The Solemnity of Corpus Christi [C]
June 19, 2022
Luke 9:11-17

The feast of Corpus Christi draws our intentions into the one of the greatest mysteries. In the Eucharist, especially when the priest says the words of consecration and lifts the bread and the chalice of wine, the greatest miracle takes place before our eyes. The sacrifices are no longer bread and wine, but the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the living body and blood cannot be separated from humanity of Christ, we receive the entire humanity of Jesus. Sine the humanity of Jesus cannot be severed from His divinity, we have the entire humanity and divinity of Christ. In the Eucharist, we partake the totality of Christ.

How is it possible? The greatest minds the Church has ever had tried to explore the mystery. St. Thomas Aquinas has distilled the saints and the genius before him, and he came up with a fancy term, ‘transubstantiation.’ Simply put, the substance of bread and wine are changed into the substance of the Body and Blood of Jesus, while the old appearances remain. When we ask ‘what is it?’ we no longer answer bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of Christ, despite what we see is the appearance of bread and wine. How is it possible? The only answer is miracle!

It seems like non-sense, but our faith tells us that nothing is impossible for God. If God could and did create the universe [or multiverse], if God could fashion the hierarchy of angels, if God is sustaining sub-atomic particles and prevents them going back to nothingness, if God could make a miracle called life, God can easily bend time and space and be present in the Eucharist.

In fact, this is the greatest miracle. In the Gospel, Jesus performed miracle of the multiplication of bread for five thousand men. Jesus’ miracle is just second to the miracle of manna in Exodus, where God provided food for thousand Israelites in the desert for forty years. Yet, even these miracles fail in comparison to Eucharist. Why? While the miracle of Manna in Exodus and the multiplication of bread in the Gospel are off-the-chart miracles, they primarily address human biological needs, or bodily hunger. The Eucharist, in the other hand, does not primarily solve the world hunger, but fills the deeper spiritual hunger.

The more fundamental question is why? As Jesus promised, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day [John 6:54]” The Eucharist is for us and for our salvation. God so loves us to the point that He became a man like us, and not only becoming a man, He offers His life as a sign of His most profound love. Yet, for Him, the cross is not enough. He keeps giving His body and blood, His total self to us. There is no greater love that to lay down one’s life for one’s friends [John 15:13], and Jesus offers His life again and again in the Eucharist. This is how much God loves us!

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP