Corpus Christi!
The same Jesus who was incarnated in Nazareth and born in Bethlehem is incarnated on every altar in the world in the Eucharist. The same sacrifice of the Cross that occurred two millennia ago in Jerusalem may likewise be seen on every altar in the world in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
This is the great Paschal Mystery, in which we participate every time we attend the holy sacrifice of the Mass. And today throughout the world, in a particular way, we celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist in the springtime feast of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Commonly termed “Corpus Christi”, this feast celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ – that the consecrated bread and wine truly are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Whereas Holy Thursday is a celebration of the institution of the Eucharist, Corpus Christi is a celebration of the Eucharist itself. And what a gift has God given us!
While most places celebrate this feast today – the Thursday after Trinity Sunday – in the dioceses of the United States it has been transferred (moved) to this coming Sunday. This Mass – whenever you celebrate it – is often followed by a Eucharistic procession, where the consecrated host – Jesus Christ Himself – is processed around the church or, better yet, through the streets, with the faithful following.
An anonymous bishop once famously prescribed a remedy for many of the problems facing the modern Church with the words “less jabbering – more processions“. He was not wrong. In one sense, of course, processions form the structure of the entire liturgy: we begin with an entrance procession (introit), and there are processions for the Gospel, the offertory, and perhaps most strikingly, communion. In each case, we walk towards the altar of God.
During the course of the year, we have other opportunities for procession, including some that take place partially outside the church building. Palm Sunday and the Easter Vigil come immediately to mind.
But Eucharistic processions take this to a whole other level. Not only are we poor pilgrims journeying in search of our heavenly homeland, we are ourselves bringing the Lord to the people in the streets, to where they are. It is the ultimate form of evangelization, because despite all of the preparation and rehearsal we might do, it is not us but Jesus Himself who does the preaching. What use are mere words when here we have the Word Himself?
Less jabbering. More processions.
The feast of Corpus Christi was originally instituted to help combat the creeping idea that maybe when Christ said “this is my body”, He didn’t really mean it. Go read the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John – it’s plainly clear that this teaching was not symbolic, not a parable, but the Truth.
It is Christ Himself: body, blood, soul, divinity.
Even when Jesus was there, walking among the disciples, it was a difficult thing to get your head around. People refused to accept it, and they stopped following Christ. It has ever been thus.
This feast is both a doctrinal and [ritual] response to heretical teaching on the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the apogee of an ardent devotional movement concentrated on the Sacrament of the Altar. It was extended to the entire Latin Church by Urban IV in 1264. …
For centuries, the celebration of Corpus Christi remained the principal point of popular piety’s concentration on the Eucharist. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, faith, in reaction to various forms of Protestantism, and culture (art, folklore and literature) coalesced in developing lively and significant expressions Eucharistic devotion in popular piety.
Less jabbering. More processions.
This coming Sunday my parish of Saint Patrick will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the 9AM Mass. If you are anywhere near, I invite you to come to Mass and participate in the procession around the neighbourhood!
