The Feast of Corpus Christi
Feast of Corpus Christi, also called Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, festival of the Roman Catholic Church in honour of the real presence of the body (corpus) of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
What does this mean for us?
This Sunday, Catholics all around the world, celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. The readings for the Mass on Sunday present us with two stories. The first is about Jesus’ celebration of the Eucharist.
On the very same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’
In the same way he took the cup after supper and said, then he took a cup of wine, blessed it and shared it with his friends. He said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’
Through this action Jesus wants his followers to remember his offering of himself on the altar of the cross
Come forward 2,000 years, when we go to Mass, we celebrate his offering of his body and blood. Before COVID, we would bring gifts of bread and wine to the altar. The bread and wine presented to the priest have spiritual value and meaning. They can represent our lives and the things we do to help others, our compassion, our courage to make a difference in our world and our commitment to be kind and generous. When we act in this way as Christians, it is as if we pay it forward.
In the Gospel reading, we learn that Jesus had been teaching a large group of people — there were thousands there and it was late in the day. His apostles came to him worried about taking responsibility for all those people and then we hear about the feeding of the 5000.
Pope Francis once said, “Christ needs this little bit — like what happened in the multiplication of the bread — to transform it into the Eucharistic gift which nourishes and unites everyone in his body, which is the Church.”
We as Corpus Christi College community can transform the Eucharistic gift into our lives when we help others through our Vinnies Appeal, Cooking for the Homeless, and other acts of service. We become one body, one community when we support each other to become people of Courage, Compassion and Committed to being a positive difference in the world.
