Corpus Christi
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
14 Jun 2009
Naturally we share the feasts of Easter and Pentecost with all other Christians and generally now all followers of Christ celebrate the feast of Christmas, the birth of the Christ child. Extreme Protestants such as Cromwell in the seventeenth century, in England after they had dethroned and then executed King Charles I, abolished the public celebration of Christmas. Naturally this abolition did not last beyond the return to power of the Stuart kings.
Today's feast of Corpus Christi, Latin words meaning the Body of Christ, is not celebrated in the other Christian traditions. It is a specifically Catholic feast which grew up in Belgium in the thirteenth century and spread later throughout the Catholic world. The custom of celebrating the feast with a public procession through the streets or countryside began in Germany in the fourteenth century and is now one of the best known examples of Catholic popular religiosity.
Most importantly the feast stresses the extraordinary fact that through the priestly words of consecration, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, despite the fact that the appearances of bread and wine remain. The Church has solemnly declared, e.g. in the sixteenth century Council of Trent, that Our Lord meant literally what he said for the first time at the Last Supper on the night before he was killed on the cross: "This is my Body. This is my Blood". We are not just talking about symbols.
All the Christians of the Orthodox traditions, e.g. the Greeks and the Russians, believe in the real presence of Christ in the consecrated species. By a strange irony it is especially Evangelical Protestants, who are often tempted to fundamentalism, i.e. accepting the literal meaning of Scripture passages, who are the keenest to deny the literal meaning of Jesus' words at the Last Supper. It is useful to remember that differences over the nature of Holy Communion (a real or merely symbolic presence) and the sacrificial nature of the Mass were among the fundamental differences during the Protestant revolt or Reformation against the Catholic Church started by Luther in the sixteenth century.
Today's first reading from the Old Testament Book of Exodus shows us some of the context and origins of our regular celebrations of the Eucharist, which of course follow on from the Last Supper.
God chose the Jews as his special people. He revealed more of Himself to them and chose them to be his special agents in history. This special pact or covenant was solemnised through public worship and ritual.
Many of the Old Testament rituals, as well as Old Testament teaching, prepare us for Christ and the New Testament.
So today we have Moses writing down the commandments and urging his people to observe these laws. One of the constant refrains in the Scriptures is that God expects the partners he has chosen for his covenant, for a unique relationship, to keep his commandments, follow his instructions. This sacred moment with the twelve tribes of Israel was consecrated by the slaughter and burning of bullocks and half of their blood was poured upon the altar. It was the blood offered to God which symbolized the covenant or pact. He had made with the Jewish people.
In many other cultures there were somewhat similar offerings made to their particular gods. Jesus' unique sacrifice goes infinitely beyond these pale anticipations.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews uses this ceremonial to explain Our Lord's suffering, death and resurrection. The Son of God has replaced the slaughtered animals and so we have a perfect and all sufficient sacrifice. This is what we make present in the celebration of the Eucharist, first celebrated on Holy Thursday night, when Jesus left us his Body to eat and Blood to drink. His blood became the Blood of the New Covenant.
Bread and wine are food and the fundamental significance of the Eucharist is that the Sacred Species are to be eaten. It is the Mass which is the source and summit of Catholic life, and adoration of the Eucharist at benediction or in a procession through the streets is a subordinate celebration, an event which springs from the Mass and brings us back to the Mass. That is how we celebrate the fact that Christ has redeemed us and chosen us as His special people with our own set of particular duties. Catholics are not expected to conduct their lives just like everyone else, especially those with little knowledge of God and no Christian formation.
The feast of Corpus Christi therefore is a celebration of Christ's triumph, his victory over both evil and death. In a 1981 article the then Cardinal Ratzinger compared the Corpus Christi procession to the official visit of a head of state, who is often taken through the streets so that the local population can pay him due honour. He also noted then that the Council of Trent in defending this custom, cited the practice of the ancient Romans in giving victorious generals a triumphal procession, especially through the streets of Rome to the forum and the Capitoline Hill.
Joy, the Cardinal explained, is the basis of every feast and Corpus Christi claims that Christ has made genuine joy possible through his demonstration, that love is stronger then evil and death. We receive Christ by giving him the public reception and recognition which is his due.
About 350 years ago the Council of Trent claimed that in the face of the magnificence and joy of the Church at Corpus Christi "the enemies of the truth will either fade away or, stricken with shame, attain to insight". This was a bit optimistic, short of the Parousia.
But love is stronger than death; in Christ Jesus, God is among us. The Corpus Christi procession is a symbolic expression of our claims that genuine Christianity always acts in society like yeast in a loaf of bread, like a beneficent ferment, like an electrical power station pumping out faith, love and especially hope, to the wider community.
This is the meaning of the Corpus Christi procession.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
