Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year C) - 19 June
19th June 2022
Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year C) - 19 June
“Down in adoration falling, this great sacrament we hail! Ancient forms have long departed, newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, where the feeble senses fail.” - St Thomas Aquinas
A reflection on today's Solemnity by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"The Flesh and Blood of the Incarnate Son of God, which would be severed in death, would become the source of everlasting life. When He said, 'My Flesh,' He meant His human nature, as 'The Word became Flesh' meant that God the Word or the Son assumed to Himself a human nature. But it was only because that human nature would be linked to a Divine Personality for all eternity that He could give eternal life to those who received it. And when He said that He would give that for the life of the world, the Greek word used meant 'all mankind.'
"Though the Jews looked on blood in an awesome manner, they were leading their lambs at that time to Jerusalem, where blood would be sprinkled to the four directions of the earth. The strangeness of the utterance about giving His Body and Blood diminished against the background of the Passover; He meant that the shadow of the animal lamb was passing, and that its place was being taken by the true Lamb of God. As they had communion with the flesh and blood of the Paschal Lamb, so they would now have communion with the Flesh and Blood of the true Lamb of God. He, Who was born in Bethlehem, the 'House of Bread' and was laid in a manger, a place of food for lower animals, would now be to men, so inferior to Him, their Bread of Life. Everything in nature has to have communion in order to live; and through it what is lower is transformed into what is higher: chemicals into plants, plants into animals, animals into man. And man? Should he not be elevated through communion with Him Who 'came down' from heaven to make man a partaker of the Divine nature? As a Mediator between God and man, He said that, as He lived by the Father, so they would live by Him: 'As I live because of the Father, the living Father Who has sent Me, so he who eats Me will live, in his turn, because of Me.' (John 6:58) Our Lord said that He would have to 'give' His life before He would be the Bread of Life to believers. If Christ then was to be the 'Life of the World,' He must be tabernacled among men as Emmanuel or 'God with us,' supplying a life for the soul as earthly bread is the life of the body … Not the dead Christ would believers feed upon, but the Glorified Christ in Heaven Who died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. The mere eating of the flesh and blood of a man would profit nothing; but the glorified Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man would profit unto life everlasting.
"In His last will and testament, He left that which on dying no other man has ever been able to leave, namely, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, for the life of the world.
"When the Apostles, and the Church later on, would obey Our Lord’s words to renew the Memorial and to eat and drink of Him, the Body and Blood would not be that of the Physical Christ then before them, but that of the glorified Christ in heaven Who continually makes intercession for sinners. The Salvation of the Cross, being sovereign and eternal, is thus applied and actualised in the course of time by the heavenly Christ." (Life of Christ)
St Thomas Aquinas' Prayer for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
The Bread of Angels now is Bread of man. Heavenly Bread fulfills what prophecies foreshow. O wondrous thing! God is consumed by the poor, the humble, and the low.
You, threefold God and one, we pray; Be present as we worship well. Lead us on Your pathways to live in glory where you dwell. Amen. 🙏💖💐
Prayer After Communion by St Thomas Aquinas
Sweetest Jesus, Body and Blood most holy, be the delight and pleasure of my soul, my strength and salvation in all temptations, my joy and peace in every trial, my light and guide in every word and deed, and my final protection in death. Amen. 🙏💖💐