Homily for Corpus Christi, 2005.
Some commentators hold that the family meal is not what it used to be. A number of problems present themselves. The family meal is too formal and staid for some people's liking. Successive generations do not share the same taste in food. A bag of crisps and a coke from the fridge will appear far more attractive than the boring traditional roast, or bacon and cabbage or whatever. The experience of different generations sharing a confined space over an extended period of time is not a stimulating prospect. It spells BORING writ large. However, all of these problems and tensions have nothing very much to do with the actual fare on offer, with the actual menu of the day. The family meal acts as a social barometer. Society is not as cohesive as it was. People today have the freedom to opt out, to absent themselves.
Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is the most intense expression of the Churches identity. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he was using as his foundation the most common human experience: the family meal. At the family meal we not only receive the essential nourishment to keep us alive and energetic. Over the family meal we also strengthen family bonds; we build up one another, encouraging those who are downcast, forgiving those who have offended us, and accepting forgiveness from those whom we ourselves have offended. At the family meal, problems are ironed out and hurts healed. We are most intensely a family when we sit down to the Sunday dinner. Meals are not merely family affairs. Meals are the focal points of community celebrations. We celebrate events through having a meal together. In this context, the meal we will be most familiar with is the wedding meal. It was so too when Jesus walked this earth. His presence at Cana shows that he too saw the communal significance of the wedding meal. Through a meal we celebrate this significant event in our community. Even those who are not present are involved. The custom still exists in many country places of sending a piece of the wedding cake to those who were unable to make it to the celebration itself. Distant relatives who might be be feeling sour about being passed over were kept sweet with this piece of wedding cake. Through this they were involved. Strangely enough, the Church works in the same way. Many parishes have the custom of taking the holy Eucharist to the sick, to those who are unable to attend, directly from the parish Sunday celebration. Ministers of the Eucharist go directly from the Parish Mass to the homes of the sick. They carry with them the payers and concerns of the assembled Christian community. The meal is used to draw people into the event, either physically or symbolically.
This is the common human experience which Jesus employed to build up his community. The Eucharist is the family meal of the Christian Community. When family members are leaving us, or when they are away, the often leave us something with which to remember them: sometimes a photograph or sometimes an object that was very special to them. As we know, when Jesus was leaving his friends, he commanded them to break bread in his name: "This is my body, This is my blood. Do this in memory of me." At Mass the Christian family gathers to reminisce about Jesus, to listen to stories about him, to rededicate ourselves to his ideals, and to draw strength from receiving his person through the sacrament of the Eucharist. Not only do we share his body and blood, but we are also in communion with each other through him, by our sharing the common family meal of the Church. Through Holy Communion, the individual Christians are bonded as a community. The unifying factor is Christ himself. Through the body of Christ, we are made the body of Christ. This unity is meant to endure beyond the doors of the Church. When the priest says the words of dismissal at the end of the Mass, he is really saying: "You who have been made the Body of Christ, go now and live as his body."
Jesus took ordinary elements of human experience, bread, wine and the family meal, and he elevated them into God-bearing gifts. When we come to Church on Sundays to listen to the Scriptures and to break bread together, we are being told: Go back to your homes and to your places of work and seek out the God who is waiting for you there in the ordinary events of your everyday life. At the Eucharist, we elevate the ordinary elements of life so that you may go back to your homes and see those ordinary things in an elevated light. God is no longer limited by factors of history or geography. He is now present forever in the heart of our world. It remains to us but to recognise him and to respond to him with reverence. This is this is the mystery we are celebrating today.