Today’s homily is for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Sunday, June 6, 2021, and the readings can be found by clicking here. The video can be viewed by clicking here soon.
Today is The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi Sunday. Like last week where we reflected on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the week prior when we reflected on the Gift of the Spirit, at Pentecost, we continue our celebration of God’s generosity in gift-giving, with the gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the words of consecration, and the holy hands of the priest, ordinary bread and wine is transformed into the body and blood of our Lord himself. This belief is central to what it means to be a Catholic Christian, and is a belief we share with our Orthodox brothers and sisters as well.
In John 6 Jesus said we must eat his flesh and drink his blood if we are to have life within us. At the Last Supper, the Gospel reading today, we heard from the words of Jesus Himself when he instituted it, and in 1 COR 11: 11:23 St. Paul taught the Church in Corinth what he had himself received from the Lord, namely, that on the night [Jesus] was betrayed he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” What a beautiful gift of his very self that we might by receiving it be transformed into his likeness by feeding on him weekly, and if possible, even daily. The Catechism teaches that, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, and in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.” (1324)
Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Joy of the Gospel, said that the Eucharist, “is not a prize for the perfect, but a generous medicine and food for the weak.” Of course the quote was not his own but that of Pope Saint Pius X, who in 1910 recalled the error of the Jansenist heretics, “who maintained that the Most Holy Eucharist was a prize, not medicine of human weakness.” (Decree Quam Singulari) Pure rubbish. Which among us here is perfect? Not me, that’s certain. Quite the contrary. We are here because we are not perfect, are aware of our poverty, our lack, and our need for a savior. And for those who humbly approach the throne of God’s mercy, mercy is given under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem boldly said, “[Jesus] Himself, therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, “This is My Body,” who will dare any longer to doubt? And when He Himself has affirmed and said, “This is My Blood,” who can ever hesitate and say it is not His Blood? Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.”
St. Paul tells the Corinthians, “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.” And he warns that before receiving communion with the Lord, one must examine oneself. He says the one who eats and drinks unworthily, without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself! And what does worthiness consist of so that we might receive the Eucharist? Only this, that we are acutely aware of our unworthiness. Our Lord is nothing we can ever earn, is no prize, no reward for our good conduct. It is only a gift who, like a poor beggar, we receive with outstretched arms and a humble and contrite heart. It’s why before receiving communion we make the words of the centurion our own, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
We encourage those who are not ready or unable to receive Holy Communion, to approach the altar in the communion line, and then cross their arms over their chest to receive a blessing. As Catholics, we fully participate in the celebration of the Eucharist when we receive Holy Communion. We are encouraged to receive Communion devoutly and frequently. In order to be properly disposed to receive Communion we should actually be in communion with the Lord and with our neighbor, both of whom we are called to love. Communicants should not be conscious of grave sin and normally should have fasted for one hour before receiving the Lord, and generally speaking, a person who is conscious of grave sin must be reconciled to God and to the community through sacramental confession before receiving, so that he or she might not receive unworthily, bringing certain judgement.
Quite different from the Jansenist heretics, the Church preaches that even those who have any addiction or are crawling on the path of holiness must confess and receive the Eucharist. It is enough that we sincerely desire to change and return to God. It is necessary to get up and start again, on each humiliating relapse! Look around, we are the dregs, the broken, the misfits, the sinners who approached the Lord for healing 2,000 years ago and who approach him still. Who lifted a friend through the roof, who climbed a tree to see Jesus; who sit and beg our Lord for sight. Those who bind themselves together arm in arm, exhausted from battle against evil, with some wins, but mostly losses, who drag themselves to the Church, a sanctuary and hospital for souls, to receive the medicine of immortality, the food of eternal life–The body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ–against whom we have no claim, but who claims us as his own nonetheless, and feeds us with his own precious flesh and blood.
Pope Pius X said, “Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven. There are others: innocence, but that is for little children; penance, but we are afraid of it; generous endurance for the trials of life, but when they come we weep and ask to be spared. The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist.” Rise, receive him humbly, thankfully, worthily.
The Catholic Deacon 