Corpus Christi – Yr A
For today’s Gospel reading click the link below:
Mass Readings
(Deut 8:2-3. 14-16, 1 Cor 10:16-17, John 6:51-58)
Homily Reflection by Fr. JJ Fenelon
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ goes back to the year 1261. Thomas Aquinas was commissioned by Pope Urban IV to write a Mass for the feast. We are still using that Mass formula 700 years after its birth.
Thomas Aquinas saluted the Eucharist as “tantum sacramentum,” which translates comfortably into “so awesome a sacrament.” Thomas says about Jesus with these lush words, “In this sacrament, you are both shepherd and pasture.”
The Church situates today’s feast immediately after the celebration of last Sunday’s Feast of the Trinity and Pentecost the week before that. The feasts of Pentecost and the Trinity both honor an invisible God. In the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ we celebrate an eminently visible God who comes to us in all humility in the forms of Bread and Wine. He is willing to be held by us, consumed by us and dwell within us even if our hearts are tainted by sin.
Ignatius of Antioch says that in the Eucharist we not only put our arms around Jesus but more importantly He squeezes us. He takes our breath away. You cannot get any closer than that.
There were two soldier friends who served together in Iraq. One was a dull fellow. The other was sharp. Yet, there was a chemistry that made them inseparable. The slow one was wounded. His friend gave him his blood. When the wounded fellow learned whose blood had saved his life, he said to his companion, “I feel like a new man.”
Something similar should take place each time we receive the Eucharist. We drag ourselves into the Eucharistic Celebration looking for a spiritual transfusion, a pick-me-up, a refueling. We need an adrenaline rocket that will jump start us and get us through the next six days.
In the 1st reading, Moses reminds the people how God brought them out of slavery in Egypt through the wilderness, without food and fearing for their lives. How God gave them bread from Heaven called “manna,” which they collected each morning. Without eating that bread from Heaven, they would never have made it to the Promised Land; they would have perished in the desert.
It is the same with us. Without receiving Jesus, our Living Manna from Heaven, in Holy Communion, we will not make it to our Promised Land of Heaven. It is not just a ritual; it is essential for our survival.
In the Gospel, Jesus gave up his body for us on Calvary and gives up his body for us at every Mass so that we may receive him in Holy Communion. It is the one bloody sacrifice on Calvary extended through time to us as a bloodless sacrifice at every Mass. Some misunderstand and think Catholics say Jesus is sacrificed again and again during every Mass. No, it is the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary which is extended through time to us in every Mass and so truly Jesus can say to us,
the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. (John 6:51)
This is my body, which will be given for you (Luke 22:19).
I will be with you always, yes, to the end of time (Mt.28:20)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is really explaining what takes place during the Last Supper and every Mass. It is another take on the Last Supper, looking at the Last Supper from another angle so that we get a fuller understanding.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (John 6:56)
But are we going too far in saying that bread really becomes the Body of Jesus? Did Jesus intend us to understand that he was speaking only in symbols and metaphors and that we should not take him literally? Or did Jesus really intend us to understand that the bread becomes the Body of Jesus and the wine becomes the Blood of Jesus, that transubstantiation takes place during the consecration at Mass through the words and actions of the priest by the power of the Holy spirit?
Those who were listening to Jesus knew he was not talking in symbols or metaphors. That’s why they started arguing afterwards about what he had just said and left Him.
“The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?” (John 6:52)
Moreover, it would have been horrifying for Jewish listeners to hear him talking of consuming blood. Many times the Old Testament forbade consuming blood (Lev 3:17; 7:26; 19:26) because life was in the blood (Lev 17:14). They could not have made the mistake of thinking that he was talking only in symbols.
Jesus was leading his listeners from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant the supreme dwelling place of God on earth was in the temple in Jerusalem, but in the New Covenant God is with us in Jesus every time we celebrate the Eucharist and Jesus gives himself to us in the bread and wine changed into his Body and Blood during Mass. In the Old Covenant God fed his people with manna when they were wandering in the desert as we heard in our 1st reading (Deut 8) but in the New Covenant Jesus feeds us with his own Body and Blood through his Real Presence in the Eucharist.
It was clear to them that Jesus was talking about his flesh as bread and it would become clear for his listeners later that he really did mean that the bread of the Eucharist becomes his flesh. There was no room for confusion. Many left him after hearing this.
But one such person who was not confused but actually believed and experienced the words of Jesus was Little Nellie Organ.
Nellie Organ was born in 1903 in the family quarters of an Army Barracks in England because her dad was working in the British army. There were four children in the family. Nellie’s mother died when Nellie was 4yrs old. William decided that he could not care for the children and the two girls were given to the care of the Good Shepherd Sisters nearby and the two boys were sent to another location. Nellie spent only one year in the convent before she died due to illness. She had whooping cough when she arrived and it was also discovered that she had a spinal injury which was later discovered to have been caused when the family’s nanny dropped her as a baby. She also had tuberculosis and a rotting disease of the gums and jaws.
Fr Bury, a Jesuit priest, visited Nellie’s bedside each day. Fr Bury asked her, “What is Holy Communion?” She answered, “It is Holy God.” Fr Bury asked her what would happen when she would be allowed to receive Holy Communion. She answered, “Jesus will rest on my tongue and then he will go down into my heart.” He was amazed. One night when the Mother Superior was wishing Nellie good night, Nellie asked her if she would bring Holy God up to her in the morning. Mother Superior said she would come to see her after Mass which Nellie misunderstood as meaning that she would bring her Holy Communion.
When Mother Superior came without Holy Communion Nellie was devastated. Then Nellie asked people to come to her bedside for a moment after receiving Jesus in Holy Communion and then they could return to the chapel to finish their thanksgiving. That was the closest she could get to receiving Jesus in Holy Communion.
Fr Bury realized that Nellie, although only four years and three months, met all the criteria necessary to receive Holy Communion. And at that time children had to wait until the age of twelve to receive 1st Holy Communion. Fr Bury heard her confession and contacted the bishop for permission to give her Holy Communion. The bishop agreed. She was dressed in white and taken down to the convent chapel for her first Holy Communion. This is what Mother Francis said of Nellie’s 1st Holy Communion,
At the moment of her 1st Communion, Nellie’s features shone as if the presence of the great light in her heart reflected itself in her face. Those who saw Nellie then are well convinced that the child’s appearance was not at all ordinary. Nellie had an extraordinary radiance.”
It is said that Nellie’s thanksgiving for receiving Holy Communion would continue until late in the afternoon. From the day of her First Holy Communion the odor from Nellie’s mouth caused by the rotting of her gums and jaws ceased. Less than two months after receiving her First Holy Communion Nellie died in 1908, aged 4 ½ years.
Little Nellie reminds us of the words of Jesus in our Gospel today,
“For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me and I live in him.” (John 6:55-58)
In Little Nellie’s transformation after receiving Holy Communion and her extended thanksgiving until the late afternoon, we see Jesus living in her and she living in him. She is a beautiful example of Jesus transforming us when we receive him in Holy Communion. Pope Pius X lowered the age for children to receive Holy Communion from twelve to seven on August 15 1910.
Dear brothers and sisters, the story of Nellie, as little as she was, demonstrates to us the simplicity of faith we need in believing and trusting the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We should not take it for granted and receive it with full reverence and devotion.
A year before our Lady appeared to the 3 children at Fatima, an angel appeared to them and brought them Holy Communion. They were told to recite these words as they received Holy Communion: “Lord Jesus, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you, and ask pardon for those who do not believe, nor adore, nor hope nor love you.”
Just before we receive Holy Communion at Mass, the priest says:
“Behold the Lamb of God,
Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world
Blessed are those who are called to the Supper of the Lamb.”
This is really an invitation for us to join in this earthly feast which is a foretaste of the heavenly wedding banquet that awaits us. Yes, the Eucharistic Celebration is a communion of Heaven and Earth celebrating this unconditional, unceasing love of God through, with and in Jesus Christ till the end of time.
Today as we celebrate Corpus Christi, we as Catholics can truly join St Paul in the 2nd reading and say “The Blessing-Cup that we bless is a communion with the Blood of Christ, and the Bread that we break is a communion with the Body of Christ”.