“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” Jn 6: 55
While the earliest references to today’s Solemnity go back to the Middle Ages in various parts of Europe, in particular many scholars refer to the writings of Juliana of Liege in Belgium as the earliest reference. It was Pope Urban IV who established it as a Universal Feast in 1264 to be celebrated on the first available Thursday after the Easter Season and Octave Day of Pentecost. This latter led to, what I would say, this understatement in a commentary I read last week: -
“The Solemnity of Corpus Christi compliments the liturgy of Holy Thursday.”
In England in recent years the Solemnity has been transferred to the Sunday after the proposed original date – the why’s and wherefores of this I don’t intend to pursue but I have forgiven the commentary in that it made special reference to the composer of much of the Liturgical Material S. Thomas Aquinas: in particular it quoted tonight’s Magnificat Antiphon: “O sacred feast, in which we partake of Christ: his sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with his grace and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours, alleluia”
We have highlighted for us in today’s scripture readings each of those aspects of past, present and future. In the reading from Deuteronomy how Israel in the past escaped from the slavery of Egypt and celebrated this freedom at the Passover each year and what is more how they remembered how God continued to feed them with manna as they made their way towards the Promised Land. In that it was at a Passover Celebration that Jesus instituted the Sacrifice of the Mass, for those gathered it looked forward to his death on the cross, for us at every Mass the past is remembered as Jesus’ death is recalled.
‘Less is more’ is very true of the short reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He stresses how truly Jesu’s body and blood present in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine. His readers, and thus we, are reminded that we receive life from Jesus, the life he shares with his Father and therefore that all is a present reality entrusted to the Church.
Thirdly in the Gospel reading from which I have chosen my text: -
“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
we look to the future and that final banquet in which we hope and are promised by Jesus as he goes on to say: -
“Whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.”
I am in no doubt therefore that S. Thomas Aquinas would welcome the addition to the Mass Rite of the Eucharistic acclamations such as:-
“When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.
A less well-known part of the history of today’s feast in the is that in the same year, 1264, Pope Urban had acknowledged the Miracle of Bolsena, that a Eucharistic Host had indeed bled onto the Corporal that now is venerated in Orvieto Cathedral. Once again, I shall skip the whys and wherefores, but I do believe this to be a significant reminder to us of a highly significant factor about our coming together daily to celebrate the past, present and future in this way. We need ever to keep in the front of our minds the historical reality of the Cross and remember how much Jesus suffered for us and that he calls us to share our lives as he did. Just as Jesus’ fed the physically hungry and brought encouragement through his teaching to adopt new ways of life, it is that same nourishment, he gives us, to equip us to be his hands, feet and lips to bring the same good news to others.
On this year’s very significant keeping of this feast, as we prepare to join our brothers and sisters from S Joseph’s in procession, we should remind ourselves that we are all on a journey. This journey is always best described as pilgrimage and we as the pilgrims. The Procession today is a reminder to us of the fact stated at every Mass, that: -
“we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
Just how realistically do we welcome that reminder?
We talk of ‘Viaticum’ or the last rites – have we done anything about saying we should like a priest to be called when our time comes? Have we prepared our Funeral Liturgies?
I couldn’t finish without words of S Thomas Aquinas that may or may not be sung later: -
“Therefore we, before him bending,
This great sacrament revere:
Types and shadows have their ending,
For the newer rite is here;
Faith, our outward sense befriending,
Makes the inward vision clear.”