Dearly beloved in Christ; this Sunday we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, a feast also known in its Latin form: Corpus Christi.
A little detour into the historical origins of this feast tells us so much about the miracle that we celebrate on this day. In 1263, during the celebration of a Mass in the city of Bolsena, a consecrated host began to bleed onto the corporal. This bleeding was not coincidental, the priest – Peter of Prague – who was celebrating the mass had been privately nursing doubts whether the bread was really transformed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord. With the bleeding of the host, Peter of Prague’s doubts were cleared.
But this private revelation to the priest, did not remain private. Word spread, like wildfire and reached the ears of the Pope, Urban IV, who was resident in the city of Orvieto nearby. Popular belief holds that Pope Urban IV was prompted by this Eucharistic miracle to institute the feast day, and that he commissioned Thomas Aquinas to compose the Office for the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours to honor the Holy Eucharist as the Body of Christ. From that order, we receive the great hymn Pange Lingua, the last verses of which are the Tantum Ergo which we sing at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament – the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord.
In other words, on this great solemnity, we celebrate the flesh of Our Lord, which, as He tells us, in the Gospel today, is given:
for the life of the world.
Life, whether in this world or the next, is not possible without consuming the bread of life that He provides. And what provision, for the flesh that we celebrate today is not just flesh, but flesh that was tortured on the cross, the effects of which remained present even after His resurrection!
The great solemnity of Corpus Christi, my dear brothers and sisters, is the celebration of tortured flesh!
Recollect the words of St. Peter (1 Pet 1: 18-19):
You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ,
like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.
My dear brothers and sisters, I wish to remind you once again of a fact that I enjoy repeating. That of the five Eucharistic miracles that have been subjected to clinical examination, all five have been marked by the presence of suffering myocardial tissue.
This detail is important, because it reminds us of the great cost with which our salvation was won, and the great cost that we must be willing to pay to participate in the salvation of the world. In other words, we adore, and consume, this tortured flesh so that we may gain the confidence and courage to subject our own flesh to the test. Recall the words from the first reading:
Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
…
He therefore let you be afflicted
with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
…
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is not from the bread of this world, that we live, but from the bread provided by the Word of God. And this bread is given to us to sustain us in the afflictions of this world, so that it is not this world that will triumph, but the world to come. And this offers us a useful little lesson.
The world is not unaware of the value of the torture of the body. We exercise, go to the gym, we diet, deprive ourselves of food. We are happy and willing to torture ourselves, but too often the torture is so that we can gain the limited gifts of this world. But listen to the words of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (25-27):
Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath,
but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air;
but I punish my body and enslave it,
so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
On the day when we celebrate and venerate this Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord, let us remember that He permits us to consume Him, so that He may transform our lowly bodies into His glorious body. We have a role to play in this transformation, the mortification of our flesh. Let us hasten to do so, so that we may win forever this promised crown of glory!
(Image reference: The Mass of Bolsena, Raphael, 1512 and 1514, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.)
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