The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 2, 2024

Mark 14, 12–16; 22–26

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover. While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my Body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my Blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

This solemnity was established by Pope Urban IV in 1264 at the urging of St. Thomas Aquinas, to whom the pope gave the responsibility of composing the Mass and the Office for it.  This commission resulted in the composition of the hymn Pange Lingua, verses from which comprise O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo Sacramentum.  The establishment of this feast followed the settling of a controversy regarding the Real Presence of Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament.  This feast differs from that of Holy Thursday in that the latter celebrates, besides the origin of the Blessed Sacrament, the establishment of the Priesthood and the Last Supper of Jesus with his Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion.  Corpus Christi, on the other hand, solely celebrates the gift of the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  

“Take it; this is my Body.”  St. Mark relates the institution of the Blessed Sacrament very simply.  For him, it is the sign of the Passion and Death of our Lord, sealing the New Covenant to which the Lord joins us.  It is difficult to misunderstand the Lord’s words.  He makes his meaning very plain: he has changed the bread before him into the substance of his Body.  All that remains of the bread is its appearance, which the Lord permits for the sake of its easy consumption by us.  

“This is my Blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”  Covenants were made in blood, signifying a joining of wills and purposes, that one would die for the other, and that the one who broke it would die.  Eating the Lord’s Body and drinking his Blood confirms the Covenant each of us joined with God in Baptism.  This is the New Covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31, 33: “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law in their inmost parts, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  In the making of the covenant of God with Israel through Moses, the people were sprinkled with the blood of the animals sacrificed on the occasion.  In the making of the New Covenant, we drink the Blood of the Lamb slain for us, receiving it not on our skin but in our inmost parts.

“I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”  Here the Lord announces the imminence of his sacrificial Death, in which his Blood “will be shed for many”.

Consuming the Lord’s Body and Blood renews us as members of his Body, as a people joined to God through the Covenant which he sealed.  At Holy Communion we renew our commitment to live as the people of God, promising him that we will obey his commandments and living the life he sets out for us.