Corpus Christi

This is the bread that came down from heaven. 

Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Catholics take very seriously our belief in the Body and Blood of Christ. The Blessed Sacrament is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ. If he were to appear to us in his Galilean flesh as he did to his disciples we could not revere him more than we do the Eucharist.

We honor the memory of Saint Tarcisius, a third century Roman boy who carried the Sacrament to Christian prisoners as they awaited martyrdom in the Coliseum. Confronted in the street by a gang he would not surrender his precious burden to them and they beat him to death. We honor him today as the patron saint of Eucharistic Ministers and acolytes.

More recently, we remember the invasion of a church by communist guerillas during the Spanish Civil War. They wrenched open the tabernacle and scattered the Blessed Sacrament over the floor, then barricaded the doors of the church which had never been locked. None of the citizenry dared to reopen the church, but a boy climbed through a shattered window in the night. On his knees he picked up a single wafer with his tongue and devoutly consumed it. At that time the Church did not permit the laity to receive communion more than once a day. He returned night after night doing the same thing until he was discovered and executed.

In my former parish in Louisiana I heard another story of our devotion. On First Communion Sunday, before desegregation, the white children made their first communion, and then white adults received the sacrament. And then the black children made their first communion, followed by the black adults. African-American Catholics were willing to endure this humiliation week after week because they believed in and loved the Sacrament. In the face of blind contempt and arrogance, these Catholics witnessed their faith.

We keep these mythic stories alive -- and thousands like them -- to remind us how precious is the Blessed Sacrament, and how great the cost Jesus paid for his willingness to be with us.

His being born among us would have sufficed for our salvation; his gift of the Eucharist was far more than we deserved; but he chose to go further, beyond anything we could imagine or dare to ask. He chose to die in the most ignominious fashion, upon a cross, after being fatally scourged by the Roman torture, after being rejected and despised by his own people, and abandoned by his own disciples. Words fail to describe the horror of the crucifixion, but we see beauty in it, the beauty of the Blessed Sacrament.

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we thank God again for remaining with us in the Blessed Sacrament and we pray that God will deem us worthy to receive such a gift.

(P.S. You might enjoy more reflections on this gift from my homily-blog of last year.