Corpus Christi: Cosmic Christ is All in All - Living and Sharing

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi: Readings - Deuteronomy 8:2–3, 14–16; Psalm 147:12–15, 19–20; 1 Corinthians 10:16–17; John 6:51–58

The Disputation of the Blessed Sacrament, by Raphael (1583-1620)

I

Human body as vulnerable, communicable and sacramental

The feast of the Corpus Christi enshrines our devotion to the Holy Eucharist. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ manifests our personal experience of that God-Man who gave himself to us wholly and totally. Moreover, it is the same Lord who gave us a reason to remember and celebrate that holy mystery of his life, passion, death and resurrection. Without the Eucharist, we have no Jesus; without the body and blood of Christ there is no Holy Eucharist. Therefore the feast of the Corpus Christi brings us one with him as a global Catholic Community. Our human bodies struggle with life and death. Nonetheless, God embraced the human body to bring salvation, thus became flesh and lived among us. Interestingly, God chose human vulnerability of the body as way of communing with us, communicating with us and finally that same body He gave us sacramentally that we integrate with him completely. By consuming Jesus who spoke words of Spirit and life, the words of eternal life, we too might inhale them. (John 6:63, 67).

II

Cosmic Christ sustains us. 

During this Covid pandemic lockdown, when we could not attend the Holy Eucharist in person, certainly we must have felt the absence of the mystical body and blood of Christ. All our live streaming of the Holy Eucharist services must have helped in someway to fill that gap. But without receiving that body and blood of Christ must certainly have left us empty and dry in many ways. However, the energy of Christ must have been driving us to brace the challenges to our health and wellbeing throughout this uninvited lockdown. 

When the celebrated French Jesuit priest and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote his first essay on La Vie Cosmique (Cosmic life) in 1916, he was hinting at that Jesus Christ who becomes all in all in this cosmos. What guides this universe in its sustenance and maintenance of this vast creation is the cosmic energy that flows from Christ. The energy that we receive when we come together as Christians because the name of Jesus has power. Jesus units our differences of language, culture, food habits, colour, race or geographical location. In Christ we become interconnected and interdependent. Only in this Cosmic Christ it's possible. Mother Teresa of Calcutta beautifully said "The Eucharist is connected with the Passion. …To make sure that we do not forget, Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of his love … When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then, when you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now." 

III

Christ is the centre of our life when we accept him

Teilhard de Chardin through his understanding of science and theology blended the immense significance of the body and blood of Christ. When he could not celebrate the Holy Eucharist during his scientific expeditions in China, Teilhard drew the energy from Christ in a unique way. By bringing into account of the evolutionary stages which scientific data provides, he immersed himself into the blissful energy God provides through his creation which becomes a reason, a hope and meets its destiny in Jesus himself. Teilhard found the history of salvation based on a natural landscape. 

Teilhard drew Christocentrism from the two Pauline passages, which in fact laid the foundation for a progressive cosmic theology. "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15-17). Teilhard also recognised the absolute primacy of Christ in another passage: "And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). In other words, the creation is complete only when we are united with God through Christ and when God becomes all in all. 

IV

The Body and Blood of Christ fill us with Christ Consciousness. 

Fascinatingly, the feast of Corpus Christi is a celebration of Christ Consciousness or God Consciousness amidst us. Eucharist is the meeting point of spiritual and material matter. Only a baptised person could receive the body and blood of Christ. In Eucharist we encounter not only a mystical dimension but also physical dimension. Both bread and wine are the products of human labour but of divine collaboration. We need to grow wheat and vine to get these two material/physical things that we bring to the altar of the Lord. However, it is the Lord himself who comes down during the epiclesis/epiklesis ἐπίκλησις (invoking of the Holy Spirit) on that bread and wine to be turned into body and blood of our Lord. Christ becomes the primary source in turning himself into our divine and mystical food.  

Perhaps our langauge is not sufficient to describe effectively how Christ holds together not only this universe but also his mystical presence during the Eucharist.  Christ is the unifying center of the universe and its goal because he is  the Alfa and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The Eucharist which is also Anamnesis/ἀνάμνησις  reminiscence or memorial sacrifice, we are made one flesh with Christ. Our earthly Christian life is possible because we have His life in us and have our life because of Him. Consequently, Paul in today’s Epistle calls the Eucharist a “participation” in Christ’s body and blood. And for Peter we become in this sacrament partakers of the divine nature or theosis/ divinized (1 Peter 2:4). This is the mystery of our faith. 

V

Corpus Christi is the centre and pinnacle of Christian faith dimension. 

The Holy Eucharist, Vatican II tells us, is "the source and summit of the Christian life" (Lumen Gentium, no. 11). When we receive the tiny white particle of the consecrated bread, we should remember that it is the mighty power of the love of God that we are receiving it (Fulton J Sheen). Only because Christ loved us so much even to the end we have this possibility of dining at the Lord's table. When the consecrated bread and wine enters our body it is Christ himself entering into our mortal bodies which will turn us to eternity. Therefore, we call the Eucharistic bread and wine as eternal food and drink. Hence we attach such a highly respectful and significant holy and adorable meaning to it.

Experience: On a personal note I should tell you why we should always long for the Holy Eucharist or at least for the Holy Communion when the Holy Mass is not available or possible.

During my illness, I had reached a stage where I could not celebrate Mass leave alone able to sit independently on my bed. When there is so much suffering in your body, the mind does not keep quiet. Mind also goes into hunting, i.e, depression. During that time, only thing that keeps you awake in the Lord is Holy Communion.  Nevertheless, that is the only thing that keeps you alive from pain that your body is causing in every segment of your being: physical, spiritual, emotional and psychological. When someone places that tiny consecrated particle of the bread on your tongue, it does the miracle at least for sometime that accompaniment, consolation, and a feeling that there is someone who is also suffering with you.

Questions for reflections:

1. How has been my experience with receiving the body and blood of Christ?

2. Do I feel the necessity of looking for Jesus in the Eucharist and finding solace in him when I am bored, distressed and overwhelmed by work pressure? 

3. What are those creative ways that I can develop in order to grow in the loving relationship with Jesus of the Eucharist?

Prayer: 
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus heal me,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus enthuse me,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus strengthen me in my faith, hope and love,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus touch me,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus save me,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus liberate me,
By the most precious body and blood of Jesus empower me.  AMEN.

- Olvin Veigas, SJ

14th June 2020