation for heaven itself.

 

This teaching has challenged people’s faith since Jesus’ own time. The Gospels tell us that some of those who had otherwise been attracted to the message of Jesus, the love of God and neighbor, the hope for eternal life and the forgiveness of sins, walked away at the teaching of the Eucharist. We are told that they said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (Jn 6:60). 

 

We can see this challenge played out in our own day and even within the Church Herself. The Eucharist remains the gift Christ has entrusted to us. But many still find this teaching to be hard, and so they have separated themselves from the Catholic faith.

 

Studies have revealed that among those who identify themselves as Catholics, some have ceased to practice their faith because they don’t believe in the True Presence of Jesus. Others come to Mass but knowingly reject the Church’s faith in the Eucharist. A third group of Catholics attend Mass but believe that the Eucharist is merely a symbolic memorial of Jesus. At the same time, by misunderstanding or poor catechesis, they think they are being faithful to the Church’s teaching. Of course a final portion of the faithful understand and accept the gift of the Eucharist as Jesus instituted it.

 

The result of this confusion is a weakness of understanding of the Mass, the Eucharist and of Holy Communion, in addition to being a contributing element to the decline in Sunday Mass attendance.

 

Starting on Corpus Christi Sunday, the Bishops of the United States will begin a program of Eucharistic Revival. It will last for three years. Through Masses, homilies, devotions and other forms of outreach, our focus will be placed on renewing the understanding and gratitude for the Body and Blood of Jesus.

This emphasis should have two general components. First, a renewal of the teaching and explanation of our faith. Yes, it is a mystery that what appears to the senses as bread and wine can be truly and sacramentally the presence of Jesus. But teaching and explanation can help our modern faith just as it has for believers over the centuries.

 

But additionally, this revival must stress that the Eucharist is the person of Jesus. That means that we can and must seek a personal encounter with God Himself in the Eucharist. He loves us. He wants us. That too is a part of the Eucharist. We can have that encounter with every visit to the tabernacle, every genuflection, every prayer at the moment of consecration, every reverent and worthy reception of the Eucharist and every act of charity by which we seek to serve Jesus by serving those in need.

 

I hope and pray for the success of this Eucharistic revival. It is, after all, the recognition of the great gift of His presence that Jesus has lavished upon us.