Thoughts on the Feast of Corpus Christi

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, often known simply by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ.

It was only about two months ago, on Holy Thursday, that the Church celebrated the body and blood of Christ. It might seem odd to commemorate that gift again so soon, but this weekend’s celebration has a different character. Holy Thursday was solemn and focused our attention of Jesus’ death. Today’s solemnity is joyful and focuses us on the mission begun at Pentecost: to act as Christ did and share his love with the world.

As St. Paul suggests, this term can have two meanings: the Body of Christ which we share in the Eucharist, and the body of Christ that we form as a community of believers united with the Risen Christ.

This combination of meanings reminds us that the Eucharist is profoundly social. This Sunday’s reading from 1 Corinthians provides a concise but very rich statement about what we do when we celebrate the Eucharist as the people. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians (and us) that as members of the body of Christ we constitute one body. It is a natural symbol and powerful image, reminding us of how all of its parts must work together and of how no part can be hurt without the whole body being hurt. Christ makes this body different. He comes first; he makes the body; his relationship to us forms us into the body of Christ. Our vertical relationship with Christ has as its necessary consequence our horizonal relationship with one another. In that social sense we are the body of Christ. As Paul states, as members of Christ’s body, we affirm our identity and unity when we receive the eucharistic body of Christ.

In this Sunday’s Gospel from John, Jesus identifies himself as the living bread that came down from heaven. When his disciples take in and become all that he is, the life forces he enfleshed continue to be offered for the life of the world. The interconnectedness of all persons and all life in the body of Christ is not an abstract concept; it is palpable and visible. Our participation in the Eucharist concretizes and energizes our relationship with Christ and with one another. As members of the body of Christ, we share in the body of Christ.

One final thought: Jesus’ body was a place of action. In his body, Jesus healed, fed, forgave, called and taught. Through Jesus’ body, humanity felt God’s love. John teaches us today how we too can, like Jesus, give God a body from which to act and a heart from which to love. Our love of Christ’s body should make of own bodies a place from which God can act in love, thus continuing the mission of Christ.


Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.