CORPUS CHRISTI--THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Rejoice in the Eucharist

How beautiful that today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ – Feast Day of Corpus Christ – in the second year of the National Eucharistic Revival! This special day began in the heart of a nun, St Juliana of Cornillon/Liege, who loved the Eucharist from her youth and whom the Lord asked to plead for a special day so that faith in the Eucharist would flourish forever in the Church. Pope Urban IV instituted the Solemnity in 1264, six years after her death. The Church rejoices!

In our first reading from Exodus, the people proclaim with Moses, "We will do everything the LORD has told us!" in response to the flesh and blood covenant God makes with them. In our second reading from Hebrews, we are told how much greater is our salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, "who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God" to "cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God." Our Gospel acclamation from John 6 tells us what we need to do: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven,/ says the Lord; /whoever eats this bread will live forever." And in our Gospel reading, Jesus institutes the Eucharistic sacrifice of the new Covenant: "This is my body... this is my blood." We partake of the one body, one blood that atones for our sins and offers us eternal life.

We can turn to St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote some of his most beautiful hymns for this Solemnity (O Salutaris Hostia, Tantum Ergo Sacramentum, Adore Te Devote) and who was consulted prior to its institution. In his Summa theologiae, he offers us a grammar of faith by which we can measure our belief: credere Deum, credere Deo, and credere in Deum. The first is simply to believe in God. The second is to have faith in what God tells us. The third is to believe into God, to experience God and to entrust ourselves to him.

Brothers and sisters, let's grow into God in the Eucharist. Let's pray to experience him there each and every day as did St. Juliana who died gazing upon her Beloved. Let's enter into the luminous mystery of his Divine Presence who promises to be with us until the end of the age. Let's give thanks to the God who enters into us and makes us one community growing in Christ. Let's worship and adore him, the source and summit of our lives. Amen.

–Laura Tattoo

Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends.