Corpus Christi – the great Gift

By Msgr Michael de Verteuil, Chair, Liturgical Commission

This feast is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Some dioceses celebrate it on the following Sunday.

The origins of this celebration trace back to a vision experienced by a nun, Sr Juliana of Liège, in the early 13th century. She saw a bright disc with a black spot on it and felt the Lord telling her that this spot was the absence of a feast of the Eucharist from the liturgical calendar.

After many years, Pope Urban IV proclaimed a feast of the Blessed Sacrament to be celebrated throughout the Church. However, this did not bear much fruit until about 100 years after the visions when another pope repeated the call for a celebration of the feast.

What are we celebrating in this feast?

We are celebrating the great gift we are given in the Body and Blood of Jesus, a gift the Lord longed to give us: “I have desired with great desire” (Lk 22:16). The feast therefore is one of great gratitude and rejoicing for this great gift whose depths we may never plunge.

What does the celebration of this day’s Mass reveal?

The presidential prayers of the Mass—the Collect, Prayer over the Gifts, Prayer after Communion—highlight three aspects of the Eucharist:

The Collect: A commemoration of Christ’s Passion and death. (“O God, who in this wonderful sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion…).

Prayer over the Gifts: A sacrament of union with Christ and one another. (“… the gifts of unity and peace whose signs are to be seen in mystery in the offerings we here present.”)

Prayer after Communion: An anticipated enjoyment of God (“that we may delight for all eternity …. in your divine life …. foreshadowed by our reception of your precious Body and Blood.”)

The Preface, which ends with the “Holy, Holy,” repeats these themes.

The Readings for Year C

All the readings of course centre in different ways on what we celebrate—the gift of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus.

The First Reading is Genesis 14:18-20 in which we hear of Melchizedek who brought bread and wine, a prefiguring of Jesus and the sacrifice of His Body and Blood which we receive under the appearances of bread and wine.

The Second Reading is from 1 Cor 11:23-26, the earliest account of the celebration of the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper). St Paul recounts Jesus’ words to eat and drink in remembrance of Him.

The Gospel is of the multiplication of loaves according to Luke (9:11-17). This miracle in which Jesus took, blessed, broke, points to the far greater miracle to come in which Jesus took, blessed, broke, and feeds us with the Eucharistic food.

Part of the celebration of the feast is the after-Mass procession. This procession gives us the chance of witnessing to our Catholic faith in the Real Presence of Jesus and is a reminder that we are a pilgrim people journeying with one another and with the Lord in our midst.