The Feast of Corpus Christi

Today is Corpus Christi Sunday or the solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Catholic Church’s way of exhorting the faithful into Eucharistic Adoration as it is the time when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed so our Lord Jesus Christ who is truly present in the sacred host that would be exposed to the world so that his body, blood, soul and divinity can radiate his divine love to all the peoples of the world.

The Feast of Corpus Christi is not a fixed date. It largely depends on the date of Easter Sunday as Corpus Christi is celebrated a week after Pentecost Sunday, which we celebrated last week.The gospel reading today is about the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which you can read in your Bibles on Luke 9: 11b-17.

“11 [Jesus] spoke to [the crowds] about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. 12 As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”

13 He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.” They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” 14 Now the men there were numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of [about] fifty.” 15 They did so and made them all sit down.

16 Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.”

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If there is any great teaching that our Lord Jesus Christ imparted to his apostles and disciples and continues to trickle down to all Christians 2,000 years later, it is that the Son of Man would give up his life for the ransom of many. In so doing, he transformed the Jewish holiest feast of the Passover into a living sacrifice by his death on the cross, where three days later, he resurrects and conquers death, according to the Scriptures.

What we just read in today’s gospel is foreshadowing of what the Catholic Church would be doing until the end of time. Read again the passage carefully and you will notice that our Lord Jesus Christ was teaching them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed everyone who needed healing. Then he gave the 5,000 a preview of things to come in what we now call today the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Let me remind you that the Last Supper, where the Lord Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, was in many ways similar to today’s gospel, but the major difference is, when the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, “Do this in memory of me.” Three days after his cruel crucifixion, on the Road to Emmaus, he met Cleofas and his friend talking about the events that happened on Good Friday, which only showed that they still did not understand why their Master had to die on the cross.

When it was nearly dark, they offered him to stay with them even if they were unsure whether it was the Lord. Then at supper, the Lord Jesus broke the bread and gave it to them and he vanished. It was then that they suddenly realized that it was the Lord. So if you might be wondering why the gospel reading today is about the Feeding of the Five Thousand, I can only second guess that it is due to the miracle of the loaves, which is similar to what happens to the ordinary bread or host when it transubstantiates into the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have already explained the miracle of transubstantiation to you in many previous articles.

What makes the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi special for this year is that, in this Year of Faith, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, announced a special event to mark the centrality of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church when no less than Pope Francis himself would be leading a worldwide Solemn Eucharistic Adoration today. Since Pope Francis will lead this worldwide Eucharistic Adoration in Rome at 5:00pm, we should be doing our own Eucharistic Adoration at 11:00pm in the evening.

Indeed, in this Year of Faith, we have so much to thank our Lord for always giving us the Holy Eucharist and allowing us to adore him in the Blessed Sacrament from all over the world. This is the first time that I have known that the Holy Father would lead the faithful into a worldwide Eucharistic Adoration and as for me, we’ll pray with Pope Francis and watch this historic event over the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

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