Dear Saints,

This week we celebrate Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I once read that the early Church called the Eucharist the mystical Body of Christ, while it thought of the Church as the Body of Christ. Today, we're more likely to switch these terms: the Eucharist is known as the Body of Christ, and the Church - the community of Jesus’ faithful followers - is called the mystical Body of Christ.

I don’t know that the distinction matters all that much, but what certainly does matter is the closeness of the connection between the Eucharist and the community of Jesus’ faithful followers. That Jesus’ faithful followers can be identified with the Eucharist is remarkable. It also just makes a lot of sense.

The Council of Trent declared that “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Simply put, when Jesus said, “this is my body, which will be given up for you,” he meant it.

Hold that together with the fact that Jesus identifies as his faithful followers. In Saint Paul’s encounter with Jesus – risen from the dead – on the Damascus Road Jesus asks him, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Get that: Why are you persecuting me? This is food for thought (pun intended).

How about some more? The action of the Eucharist - the offering of ourselves to God the Father in the sacrifice of the Son - makes communion possible.

Furthermore, following this spiritual offering, it is spiritual communion that sustains us as members of the Body of Christ: when the Eucharist no longer has the appearance of bread, Jesus’ presence remains with us only inasmuch as we spiritually commune with him.

This is all to say that Jesus gives himself to us as food so that he might abide with us and make us into true members of his Body.

There’s more to say and think and pray through as it relates to this feast, but I’ll leave that to you. Let me know if you come up with anything I missed!

In the Peace of Christ,

Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ