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Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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During the Easter Season the Church celebrates our faith’s greatest mystery – the Resurrection.  As we transition to Ordinary Time the Church likes to take a moment to reflect on our other great mysteries.  Last Sunday was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.  This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (what we used to call Corpus Christi).  It is a recognition of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The Word for Corpus Christi
Exodus 24:3-8
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Our first reading is from the book of Exodus.  Prior to this passage the people of Israel have arrived at Mount Sinai and Moses has received the 10 Commandments (and the entirety of the Law code) from God.  Moses presents this to the people, and as our passage opens, Moses is asking for their acceptance of the Law.  With the approval of the people, the Covenant is ratified by the blood sacrifice of young bulls.  The holocaust is offered, with half the blood used to sanctify the altar, and half used to sanctify the people, saying “this is the blood of the covenant…” words that sound very familiar to us Christians.  Our Psalm sings of the “cup of salvation” with also remembers the blood sacrifice of the Covenant with Moses, as well as eluding to the chalice of salvation we celebrate in the New Covenant with Jesus.

Our second reading is from the letter to the Hebrews.  Here the author is telling us that the blood sacrifices of old are essentially meaningless next to the blood sacrifice of Christ.  That the sacrifice that Christ (that “more perfect tabernacle”) made on the cross is beyond compare, and now ratifies a new covenant.

Our Gospel from Mark then takes us back to that moment where Christ instituted the Eucharist - the Last Supper.  Here we have the moment when Jesus takes the bread, says the blessing, and says, “this is my body.”  He repeats this with wine saying, “this is my blood.”  Jesus and the Apostles were celebrating the Passover, where the Hebrew people passed from slavery into freedom.  Here Jesus uses this moment as a Passover from the old Covenant to the New Covenant.

Final Thoughts:
The celebration of the Mass is one of our most ancient traditions, going all the way back to the beginning.  Acts 2:46 states: “Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes.”  Today we recognize this as the two major parts of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  And the prayers said over the gifts are also some of the most ancient, as evidenced by their similarity to the blessings used for Passover, as Jesus himself would have used at the Last Supper.

The high point of the Mass is the consecration of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, after which we sing or say the great “Amen.”  As Catholics we believe in transubstantiation – that through the actions of the priest and the people during Eucharistic Prayer the bread and the wine are transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ, as Jesus himself stated during the Last Supper.  During the Eucharistic Prayer the priest shifts from the third person to the first person, “do this in memory of me,” acting in persona Christi, in the person of Christ.  Just as Jesus himself did, the consecrated host and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, what we call the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  It is so because we believe it to be so, because Jesus said it was so.  It is a mystery of faith.

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