We come to the great feast of Corpus Christ, the Feast of
the Body and Blood of Jesus.
The origins of this feast date back to an extraordinary
event happening in 1263. There was a
priest named Peter of Prague who was making a pilgrimage from Prague to Rome. On his way, he stopped in the Italian town of
Bolsena to celebrate his daily Mass.
Peter of Prague was a pious man, but he harbored some doubts—he was
struggling with the doctrine of our faith teaching that Jesus is really present
in the Eucharist. Well, it seems God had an answer to Father Peter’s
doubts. At the point in the Mass when he
consecrated the host, the host began to bleed and the blood ran down his hands
and his arms and dripped down onto the corporal on the altar.
Peter of Prague was astonished. He quickly made his way to the nearby town of
Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was visiting.
He knelt down before Pope Urban and confessed his sin of doubting the
Eucharist and told him this extraordinary story. The Pope sent a delegation of Cardinals to
investigate. When the facts were
ascertained, he ordered the bishop of the diocese to bring the Host and the
corporal bearing the stains of Blood to him.
He then placed these items in the Cathedral at Orvieto, where anyone
visiting the Cathedral can venerate them to this day.
Pope Urban, so moved by this whole experience, established a
feast celebrating Our belief in the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus in the
Eucharist, so the Feast of Corpus Christi was established.
Traveling with Pope Urban during this period was the
greatest theological writer of the time, perhaps of all time—St. Thomas
Aquinas. The Pope asked the Dominican
Friar Thomas to compose the prayers for the new Feast and we’ve used them ever
since.
One of the hymns St. Thomas composed is the Pange Lingua
which we also sing at Benediction and also on Holy Thursday.
Pange, lingua, gloriósi Córporis mystérium, Sanguinísque
pretiósi, Quem in mundi prétium Fructus ventris generósi Rex effúdit
géntium. “Sing, my tongue, of the glory
of the mysterious body and precious Blood”.
Today, that’s exactly what we do: we sing of the glory of his Body and
Blood poured forth for our salvation, given to us by Our Lord Himself at the
Last Supper.
The third verse of the Pange Lingua continues St. Thomas’
description of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper: “Cibum turbae duodenae, se dat suis manibus”: he
gave himself as food with his own hands to the Twelve.
The Eucharist is not simply a symbol, it’s not simply a
metaphor. Jesus himself, in John chapter
6, says, “my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink.”
How was it possible that Jesus performed this miracle? The
next line of St. Thomas’ hymn gives the answer: “verbum caro, panem verum,
verbo carnem efficit.” The Word made
flesh, by his word, makes true bread, flesh.
I can’t imagine a clearer or more succinct statement of the Church’s
faith in the Eucharist. Jesus, Verbum
caro, the word made flesh, by his word, the word through which all creation
came into being, makes bread into flesh.
Thomas wrote another hymn called the “Sacra Solemnis”. .Mozart put part of Thomas’ hymn to his own
music a few centuries later. You’ve no doubt heard of it: Panis angelicus,
fit panis hominum; o res mirabilis, manducat dominum pauper servus humiles. Translated: The bread of angels becomes the
bread of men, o wonderful thing, the poor and humble servant can feed upon his
Lord.
We, poor and humble servants, can feed, can commune, can
have communion with the Lord, and Creator of the Universe. What we do here at Mass is a foretaste of the
communion of the saints with God in heaven.
Our whole lives are but preparation for eternity, and what we do hear at
Mass is a foretaste of that.
That’s why, in his theological writings, Thomas Aquinas
refers to the Eucharist as viaticum—food for the journey.
I recently came across a survey with some pretty interesting
results. Between the years 2000 and
2009, a little over 10% of adults left the Catholic Church. That number is
probably higher now six years later. Some
of the most common reasons for falling away: Life got too busy and they drifted
away; they didn’t understanding the Church’s teachings; they were bothered by
the scandals; they married someone of a different denomination, they were
looking for a more vibrant parish experience or more charismatic preachers;
some said it is simply easier to be Protestant.
Yet, interestingly, once they leave for another
denomination, they continue to change denominations. In fact, the average fallen away Catholic
will change Protestant denominations 6 times in their’ life. They move from place to place, looking for
something; shopping, but not finding.
Over 75% of fallen away Catholics attending a Protestant communities
say that there is something important missing from their’ religious experience.
Many, thanks be to God, after years of searching, do return. And 75% of those who return to Catholicism,
say the thing that was missing, the thing they longed for, was the Eucharist. For no Protestant denomination claims that bread
and wine truly transform, not just symbolically, but in reality, into the body
and blood of Jesus Christ. No Protestant
denomination can offer the possibility of being faithful to the Lord’s command to
eat his body and drink his blood.
Many of us know Catholics who have fallen away. We do well to engage them in conversation on
this topic. Even casually ask them,
“Don’t you miss the Eucharist?” “How can
you belong to a community that doesn’t celebrate the Eucharist?” Perhaps, some
fall away because they do not sense that we value this great gift as we
should.
For in the end, we do not come to Church week after week for
the music, for the decorations, for the preaching, as amazing as it is; not even
for the sense of community; we come for the Eucharist—to offer God worship in
the way the God-made-flesh has commanded—do this in memory of me.
That does not mean that music, and decorations, and
preaching, and hospitality are not important.
Hopefully, our desire to give the Lord our very best inspires us to
constantly be improving our music program, and beautifying our church
decorations and vestments and vessels, and warmly greeting and welcoming our
visitors. But in the end, if the music
is poor, the church is ugly, and the preaching is atrocious, we poor and humble
servants, we wayfarers will still be able to receive Our Lord in Holy
Communion, and know that he is here, he is with us, feeding us with the food which
brings eternal life…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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