HOMILIES FOR CORPUS CHRISTI

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SACRIFICIAL BANQUET

CORPUS CHRISTI

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We can understand the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through different perspectives or theologies just like looking at a diamond in its different facets and still we cannot grasp fully its grandeur and beauty.  I wish to invite you to look at the Eucharist in the perspective of SACRIFICIAL BANQUET.

          In our next meal, before we eat, let’s take a look at the food on our plates.  Maybe there will be meat, fish, rice or bread, veggies and other stuff there.  All of them were once living creatures yet they gave up their lives to be our food to nourish us.  Maybe most of us will say “that’s what they’re here for.”  Without them knowing it, their lives were sacrificed so we can eat and grow and continue living.

          Now let’s take a look at the two powerful symbols used in the Eucharist: the bread and wine. The bread comes from many thousands of grain of wheat which were ground into flour; in the same manner the wine comes from many grapes crushed into juice.  In a symbolic sense, the grains and grapes have to give up their individual lives to become part of a transformation that requires death and sacrifice.  Not only that, the wheat has to pass through fire and the juice has to pass fermentation, again symbolic of yet another stage of death and sacrifice. Once they become bread and wine, their highest level of sacrifice happens when they have to give up their being bread and wine to become the Flesh and Blood of the God who created them.  In a sense, their sacrificial act of dying to themselves is given the ultimate reward ever given to any created being.

          Jesus’ flesh and blood were ground and crushed just like the grains and the grapes and passed through the summit of sacrifice on the cross in order to become real food and drink.  The word sacrifice comes from two Latin words sacra (which means “sacred”) and facere (which means “to make”).  Literally a sacrifice is an act of offering something to a deity who transforms the thing being offered which becomes sacred.  Jesus who is our High Priest did not offer anything other than his whole being on the altar of the cross.  It was the Father who accepted the offering of his Son and made it sacred.  Jesus offered his body on the cross and the Father transformed it into a transcended and transfigured body as a sign of his acceptance.   It was not just accepted by the Father but was given back to the people who murdered His Son to be their food.

          Whenever we gather as God’s people in the Eucharistic table, we partake in the fellowship which is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  Here when we break bread together, just like from many grains, we are invited to be crushed and die to ourselves just like the sacrifice we celebrate.  So the Eucharist is not just a celebration where we feed our hungry souls with the bread from heaven but we celebrate our own death and resurrection with the Paschal Mystery of Jesus.  In the Eucharist, we just do not become what we eat, we are sanctified because we become the sacrifice we offer.   In the Eucharist, eternal life starts here and now.

BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST: THE BOUNDLESS GOD!

CORPUS CHRISTI – B

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

         Almost every religion has rituals through which the people aspire to connect with a deity.  These rituals  are set of man-made prayers/incantations and actions/dances which express the longing of humanity to reach out to the divine.  What makes Christianity unique is in its liturgy which is expressed in the celebration of the Sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ. 

         On the night before Jesus died, he celebrated the First Mass through the Last Supper which would be an anticipation of the great sacrifice he would be offering on the cross.   During the Last Supper, he offered himself in the form of bread and wine which will would be his body and blood on the cross.  Therefore he was the High Priest and at the same time the Victim being offered in one continuous event of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.  This is the mystery of the Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) in the Holy Eucharist.

        

1.   It is a SACRIFICE!  While the sacrifices of all other religions are made by man, our sacrifice is one, ultimate and unrepeated offered by God-man Jesus.  It sanctifies the cosmos, humanity and each individual person as it transforms all worldly realities unto the realm of the divine.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, we do NOT repeat the sacrifice of Jesus but rather we re-live it and make it present so that we can still participate in that salvific event even if it happened two thousand years ago.  The sanctuary is transformed into Calvary; the cross stands now as the altar of redemption; the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood and the High Priest is now the ordinary man celebrating the mass.  In the unfolding of this great sacrifice of which we part, the Word becomes flesh once again:  "This is my Body…."

2.   It is FOOD!  Jesus fully understands the nature of man and its basic needs so he bequeathed himself to humanity in the form of food.  As compared to ordinary foods, his Body and Blood is for spiritual nourishment.  It is the fruit of man’s offering (bread and wine) to God that is given back,  transformed (Body and Blood of Christ) and transforming those who are participating on it (the Mystical Body of Christ).  In our communion of this heavenly food, we become one with Christ and with one another as companions (cum = with; panis = bread) on the journey!

3.   It is a SACRAMENT!  Instituted at the Last Supper and fulfilled on the cross, the Body and Blood of Jesus continue to confer grace to humanity.  It is the sacrament of the God’s love beyond understanding expressed in divine self-emptying (kenosis) so that man may have fullness of life (pleroma). 

      The Body and Blood of Christ is God’s overflowing and excessive charity which is beyond measure.  This is the boundless God whom we encounter (liturgy) and partake (communion) as he continues to transform us unto the image of Jesus Christ!

THE BODY OF CHRIST AS A LIVING ORGANISM

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CORPUS CHRISTI – C

As we celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ), let us focus our reflection on the Body of Christ as a living organism.   A corpse is a dead body because it is devoid of life due to the absence of a soul which is the principle of life.  The Body of Christ is not a corpse because it was risen from the dead during the resurrection.  It is alive, breathing, pulsating and full of energy.   Being the physical body of Jesus Christ it was bruised, crucified, died and rose back to life.   No other human being who lived on this earth experienced such phenomenon:  Jesus alone!  Others might have been resuscitated back to life but their physical bodies did not have the eternal qualities of Jesus’ body. 

It was this physical body of Jesus who could generate life not just for itself but a new body which is spiritual and mystical. From His tortured body hanging on the cross in the height of excruciating pain, Jesus gave birth to the New Humanity.   On Calvary, the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, was born from the open breast of Jesus.   This was symbolized by the blood and water which gushed forth from the side of Jesus which are the sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism respectively. 

To become a member of this Mystical Body of Christ, one has to be baptized.  Once baptized, a person is grafted into the very life of its Body whose Head is Jesus Christ.   The Church being a living organism is made up of the followers of Jesus and they form one spiritual body which is patterned after the physical body of Jesus.   In this mystical phenomenon, all the members are inter-connected with each other as if through a bond like interwoven threads that form a beautiful tapestry.  Each member is also like a piece of tile which is placed in a particular design in the formation of a mosaic.  The joys and pains, the glory and struggles of all the members become the living fibers in unity that creates harmony.   That is why, each member is most valuable in the operation of that body because each one completes the masterpiece of God.  

The Eucharist which also came from the heart of Jesus is the celebration par excellence that expresses the very essence of the Mystical Body of Christ.  Like the body that needs nourishment, as a living organism it is also needs spiritual nourishment which comes from the sacrifice of its Head and founder.   When the members gather to celebrate the Eucharist they enter into a living memorial of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. As they re-live the events in the life of Jesus, they enter into a Kairos, a sacred time when:

The sanctuary is transformed into Calvary

The cross now stands as the altar of redemption

The Eternal High Priest is now an ordinary man

The body of the hanging victim is raised as bread

And his precious blood flows as wine into the cup

Lo and behold the unfolding of a great mystery:

The Word becomes flesh again: “This is my Body….”

Every celebration of the Eucharist even in its humblest form is of epic proportion when grace explodes and radiates into the universe transforming every fiber of creation into the realm of God.  This is the beauty and grandeur of the Eucharist.  We may not see nor understand it but it is happening and we are part of this great mystery.  That is why the Eucharist is the greatest treasure of the Church!

BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

CORPUS CHRISTI  

Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

         Since time immemorial, blood has been the symbol of life!  It is the innermost red river that flows in the very depth of  every man and woman.  In many ancient worships and religions, shedding of blood expresses the highest form of sacrifice.  In covenant ceremonies, blood is sacrificed by cutting an animal into halves to show the seriousness of the obligation.  The  partners in the covenant take an oath to be faithful by marching between the halves lest they also be cut in halves should they be unfaithful.

         Jesus initiated the New Covenant with us through His blood.    He did this by giving a new meaning to the Jewish Passover by transforming it into the Eucharist which henceforth will be the new salvific event for all peoples.   We may say that the Last Supper is the “blood compact” of Jesus which makes us one with Him, with God and with one another.  We all become “blood-related” hence our unity being symbolized by the crushed wheat and grapes in the Eucharist.  The wine transformed into blood by the words of Jesus “This is my blood of the covenant” and the bread into  His body “This is my body” during the Last Supper would be the prefiguration of the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross.

         Unlike other sacrifices, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was perfect and unrepeatable being the High Priest of the New Covenant.  When we offer the Mass, the priest does not repeat the sacrifice of Jesus but rather he re-lives it and makes it present together with the community that celebrates it.  The sacrifice offered by the faithful transforms them into the mystery they celebrate, namely they become the visible manifestation of the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church.

         The sacrifice is not just an offering of worship to God but God accepting that sacrifice and transforming it and given back to us as food.   God takes what we offer and makes it alive; it becomes His Body and Blood served in a banquet.  Like the Last Supper, it is a meal that we share together as covenanted friends.   And because we partake in the cup of the blood of Christ, we renew that blood-compact which is our covenant with God and with each other.  The blood of Christ which is mixed with our human blood makes us all together sacred because His blood is running through our veins.  And because we partake in the flesh of Christ our bodies are transformed into the temples of God.  This divine life which is given to us through Baptism grows as we eat the Eucharistic food again and again.

         This is the beauty and the grandeur of the Eucharist.  That is why Vatican II proclaims that the Eucharist is the apex of the Christian life. 

        

        

        

        

BODY and BLOOD OF CHRIST

CORPUS CHRISTI – A

John 6:51-58

      In our next meal, before we eat, let’s take a look at the food on our plates.  Maybe there will be meat, fish, rice or bread, veggies and other stuff there.  Most of them were once living creatures which become food for our nourishment.  When we eat them, they become part of the fibre of our bodies; they become part of us. 

      On the night before Jesus died, he gave us a legacy that will remind us of his undying love by giving himself in the form of food which is the Eucharist.  Now let’s take a look at the two powerful symbols used in the Eucharist: the bread and wine. The bread comes from hundred of thousands of grain of wheat which were ground into flour; in the same manner the wine comes from many grapes crushed into wine.  In a symbolic sense, the grains and grapes had to give up their individual lives to become part of a transformation that requires death and sacrifice.  Not only that, the wheat has to pass through fire and the juice has to pass fermentation, again symbolic of yet another stage of death and sacrifice. Once they become bread and wine, their highest level of sacrifice happens when they have to give up their being bread and wine to become the Flesh and Blood of the God who created them.  In a sense, their sacrificial act of dying to themselves is given the ultimate reward ever given to any created being.

      Jesus’ flesh was ground like the grains and his blood was crushed like the grapes and passed through the summit of sacrifice on the cross in order to become real food and drink.  The word sacrifice comes from two Latin words sacra ( “sacred”) and facere (“to make”).  Literally a sacrifice is an act of offering something to a deity who transforms the thing being offered which becomes sacred.  Jesus who is our High Priest did not offer anything other than his whole being on the altar of the cross.  It was the Father who accepted the offering of his Son and sanctified it.  Jesus offered his body on the cross and the Father transformed it into a transcended and transfigured body as a sign of his acceptance.   It was not just accepted by the Father but was given back to the people to be their food.

      Whenever we gather as God’s people in the Eucharistic table, we partake in the fellowship which is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  In a bloodless manner, we commemorate and make present the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross Here when we break bread together, just like from many grains, we are invited to be crushed and die to ourselves just like the sacrifice we celebrate.  The Eucharist is not just a celebration where we feed our hungry souls with the bread from heaven but we celebrate our own death and resurrection with the Paschal Mystery of Jesus.  In the Eucharist, we offer the sacrifice of Jesus again to the Father in the form of bread and wine together with all our personal offerings.  Our Offering is accepted by the Father and is returned to us as spiritual food!  As members of the Body of Christ we just do not become what we eat but we are also sanctified by it because we become the sacrifice we offer.   In the Eucharist we have the foretaste of eternal life because we do not only eat the bread from heaven but we also celebrate our union with God here and now.