"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” Three days ago, the Church celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus. As with other major Solemnities in the life of the Church, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, that day began an eight-day celebration, an Octave.
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life”
Three days ago, the Church celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus. As with other major Solemnities in the life of the Church, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, that day began an eight-day celebration, an Octave.
This eight-day prolongation of a major Solemnity recognizes that some mysteries are so profound that we should take time beyond one day to reflect, rejoice, and spiritually digest what Jesus has done for us.
Now reflection does not mean figuring things out. As I said, these are profound mysteries. Reflection then is not reducing them like we would a mathematical solution but rather plumbing the depths of God’s love.
Corpus Christi calls to mind a love so great that the lover, which is Jesus, would not be separated or apart from us. He wants to be with us, as recorded in the Traditional Canon of the Mass: He instituted these holy Mysteries, in which spiritually and bodily, in His entire being, He again lives among His people.
Thus what He did to be with us, leaving us His Body and Blood, was done for love, also as recorded in the Canon, He did this: in order to manifest His infinite love to His disciples and through them to all who would believe in Him, to fill the hearts of His followers with the fire of this love, draw them to Himself, make them joyful and save them.
You know, we watch TV shows and movies, we read books and articles and give thought to great romances. While lovely, we may miss the greatest romance of all time, God’s love for us written large in the Body and Blood of His Son Jesus.
In this Season of the Church, we come once again to feed on the Food of the Church, Jesus’ Body and Blood – not a symbol – but the fullness of reality so that we would have His promise: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life”
