Corpus Christi Homily

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is an important day in the life of the church. If we were under normal circumstances churches around the world including this one would hold Eucharist processions bringing Christ into the streets. This year circumstances require us to forgo these processions, but we are still reminded of the same message.

That message being that we must be willing to take Christ with us into the streets of everyday life. As we are instructed at the conclusion of Mass, “Go forth the Mass is ended.” We respond “Thanks be to God” not because we can now go home and do as we wish, but instead we have been invited to do something so much harder. We have been invited to head out the doors of the church and to live what we have received in the midst of the world.

Therefore we should ask what is it that we have received and why is this so important for us? Well the one that we have received under the appearance of bread and wine is Christ our Lord. He is present with us in the Most Holy Eucharist Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In other words when we receive communion we receive Christ. We do not receive Him as symbol, but instead in all actually.

Now if we stop and fathom that this is truly Christ we will not be concerned about the purification of our hands in hand sanitizer (don’t get me wrong this is important), but to purify our souls in the Sacrament of Confession is much more important. In the optional sequence to this Mass we would of heard in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas: “Both the wicked and the good eat of this celestial Food: But with ends how opposite! Here is life: and there is death: The same, yet issuing to each in a difference infinite.”

And so if we are to bring Christ into the world by living what we have received we must turn away from sin and turn towards the Lord. As was summed up by Saint Thomas Aquinas we can receive Him in the Eucharist, but the end result is opposite for the wicked and the good. As our faith teaches us mortal sin is real and deprives us of sanctifying grace. To receive communion in such a state is to receive a deadly sin upon our soul and to receive no grace from the Eucharist. On the other hand, to receive our Lord in the state of grace is to receive the full benefit of the sacrament that we dare to receive.

Some are concerned with assisting at the Holy Mass only if they are able to receive communion as if this is a gift that is owed to us. Rather, we should assist at the Holy Mass if we are able to receive or not. We should not base the reception of communion after the fact that we are at Mass, but on the state of our soul.

On this Corpus Christi Sunday it is my hope that we may treat the gift that is the Eucharist with all seriousness. It is my hope that what we receive here is to be brought into the world and lived. It would be a sad state for us to receive such a gift and in return live such a contradiction in the way in which we live and order our life on this earth. 

In conclusion, from the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas in his prayer before communion: “Therefore, I beg of You, through Your infinite mercy and generosity, heal my weakness, wash my uncleanness, give light to my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I thus receive the Bread of Angels, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, with such reverence and humility, contrition and devotion, purity and faith, purpose and intention, as shall aid my soul’s salvation.”