Corpus Christi
June 27, 2011
Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16 + Psalm 147 + 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17 + John 6: 51-58
On the night before he died, Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed: “That they may be one even as we are one.” John 17,22
At the end of his mission and ministry, Jesus has gathered his most loved and trusted friends. He prays with them and over them. He promises them a share in his glory and the power of the Holy Spirit. His whole mission was about unity. He gathered to himself the lost, the sick, and the sinner. He challenged those who would push others aside and exclude them. Women and Samartins, Lepers and Tax Collectors, Sinners and Roman soldiers, all were included in the Kingdom he revealed. All that he said and all that he did had one purpose: to heal the brokennes of sin, restore the relationship between the creator and the created, and establish the same loving, life giving unity he experienced with his Father.
And so in these days following Pentecost, the universal church, looking back upon it all, remembering all that he said and did, and rejoicing in what he did after Pentecost, we celebrate two great feasts that stand out as examples of that unity: Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi (Today: The Body and Blood of Christ). The power of the Holy Spirit as Luke described it in Acts of the Apostels three weeks back on Pentecost brought together people from all over the earth. Luke names them by tribe and nation. On that First Day of the week, not only was the promise to send the Holy Spirit kept, but the prayer of Jesus was answered in the experienced unity of all those gathered in Jerusalem. They all heard one voice – one language, one message, and suddenly their difference no longer mattered. They all heard and responded.
In the two weeks since Pentecost then, we have been led by the church to reflect first on the unity within God; the Holy Trinity. Last week it was a “God-Focused” Unity in which we can explore the power of love to unite the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now this week, the focus shifts to us, and to our unity: to the oneness we share because of the unity of Jesus and the Father by the power of the Spirit. The reminder, the symbol, the cause of that unity between us and with God is the Holy Eucharist. This Feast is about Unity: Communion. While it leads us to reflect upon the wonderful gift of the Christ’s Body and Blood, it takes us deeper into this mystery to reflect upon our Unity in Communion.
For us Roman Catholics, then this sacrament with all it’s deveopment in our understanding through history is still about one thing: unity. This is the sacrament of our incorporation; the sacrament that takes us into, binds us together with, and unites with the Body/Corpus – the body of the Faithful us much as the Body of the Savior. This sacarament for us is about unity with the Chruch. It is not a reward for coming to church, it is not something you get, take, or for that matter, receive. It is what we become here, one in faith, one in Christ, one in covenant. This is why we do not share this sacrament with those who are not one with us in faith or in creed. It is no judgement or condemnation about them. It is an affirmation of what this is and who we are as one church bound together with all other churches who share with us one faith, creed, and tradition. It is why we do not receive this Communion when we are out of communion because of sin, or a life style that is inconsistent with what we share together in values and in faith. To break covenant is to be out of communion. Being anywhere else when this community gathers around an altar to proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes in glory breaks the covenant.
What impoverised thinking is going on when someone walks down this aisle, accepts the Sacrament of Unity with us in Christ and then walks straight out the door?
Where is the power of this Sacrament in the lives of people who walk down this aisle, accept the Sacrament of Unity, without ever taking up any responsibility or share in the ministry and work of this community?
What is going on when people walk down this aisle and accept the the Sacrament of Unity who have not been here for three previous weeks nor anywhere else in universal communion for whatever flimsy excuse.
The Eucharist we receive and enshrine is never simply a meal or an object of adoration, but a memorial of a life given for others and a summons to seek the kind of communion with God and others that Paul proclaims today. You can’t have one without the other in Eucharist. It binds us to God, and it binds us to oneanother as Church.
The colorful and wonderful history of this feast began with great processions when the Eucharist was taken out of the church and carried throughout the whole town; taken to the places where people lived and worked as both a reminder that the presence of God is not confined to a church building, and a reminder that where ever people of faith living in communion are found, there also is found Christ the Lord.
This is our day of unity, our day of communion, our day to remember who we are and what we seek to become through this Sacrament: the Body and Blood of Christ; His real presence in this world. The whole language about eating flesh is not about eating biological tissue. It is simply and directly the most in your face kind of language to help and make us understand that this is real presence “in the flesh” is one way we put it in English. Not a symbol, a sign, or just a memory. It is as real as flesh and blood; and so shall we be when we accept the invitation to be one.