The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Lectionary: 168
...he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves
but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ...


The Catholic imagination, like that of the Bible, is not given to metaphorical language. We take things literally. When Jesus commands us to, "Eat! This is my flesh!" we eat it. And when he says, "Drink! This is my blood!" we drink it.
We don't hesitate and ask, "Do you mean this is like my body, and like my blood?" If the Lord with such urgency makes this demand, we do what he tells us, accepting his explanation in so many words.

And so when we read that he has entered God's heavenly sanctuary "with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption" we rejoice in the redemption he has won for us. We're not given to parsing out that sentence and asking whether he carried his blood in a cup, jug, bucket, or chalice.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ was established by Pope Urban IV in 1264 at the instigation of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Originally assigned to the second Thursday after Pentecost, Catholic Churches in the United States observe it on the following Sunday. On that weekly day of rest we may take more time to honor the mystery with prayers, processions, and vigils. Since many Protestant Reformers dispute the meaning of Jesus's words and generally dismiss his command to eat and drink, Catholics regard the feastday with all the more solemnity.

Corpus Christi closes the Easter Season as Holy Thursday Evening Mass opened the Triduum of Easter. We cannot fathom the Crucifixion of the Lord or his Resurrection without his introducing us to the mysteries during the Last Supper. His washing the feet of his disciples looks only like an over-the-top-humble gesture of hospitality, and his commands to eat my flesh and drink my blood sound just plain silly until we see him suspended above the earth and dying by crucifixion.

We enter and become part of his Paschal Mystery as we celebrate the Mass. He gathers us by our eating and drinking into his body which is suspended above the earth and laid beneath it. And when he enters the sanctuary of heaven "with his own blood" he carries our blood also.

We call the Mass a "sacrifice" because it places us within Jesus's sacrificial death. The ceremony reminds us that we must live sacrificial lives. We give our time, energy, talent, money, recreation, rest, work, relationships, and bodies to the Lord. Whatever we have is gift, and by our Baptism and Eucharist it belongs to the Lord. That is our pleasure, privilege, and daily delight. 

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ take us there. 

On this June 6, let us remember this day in 1944 with its grief and anguish; and beg God to save us from war.