In the world of the Roman Catholic Church, the second Sunday following Pentecost is, what was once known in Latin as Corpus Christi Sunday or in today’s parlance, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. It was a feast suggested by Thomas Acquinas in the 13th century and later cemented into the Roman calendar by Pius V in the 16th century. It is a feast that focuses on the importance of the Eucharist as understood by the Roman Catholic Church, namely, the full presence of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine. One of the first documents of liturgical reform from Vatican II, “The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, stated that the celebration of the Eucharist is the source and the summit of all activity of the Catholic Church, grace flowing to and from the Eucharistic liturgy. It is only right to celebrate the power that the Eucharist plays in the lives of Roman Catholics.
On this Sunday in the past, priests would often carry a ciborium (a covered chalice containing consecrated hosts) into the countryside to bless the fields of farmers, asking God to bless the farmers in planting the crops, favorable weather for growing, and for a bountiful harvest of crops in the Fall. I served in a Franciscan parish (St Hubert, Chanhassen before it became an affluent suburb of Minneapolis) in which, on this feast, Mass was celebrated outside, and after holy communion, the priest with the ciborium of hosts would bless the north, the south, the east, and west with the Blessed Sacrament, a continuance of the old custom.
In the days of the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church, there were serious disagreements as to what Eucharist is, Catholic, Anglicans, Orthodox Churches still retaining that the consecrated elements were transformed permanently into the Body and Blood of Christ; the Lutheran Church arguing that the elements were only consecrated during the celebration of the liturgy and returned to its original elements of bread and wine, and the Calvinist tradition stating that nothing happened, bread and wine being merely a symbol and nothing more. At this dark time in the Christian churches when Protestants and Catholics were slaughtering each other in the name of Jesus, the “Prince of Peace” (the irony is so painful), the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ became more an ostentatious public display, with Roman Catholic priests adorned in golden vestments under golden canopies, holding a bejeweled, heavy golden monstrance (essentially a sarcophagus) in which was placed a consecrated host, followed by numerous black and white clad altar boys, and parishioners singing Latin Eucharistic hymns and choking on the cloud of pungent incense pouring out from thurifiers. Especially when they paraded through Protestant neighborhoods, it was a kind of an ‘in your face” defiance toward those Protestants and non-Christians who did not hold the same beliefs as Catholics. It came off less as an act of humility, adoration, and respecting the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and more an act of self-aggrandizement.
The liturgical reforms of Vatican II were a refreshing change from the ostentatious symbology of the Tridentine Latin Rite of the Counter-Reformation. The sacred vessels were now not composed of precious metals encrusted with jewels, but were more made from the earth, earthen vessels comprised of clay or more common metal like pewter. The Eucharist was no longer celebrated in a dead language that not even doctors and pharmacists used anymore, but celebrated in the native language of those present in ALL languages. The assembly were no longer spectators separated from the Eucharist by a wall with a gate from the sanctuary (communion rail) but invited into the sanctuary to celebrate Mass with the celebrant. The assembly was invited to participate FULLY in the sacred meal of the Mass, joining in the prayers and the singing of the Mass. Newer churches had the pews surrounding the altar and were built so that everyone could see and hear and participate in the action of the liturgy, not just seated and silent light years away from the sanctuary.
John Paul II put an end to these liturgical reforms and many of those following him, including many priests ordained since, are trying to bring back the Eucharistic liturgy to the Dark Ages of Trent and the Latin Rite. Gone are the earthen vessels holding the Body and Blood of Christ, and back are the bejeweled chalices and ciboriums of the Dark Ages. The liturgy becoming more and more not a celebration of the gathered community of the baptized, but returning to something done by an isolated male caste system.
The words of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah (Chapter 1:12b-17) come to mind:
“Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (NRSV)
St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians admonishes and condemns the Corinthian community’s celebration of the Eucharist. “For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you! (1 Cor. 11:18-22, NRSV)”
St Paul continues: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body (the Body of Christ of the Baptized), eat and drink judgment against themselves (eat and drink their own damnation).” (1 Cor 11:27-29, NRSV)
The preeminent Catholic Pauline scholar, Fr Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, in his commentary on 1st Corinthians stated that because of the divisive behavior of the rich of the Corinthian community toward the poor in the community, robbed the words of the Eucharist, the consecration, of its authenticity. The “priest” of the community may have spoken the words of consecration, but the behavior of the community nullified those words and the consecration never happened. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor explained that it was love (Christ’s sacrificial self-giving love) that gave power to the words of consecration and it can only be love (the sacrificial self-giving love of the ENTIRE Body of Christ, the Baptized) that will continue to give power to the words of consecration. And, ALL of the Baptized, not just priests, are to do this until it is no longer necessary when Jesus Christ comes again in glory: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26, NRSV)
On this most Holy Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, If we really want to increase devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the reception of Holy Communion must compel us to serve those most in need; to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to the homeless, to welcome the stranger and the immigrant, to provide healthcare to those who are sick, provide comfort to those who are dying, to visit those imprisoned, to care for our environment. If we don’t do these things, then all the smells and bells, all the incense and golden vestments, all the golden mostrances and chalices, and all the processions are meaningless displays of self-aggrandizement. We will be guilty of the same sin of the religious authorities during the time of Isaiah and the Corinthian community.