Corpus Christi

By Fr. Leo C. Pabayo SJ

LAST Sunday was the solemn feast day of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi is the Latin word for the Body and Blood of Christ. The feast is otherwise known as the feast of the Holy Eucharist or the Mass. Many Catholic schools run by Catholic priests or lay Catholics are named Corpus Christi in remembrance of this Mystery in the Life of Christ.

The Holy Eucharist or the Mass is central in the life of a Catholic Christian for it is a celebration of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ which is central in the proclamation of the Good News of the Gospel. This article offers the writer’s own understanding based on the Catholic Church’s teachings on the meaning of this feast.

In creating the world and us God has also made himself to be present in the world. God, therefore, is not only in heaven but God is very much in this world. God is here in his Spirit. And while God is present here in His Spirit, He is also present in his body because in a very real sense God shares of himself in every bodily or physical reality that He creates. God manifests his divine attributes in these.

In a very real sense, we can speak of every material and physical reality of the world as making God physically visible. God does so according to the nature of these realities.

But God does so most especially so in in man whom He has created in his image and likeness.

God therefore created the world for the purpose of sustaining us men and women in our existence in every way needed by us. This need comes to us not only as food for our body but especially so for our spirit. This is so because every material or physical reality that God creates is meant to embody the spirit or meaning of what God has in mind in creating mankind and the world.

Another way of saying it is that the matter and physical reality that God creates to sustain our physical existence. But especially so to signify or point to some meaning that nourish our spiritual life as God’s children.

How does this happen in the particular and concrete realities of human life? We are taught this in the following Offertory prayer of the Mass. The first example of this is in our natural family life.

At the Offertory of the Mass or the Offering of the bread and wine the priest prays, “Blessed are you Lord God of all creation through your goodness we have this bread to offer, fruit of the earth and work of human hands, may it become our spiritual food.” Then, “Blessed are you Lord God of all creation through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands, may it become our spiritual drink.”

Let us relate this now to the family meal. During a family meal the food shared by the family are in very real sense the fruit of the earth and the result of the work of the parents. As such they have the added value or meaning of being signs of the life-giving love of the parents for their children. This food might have been obtained through the blood, sweat and tears of the father who worked for them and mother who cooked them, not to mention the hard work of the farmers or fishermen who first obtained them from nature. It is because of their love and sacrifice that the children are nourished. If the children realize this they are also receiving nourishment spiritually.

This is often taken for granted by the children. It should therefore be part of our teaching in catechism to let the children be grateful for this. It is therefore sad when children complain of the food their parents give them.

A family may be poor as not to be able to obtain the food that has all the desired ingredients and flavoring but if great love is behind whatever little that the parents bring home for their children that are honestly obtained by their sacrifice it can be said that the children get greater nourishment from them. In this situation the children are eating not only “by bread” but from every the “word that comes from the mouth of God” that the parents live by in a very real way.

In other words, when a family sit down at table to partake of the food that comes from the work of the human hands of the father and mother, their children are nourished not only physically but also spiritually. They are nourished spiritually by their spirit of love of the parents for their children that brought about food at the table.

The food at the table of a family also signifies the union of the members of the family with one another because what they eat is the product of the labor of love of the parents for each other and for their children.

However, the eating together of this food signifies the union or the spiritual communion of the family only to a certain extent.

To a certain extent only because they are still on the way to fulfilling the promised perfection of this union that they are called by Christ to strive for. “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” The full realization or fulfillment of this communion in in Christ in his act of saving us from sin and giving us new life in the Holy Spirit.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26). By virtue of this our life has been made new. The Mass is a celebration of this. Because of this celebration, a disciple of Christ is not wanting in spiritual and bodily need as can be gleaned in Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2:42-46.

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart.”