We are in the midst of celebrating, in the liturgy, the prayer and Mass of the Catholic Church, three great solemnities on the last three Sundays.
On June 4, we celebrated Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church and the world.
Last Sunday, we honored the Blessed Trinity. In doing so we recalled and reflected upon the mysterious nature of the True God. There is one God, and in Him, at the very same time, three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Together they are one God and each considered alone is fully God.
A mystery indeed.
This Sunday, we celebrate Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Each year on this weekend, we seek once more to review our Catholic faith in the sacred Eucharist. And it serves as a moment to reflect on the wider implications of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist, and how the Eucharist is or should be at the center of our spiritual lives.
Of course our faith in the Eucharist is immediately drawn to Holy Thursday night and the Last Supper. There, Jesus, in His final hours before His suffering and death, brings all preparations for the Church to completion.
Gathered with the Apostles, the first priests, He celebrated the first Mass and uttered those words that define the Eucharist. Holding bread He said, “This is my body.” And with the chalice of wine in His hands He said, “This is my blood.”
But with the eyes of our body and of the world, how can this be? The bread retains the physical properties of bread, and so too does the wine. But faith in Jesus is to take Him at His word. By this mystical but real act, Jesus has established His enduring presence in the world.
What then are the implications for our faith that flow from the Eucharist? Again, we learn from and believe the words of Jesus Himself as He spoke about the Eucharist.
“... (U)nless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53). The Eucharist, and its worthy reception, are associated with eternal life.
This underscores the importance of Mass and especially our obligation to attend Mass each Sunday. Seen in the light of the Eucharist and the gift of life that it is, going to Mass is not simply a rule or a burden. It is the reception of the gift of Jesus Himself.
We come to Mass to offer ourselves, our love and our adoration to Jesus who is present there. We take part again in the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood to the Father for our sins, just as He did on Calvary. We receive from Jesus grace and strength beyond what we can recognize, to help us live well the spiritual test of this life.
The personal reception of holy Communion is a deeply spiritual reality each time we take part. We must resist the temptation to see receiving the Eucharist as simply an earthly gesture of friendship or hospitality.
This is why the Church’s faith has always taken so seriously the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:29).
As we celebrate the gift of Jesus’ presence of Himself in us, in the Church, and in the world through the Eucharist, we do well to review our relation to the Eucharist.
Am I at Mass every Sunday, if not more often? If not, now is the time to begin again. Do I pray to Jesus personally in the tabernacle? He is sacramentally but truly present there and our faith and prayer should reflect that.
Do I receive Christ worthily? Am I free of mortal sin? Have I been to confession lately? And is my reception of the Eucharist at Mass done reverently, as is fitting for the presence of Jesus?
How blest we are in faith to know of the presence of Christ and to be called to receive Him in the Eucharist. How blest we are to know of Corpus Christi, the true Body and Blood of the Lord.