Homily, Corpus Christ 2022

Readings: Genesis 14:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17

Found in all the four Gospels, the event in today’s gospel passage of the Feeding of the Five Thousand takes place in what is described as a deserted place. It is clear that the crowd has followed Jesus into the countryside – but what were they looking for? In the previous chapter, Jesus had raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead and so he has shown himself to be mighty in word and deed. 

Clearly this was enough to inspire some people to follow him unprepared into this lonely place. Maybe others came in search of something more – to hear more about God’s kingdom and its promise of new life, or to experience that healing in their own lives or in the lives of those they loved. This is one of those Gospel moments when it is hard to know if it was only the location that was lonely or the hearts of so many yearning for his holy touch. And it is here that Jesus meets them and their deepest needs – not only their physical need for food, but their need for his compassionate care and concern. 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, or the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we are in many ways like the Gospel crowd. We, too, have come with our hopes and needs to encounter Jesus. Here Jesus creates a Eucharistic world where we can experience his real presence and the hope of something better – for here, too, no lonely heart goes hungry! Today, and at every Mass, Jesus meets our needs by giving us his unconditional love, nourishing us both physically and spiritually. That is why the Church calls the Eucharist “the source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC # 1324). It is source because Jesus is the source of our faith, and it is summit as our faith is ultimately about a sharing in his resurrection and life.

This feast was established by Pope Urban IV in the year 1264. He did so in response to a reported Eucharistic miracle in the Italian village of Orvieto. As legend has it, the Eucharistic host bled when being offered in the hands of a doubting priest, Father Peter of Prague. In essence, this was a manifestation of a miraculous presence in the hands of one who doubted the Real Presence. This doubt is still common today as well. Many Catholics have not been catechized well with regard to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and those outside of the Catholic Church believe it to be only Christ’s symbolic presence, or at least that he is not substantially present.

In proclaiming the Year of the Eucharist in 2004, Saint John Paul II said: “The Holy Eucharist contains the entire spiritual treasure of the Church, Christ Himself.” He went on to encourage every Catholic to “rekindle this Eucharistic amazement” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, par. 6). 

We hope and pray that the true presence of Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar will strengthen the faith of believers, remove doubts from the minds of skeptics, and serve as a reminder to all of us that the Eucharist is a miracle. Every Eucharist is a miracle. 

Unlike baptism and confirmation, the Eucharist is not a sacrament we experience only once. Again and again, we are called to this table to be with Jesus who desperately wants to be with us, to nourish us and to strengthen us on this journey of faith. In a sermon given to catechumens on the feast of Pentecost, St Augustine said of the Eucharist, “Become what you see, and receive what you are”. The Body and Blood of Christ are not only to be adored, but they are also to be received with love and with the fervent prayer that we might become what we receive, the Body and Blood of Christ completely poured out for others. As we celebrate this great feast, may we resolve to encounter the Lord at every Mass with a focus to be renewed. ###