Solemnity of Corpus Christi: 5-29-16
Peace be with You,
Friends, this weekend the Church celebrates Corpus Christi. As we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity last Sunday, this celebration could be no more perfectly placed; for, if the Trinity is that which is our source and end, the Eucharist is that which maintains our unity with that same Trinity.
Last week, we saw that the Person of Wisdom spoken of in our first reading from the book of Proverbs was indeed, Jesus Christ. We saw how Wisdom was present from all eternity, alongside the Creator as He spoke all into being. St. Paul, recognizing this, wrote in his Letter to the Colossians, that Christ “is before all things,” and then quickly adds “and in him all things hold together” (1:17). Paul then immediately proceeds to speak of the church as the Body of Christ, and that in Christ, all has been reconciled to God. My friends, this is the desire of God, that all may be one in Him, as Jesus prayed. The Eucharist is the means of accomplishing this beginning here and now. For, consider that all of us, who believe in this most holy sacrament become the very same Body we receive.
This is precisely why St. Katharine Drexel strove to center the life of her community around the Eucharist. For, dedicated to serving the least of God’s people, Katharine understood that the Eucharist could be a constant reminder and sign that all are one in Christ. Held together by the Eucharist, we are no longer strangers, but the very same Body working for the health and growth of this Body. No longer can we disregard those who have not, for their poverty is our poverty, their hunger is our hunger! This is the lesson Jesus teaches the disciples today. When they come to him saying he should send the crowds away because they had no way of feeding them, Jesus responds, ‘Feed them yourselves.’
My friends, as you receive the Eucharist today recognize Him Whom you receive and are united with! It is the very same Christ that came to give His life for the many! As you approach the altar today, remember the words of St. Augustine: “When you hear “The body of Christ,’ you reply ’Amen.’ Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “amen may ring true!”
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.
“And in Him all things hold together” … the theoretical supposition of gluon – the adhering affinity of sub-atomic
particles is substantiated with the accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. So Christ Jesus, “I am the Alpha-Omega” reverberates from within microcosm and macrocosm.