Homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Homily for the Solemnity of

Corpus Christi

June 14, 2020

John 6: 51-58

1 Cor 10: 16-17

Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6: 51).

Our Lord’s dialog with a crowd of his disciples, and perhaps some other people, in the synagog at Capernaum comes to its climax as he promises eternal life to anyone who will eat his flesh and drink his blood.  It’s a shocking and preposterous promise—incomprehensible to those who are listening, and indeed still not believed by vast numbers of Christians.

At the end of this episode, when a great many leave Jesus, incredulous (6:66), Peter will speak for those who remain:  “You have the words of eternal life.  Where else can we go?” (cf. 6:68).  He believes Jesus, even if he surely doesn’t comprehend the promise, the full import of Jesus’ teaching.

We, however, know the import of Jesus’ teaching.  He is the living bread come down from heaven.  The manna in the desert wasn’t alive, and altho it nourished the Hebrews enuf to sustain their lives day by day, it offered nothing permanent (cf. 6:49,58).  But Jesus promises, “Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (6:51).

Until this point in his teaching in the synagog, Jesus seems to have been speaking of his words—his teaching—as life-giving bread.  In the prophets we read of their eating sacred scrolls, consuming God’s message as a kind of food.  But here Jesus takes us beyond that:  not his word, but himself is to be our life-giving food.  He is the eternal Son of the Father:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).  This very Word became flesh (1:14), and in his flesh has conquered death.  By consuming that very flesh, we take to ourselves his life, his immortality.

St. Paul calls the Eucharist a participation in the blood and the body of Christ (1 Cor 10:16).  Christ lives!  We participate as one body with him.  We become the living, breathing body of Christ.  His blood flows from his sacred heart into and thru us.  What a gift!

Today’s preface proclaims:  “Nourishing your faithful by this sacred mystery, you make them holy, so that the human race, bounded by one world, may be enlightened by one faith and united in one bond of charity”; and thru the mystery of this sacred table we are bathed in grace and transported to heavenly realities.  The sacramental body of Christ carries us to paradise, to his kingdom—now, mystically; later, really.

As Christ, the living bread from heaven, bestows on his beloved sisters and brothers the gift of life, by the “bond of charity,” his bond of love, we are bound to love one another—which St. Paul implies when he teaches, “We, tho many, are one body” (1 Cor 10:17).  On Holy Thursday we sing, “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est,” and “Congregavit nos in unum.”  May we live our Eucharistic faith in loving unity with Christ our brother and with our sisters and brothers in community.