Corpus Christi - The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

This official day for the celebration of this feast is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and is a holyday of obligation. However, it has been transferred in many countries, including the Philippines, to the following Sunday.

Corpus Christ procession in Archdiocese of St Paul-Minneapolis, USA

Readings

New American Bible (Philippines, USA)

Jerusalem Bible (Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland)

Gospel (Lk 9:11b-17)

Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God,

and he healed those who needed to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close,

the Twelve approached him and said,

"Dismiss the crowd

so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms

and find lodging and provisions;

for we are in a deserted place here."

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."

They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have,

unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."

Now the men there numbered about five thousand.

Then he said to his disciples,

"Have them sit down in groups of about fifty."

They did so and made them all sit down.

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,

and looking up to heaven,

he said the blessing over them, broke them,

and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

They all ate and were satisfied.

And when the leftover fragments were picked up,

they filled twelve wicker baskets.

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Today’s feast reminds us of the simple and powerful fact that Jesus the Risen Lord gives himself to us under the appearance of bread and wine. At the offertory what is brought up in procession, or brought by the server to the altar, is bread and wine. At the consecration, the Holy Spirit, acting through the sacrament of Holy Orders that the priest has received, changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord.

Pope Benedict giving Holy Communion in Jordan

When we receive Holy Communion we publicly proclaim three things:

• We believe that we are receiving the Body of Christ the Risen Lord, not a symbol of Jesus Christ.
• We are members of the Catholic Church in full communion with it. For Catholics Holy Communion is an expression of unity already reached.
• We are worthy of receiving the Body of Christ in the sense that we have not broken our communion with him through mortal sin, that is a sin involving grave matter, full knowledge and full consent to the sin.

 If I know that I have committed a grave or mortal sin, which destroys my relationship with God, I have a serious obligation to confess that sin and to receive God’s merciful pardon, which in his eternal love, he desires lovingly for me. That is why Jesus became man and died on the Cross for us.

We also owe the deepest reverence to the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle for two reasons:

• In case someone who is seriously ill needs to receive Holy Communion.
• For adoration – prayer.

Pope John Paul II praying before the Blessed Sacrament

When the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle there is a little red light near it to let us know that Jesus the Risen Lord is there. We use the term ‘Real Presence’ to describe this reality. What is in the tabernacle is not some bread symbolizing Jesus, but Jesus the Risen Lord wholly present, ‘body, blood, soul and divinity’, as many of us learned in our catechism.

Mano po or Amen

Here in the Philippines we have gestures for showing respect to others. One which is totally foreign to Westerners is the mano po or amen when the one showing respect takes the right hand of the other and puts it to his forehead or lips. This sign of respect is used by children towards adults, especially their parents, and by newlyweds to their own parents and their new parents-in-law, by many, young and old, to the priest, and so on.

Genuflection after the Consecration

The proper form of respect towards Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament is the genuflection, when we place our right knee on the ground in front of the tabernacle when we enter a church or chapel and before we leave. In some countries, eg, Japan, a deep bow replaces this. The Cistercian Order (Trappists) also bow rather than genuflect. In the Philippines the proper sign of respect is the genuflection but very many, young and old, don’t observe this sign of respect. Many of those who don’t do so would be shocked if some young person didn’t use the mano po or failed to say ‘Good morning’.

A new tabernacle in Sacred Heart School, Wetaskiwin, Canada

When we genuflect we are making an act of adoration to Jesus the Risen Lord, God who became Man, who lived with us, died for us and rose from the dead so that we might live with him for ever in heaven.