Corpus Christi
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. 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 places of sending a piece of the wedding cake to those who were unable to make it to the celebration itself. 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, they often leave us something with which to remember them: sometimes a photograph or sometimes an object that was very special to them. As we read in today's gospel, when Jesus was leaving his friends, he commanded them to break bread in his name: this is my body, this is my blood. 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 Christian community is made into a community. The unifying factor is Christ himself. By the body of Christ, we are made the body of Christ.
St. Augustine was very strong on this unifying quality of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist Christ gives the Church his body so that we may become his body. By consuming the sacramental body of Christ, they are formed into the ecclesial body of Christ. When the faithful hear the words 'Body of Christ', and reply 'Amen', they are giving assent to what they are, personally adding their signature. Augustine urges, 'Be what you see and receive what you are.'
But Augustine was in the habit of attaching a warning or a condition at the end of his sermons on the Eucharist. 'Any who receive the sacrament of unity and do not hold the bond of peace, do not receive the sacrament to their benefit, but a testimony against themselves.' 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 reminding the congregation to go out and live what they have become. This is the manner in which Jesus is now present among us. It is the most intense expression of the Christian community.
The first example we have in the scriptures of Jesus being present to his followers in this new way is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. According to that story, the two great pointers to God's abiding presence in our world are, firstly, the scriptures and secondly, 'the breaking of bread' or the Eucharist. Again, the purpose of the Eucharist is not to make God present in the world. It is to remind mankind that God is already present in the world, in our lives.
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. It remains to us but to recognise him and to respond to him with reverence. This is the mystery we are celebrating today.