Corpus Christi

Homily
Solemnity of Corpus Christi
2 June 2013
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Year of Faith
Daily Readings 



Today's Solemnity of The Body and Blood of Christ - popularly known at Corpus Christi - is the last of what I like to call the Catholic hangover solemnities.  It's as if the Church begrudgingly lets go of Easter, her most fruitful and meaningful time of year, when oceans of mercy and grace are opened up as the Church celebrates faithfully the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord, and then the incomparable power that is Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Baptisms, weddings, first communions, confirmations, ordinations, graduations . .. the season grows stronger and stronger, at least it should, before begrudgingly giving way to summer.  The Church hangs on, wearing white as long as she can - tacking on, as it were, the solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity, and today, of Corpus Christi.

Today's solemnity is the traditional day for taking Jesus outdoors, taking the Blessed Sacrament to the streets to show at least a few things.  Firstly, it is to show that our Catholic faith that Jesus is fully present body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharistic species, is not a private faith, but one meant for the whole world.  The Eucharist is not ultimately a private cultic trick for Catholics to get into heaven, it is the sacrament of salvation for all people.  Some of the largest crowds in human history have been gathered when Jesus is taken outside, and his Church has gathered millions at a single instant at the table of the Lord, and so fulfilled his promise that his Church would do greater thing than he himself did.  So we take him to the streets as an invitation to the whole world to come to know Jesus who gives himself so fully and humbly in the wonder that is the Blessed Sacrament.  What is more, we take Jesus to the streets not just for others, but to strengthen our faith ourselves.  For Catholics know all too well that we are the absolute worst at receiving the Eucharist casually, and taking the sacrament for granted.  Most of us have received the Eucharist thousands of times with little or no change taking place within us.  Yet the Eucharist can never become routine . . . it's not just an innocuous Catholic ritual.  No, the sacrament is powerful - the grace of one Eucharist is enough to save the whole world - and to break out of our apathy, it is important that we take our Lord in procession before the world, and to continue to dramatically change our Eucharistic piety.  Either our Eucharistic piety is growing stronger or weaker . . . there cannot be any staying the same.

The Church gives us this Solemnity begging us to realize the opportunity that is before us every time we receive the Eucharist.  On the surface, there doesn't seem to be enough here for me to become a saint.  How can ordinary bread and wine, and such a small amount it couldn't feed me for an hour, contain the superabundance of grace, Christ's love and power, that can transform me instantly into a saint?  How can it possibly be so?  We hear in the Gospel the same dilemma.  There does not seem to be enough.  No one in their right mind would think it is enough.  People who have eaten thousands of times were sure there was not enough.  Yet when the food is blessed and broken by Christ himself, there is a superabundance of food.  So too as this sign gives way to the greater sign of the Eucharist  - no matter how many times we have received the Eucharist and it wasn't enough, no matter how sure we are tonight that it is not enough, still the reality is greater than our faith.  Just as in the sign of the loaves and fish everyone was fed, so too we have heard and have seen that the Eucharist is the food of saints, and the grace is superabundant for those of us still daring to become more than we are right now.

What is most amazing about the Eucharist perhaps, is that Jesus gives himself more readily the more he is rejected.  Even if there is only a one in a million chance that a saint will be born through today's reception of the Eucharist.  Even if there's only a one in a billion chance - still Jesus will make himself available, and allow himself to be doubted, misunderstood, ignored and ridiculed, so that he can be present to us once again.  He never tires of loving us, and whenever we go away from him, he finds a way to get in front of us again, especially in the amazing condescension that is the Holy Eucharist.  The Lord who feeds you tonight believes in your more than you believe in yourself.  That's why he is here again for you.  Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.