Corpus Christi

Gospel
Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;whoever eats this bread will live forever;and the bread that I will giveis my flesh for the life of the world."The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"Jesus said to them,"Amen, amen, I say to you,unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,you do not have life within you.Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my bloodhas eternal life,and I will raise him on the last day.For my flesh is true food,and my blood is true drink.Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my bloodremains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent meand I have life because of the Father,so also the one who feeds on mewill have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,whoever eats this bread will live forever."


Pope Benedict XVI's Homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi

This is a summary and not a transcript:
The feast of Corpus Christi has three meanings: (1)we gather around the altar of the Lord to be in his presence; (2) we join in procession, walking with the Lord; and finally, (3) we kneel before the Lord and prostrate ourselves before the Lord who lowered Himself to our level and gave His life for us.

In the first aspect of the meaning of Corpus Christi, gathering around the altar, imagine that all of the citizens of Rome were invited to gather at the one altar in Rome. In ancient times, in every local church, there was one bishop. Around the Eucharist celebrated by him, the community gathered. This reminds us of a famous Pauline expression, that in Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, woman nor man.

Christ said, “Be all of you one.” In these words, the strength of the Christian revolution are felt, which we experience precisely in the Eucharist. People of different ages, political dispositions and social dispositions are gathered.

The Eucharist cannot be a private matter among people chosen because of friendship or affinity. We did not choose whom we would meet today. We find ourselves gathered next to each other, sharing the one bread that is Christ. Beyond our differences of nationality, profession, social station, and political disposition, we are united, open to each other to become one thing beginning with Him. From the beginning, this was a characteristic of Christianity organized around the Eucharist. We need always to be vigilant so that we are not taken in the other direction, even if it is in good faith.

To be Christians means to be gathered from every part of the world in the presence of the one Lord and to become one in Him.

The second constitutive aspect is walking with the Lord. It is a natural extension of the Mass, moving behind the One who is the Way. With the gift of Himself in the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus frees us from our paralysis, causes us to proceed, to take one step along the way and then another. So He sets us on our way by this bread of life.

This procession recalls Elijah, who hid himself in the desert and wanted to let himself die, when the Lord said to him, “Wake up, get up and eat, because the way that you must travel is long.” In this procession, the Lord wants to make us get up again so that we can take up our way, walk our path with the strength that God gives us through Jesus Christ.

It is the experience of Egypt, the long journey through the desert. “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” refers to every human person. Everyone can find his own way if he encounters Him who is the Word and Bread of Life, and lets himself be guided by His friendly presence. Without the God who is near us, how can we sustain our existence? The Eucharist is the Sacrament of God that does not leave us alone on the way, but places itself at our side and shows us the way.

It is not enough to go forward. We need to see where we are going. Progress is not enough if there is no point of reference. Instead, if we lose our way, we will quickly get off course. God did not leave us alone. He Himself became the Way so that our liberty would have the criterion for discerning the right path and taking it.

In the Decalog, God said “I am the Lord your God.” It was He who took them out of Egypt and told them, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Here we find the third element of the meaning of this feast: kneeling before the Lord Jesus Christ, who made Himself broken for love. Kneeling before the Lord is a profession of freedom. One who kneels before Jesus does not need to kneel before any earthly power, no matter how strong.

We kneel only before the Blessed Sacrament, because in that Sacrament the one true God is present, who made the world and who loved us so much as to give His only Son. We prostrate ourselves before a God who is the first one to come down before man, to help him and give him life anew. He kneeled before us to wash our filthy feet.

To adore the body of Christ means to believe that Christ is really there in that piece of bread, to give true sense to life just as to the tiniest creature, to all human history and to the briefest of existences. In adoration and prayer, the soul continues to be nourished. The one before whom we kneel does not judge and crush us. He frees us and transforms us, so that we have life in abundance.