A Reflection for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Today (June 3), we reaffirm…our faith in the Eucharist, the Mystery that constitutes the heart of the Church…Corpus Christi…is a unique feast and constitutes an important encounter of faith and praise for every Christian... [I]t was born for the precise purpose of openly reaffirming the faith of the People of God in Jesus Christ, alive and truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Corpus Christi is…a renewal of the mystery of Holy Thursday…It was the Apostles who received the gift of the Eucharist from the Lord in the intimacy of the Last Supper, but it was destined…for the whole world…[T]his is the perpetual and living heritage that Jesus has bequeathed to us…It is an inheritance that demands to be constantly rethought and relived so that, as Blessed Paul VI said, its "inexhaustible effectiveness may be impressed upon all the days of our mortal life"

Because this is a mysterious reality that surpasses our understanding, we must not be surprised if today too many find hard to accept the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It cannot be otherwise. This is how it has been since the day when…at Capernaum, Jesus declared that he had come to give us his flesh and his blood as food.  This seemed "a hard saying" and many of his disciples withdrew when they heard it. Then, as now, the Eucharist remains a "sign of contradiction" and can only be so because God who makes himself flesh…throws human wisdom into crisis.

However, with humble trust, the Church makes the faith of Peter and the other Apostles her own and proclaims with them: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). Let us renew our profession of faith in Christ, alive and present in the Eucharist. Yes, "this [is] the truth each Christian learns, "bread into his flesh he turns, to his precious blood the wine."