Corpus Christi: the Lord is with us
OF all the things that our Lord gave to us it is the Eucharist that is the greatest. The Eucharist is the very gift of Himself to us, fulfilling His promise in Matthew 28:20 when He said “I shall be with you till the end of time.”
Our Lord did not want to be separated from us that is why on the night before He suffered and died (Holy Thursday), He instituted or established the Eucharist as the greatest manifestation of His love for us (cf. Mt. 26:26-29; Mk. 14:22-17, Luke 22:1720, 1Cor. 11:23-35) and as a permanent Presence of His very self here on earth under the appearance of bread and wine.
Our belief and doctrine tells us that we only perceive with our senses, especially with our eyes, the appearance of the species of bread and wine. But in truth and in reality, it is already Jesus truly present in body, blood, soul and divinity.
The bread and wine only retains its appearance but it has become our Lord’s body and blood. This is indeed a miracle effected by God Himself. This is the mystery of our faith, Mysterium Fidei.
St.thomas Aquinas calls the Eucharist the wonder of wonders, the greatest of miracles, maximum miraculorum.
Incidentally, in the Jewish context and in the language of the Bible, when you say “body” you are referring to the person himself.
So during the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, when our Lord says to the bread, “This is My Body,” He is actually saying “This is My whole Person, or This is Me.” In a word the Eucharist is the total Christ, or totus Christus.
Though He went up to heaven during His Ascension to rule heaven with the Father, yet He still stays with us in His Real and true Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. This He can do because Christ is God and man at the same time.
He has the power to be with us here below and up there in heaven above. This is the greatest legacy of Christ to us, His very self in the bread and wine consecrated by the priest in the Holy Mass.
It is the law of friendship that friends must live together. St. Thomas Aquinas affirms that Christ joins us in our journey here on earth in the Eucharist because He loves us with the maximum love. He stays with us to manifest His love, mercy wisdom and power.
Why our Lord did institute the eucharist for us?
LOVE cannot bear separation. Christ loves us so much that it is very painful on His part to be separated with us. He wants to be with the children of men.
He wants to be with us so that He can still be our help, support, guide, strength and joy in this valley of trials and tears.
He knew that left to our own, we would find life difficult and troublesome. His invitation is still true today “Come to me all you who labour and overburden and I shall give rest” (Mt. 11:29).
We can now literally come to Him, as in going to Christ in Person. We don’t need a GPS to track or locate our Lord Jesus Christ. When He was on earth more than 2000 years ago, Christ is located only in Israel where He spent His 33 years of existence on earth.
But now in the Eucharist, our Lord is in each Tabernacle throughout the Catholic churches in the whole world.
That white Bread or White Host consecrated in the Holy Mass is Jesus. The Consecrated Bread is not something but someone. It is the Lord Jesus truly and really present in Person. This is our faith, the One Identical is the Word, born of the Virgin, who suffered and died and who now rules heaven is the same Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
eucharist takes away many of life’s bitterness
LIFE has many twists and turns. We normally experience here on earth a lot of worries and anxieties. One cannot escape it.
But with the Lord in the Eucharist in our midst, many of life’s bitterness are taken away, according to St. Peter Julian Eymard. We have Jesus present with us. He is the Emmanuel; the God Who is with us (Mt. 1:23).
That is why it is best that we spend ample time with Jesus in the Eucharist. He requests at least an hour each day (Mt. 26:40). Being with Him will make us recover and recapture our own selves, which becomes shredded and torn apart because of problems, brokenness and trials we encounter in our life.
As Christians we have to contend with the three enemies of our souls—the devil, worldliness and our very selves. With the Lord present in the Eucharist we become formidable and strong against all our spiritual enemies.
We have Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, if God is with us and for us, who can be against us? (Rom.8:31).
Audience with the King of kings
UNLIKE with presidents, kings and other dignitaries or royalties, we can have readily access with our Lord Jesus Christ. You need not any protocol; you don’t even have to schedule your audience with Him. There is no go between.
You can go to Christ anytime in the Adoration Chapel or in the church where there is a Tabernacle and meet Him and have a heart to heart communication with our Saviour. Jesus in the Eucharist, according to St. John Paul II, is the very heart of the Church.
Indeed without Him in the Tabernacles our churches simply become meeting places. In His presence we can tell Him all our worries and He is willing to give us blessings and graces.
St. Alphonsus de Ligouri said that our Lord’s hands are open to distribute graces and blessings to anyone who would visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Unfortunately, very few are willing to visit our Lord in the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist.
saints on adoration
ST. TERESA of Calcutta once said: “In every holy hour of adoration we do, we please the Heart of Jesus that it is recorded in Heaven and be retold for all eternity.” That is how the Lord will be grateful to us according to the foundress of Missionaries of Charity.
Blessed Dina Belanger, a Canadian mystic and nun said that a holy hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is so important to Jesus that a multitude of souls go to heaven, who otherwise, would have gone to Hell.
And that is why Our Lord lovingly appeals to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “I have a burning desire to be visited by men in the Blessed Sacrament.” Jesus thirsts for Eucharistic lovers. He wants us to come and visit Him daily.
St. Faustina Kowalska of the Divine Mercy likewise said that by holy hour of adoration we procure not only mercy for our souls but for others as well.
Blessed Alexandrian da Costa, considered as the fourth seer of Fatima because of her strong adherents to Our Lady’s message, affirms the power of Eucharistic love and devotion.
Jesus told her: “It is the lovers of the Holy Eucharist who will hold back the arms of Divine Justice, that the world may not be destroyed, that greater punishment may not befall.”
As we commemorate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, we call to mind the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity.
He is in our midst in the Eucharist. This celebration makes us ponder on the great love of God in giving us His own body and blood which we receive each time we assist or attend the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass.
Likewise this solemnity makes us see the importance of not just attending the Eucharistic celebration but it encourages us to visit the Lord in what is called as “holy hour of adoration,” wherein we give time to visit Jesus our Lord truly present in the Eucharist exposed in the Monstrance in the Adoration chapel.
May the Solemnity of Corpus Christi help us to love our Lord in the Eucharist more fervently.