Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 Solemnity of the Corpus Christi
Matthew 28:16-20 Three Divine Persons Considered As One And Not Separate From One Another. One God in 3 Divine Persons.
May 29, 2021
Mark 4:26-34 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Negativity has no place in the Kingdom of God
June 12, 2021
Solemnity of the Corpus Christi
Exodus 24:3-8
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
A. Text/Context
• Today, we are celebrating the Feast of the Corpus Christi. The words are in Latin and it means the Body of Christ
• Much of the credit why the Corpus Christi becomes a feast in the Church is through St. Juliana of Liege in Belgium
• The Church realized that there is not a single feast in the Church where the body of Christ is commemorated as Christ’s gift of the Eucharist
• From the year 1258 onwards, the feast is celebrated in the Church
• The gospel of Mark speaks about the Passover meal that Jesus and his disciples were doing
• The bread and wine that they ate and drank symbolize the body and blood of Christ in the holy mass that we are now celebrating
• This is the body and blood of Christ which we always receive during the Holy Communion in the form of a host
• Even though that most of the time you only receive the body or the host, there is already the component of the blood included in the flesh
• Because even in an ordinary flesh there is always the presence of blood
• If you remember Fatima the angel of God has shown to the three children a host and a chalice suspended in the air and the blood is dripping from the host to the chalice
• The angel has shown to the children that the host or the body already has the component of the blood
• As mentioned in the first reading, Moses gives an offering of blood which he sprinkled to the people saying this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you
• So this blood offering is already foreshadowed in the Old Testament
• And it was during the horrors of the crucifixion when the Jews saw real blood dripping from the wounds of Jesus as his flesh was ripped and torn to pieces by the scourging at the pillar the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, the piercing by the lance of the soldier where the blood of Jesus oozed like a fountain from his sides
• There was so much blood then in Calvary. What is the reason? Because Jesus himself offered his very own blood for the salvation of humanity
• That is why the Holy Eucharist is a memorial of the bloody sacrifice of the cross. A memorial or an Anamnesis of the bloody episode in the mountains of Calvary more than 2,000 years ago
• As mentioned in the 2nd reading that if the blood of the goats and bulls have cleansed those who were defiled so that their flesh are cleansed then how much more of the blood of Christ?
• The blood of Christ has cleansed our souls. This is the meaning of the Corpus Christi. Eating the bread and drinking the wine means receiving Jesus in our life, and receiving the life he offers for us in the cross
• We then ask the question: Why is it that we are told that the bread is the body of Christ and the wine is the blood of Christ
• There is a very simple answer: because Jesus said so. He said in the gospel today that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood! Who can ever refute the very words that Jesus himself has said? Nobody
• It is his body and it is his blood because, again, he said so. No more questions, no more explanation. It is a basic doctrine in Catholicism
B. Human Situation
• My dear brothers and sisters, we are now celebrating the mass and later on we will have communion
• The holy mass is like a banquet where the guests who attend eat and drink together what the host has prepared
• This is similar to the celebration of a fiesta here in Kawayan. The host of the party would be surprised if the guests he invited would not eat what he has prepared. He would be insulted
• I tell everyone, we will be haunted with sin forever. We will continue to commit sin until the day we die. And nobody is worthy to receive the Lord in communion, it is only the Lord who has made us worthy
• Here in this mass, we have the rite of cleansing, we make a general confession, I confess…
• After that we beg for the mercy of God to forgive our sins. Lord have mercy …
• And the priest will pray May almighty God…
• Now do you think God will not forgive us?
• Have you forgotten the promise of Jesus to St. Gertrude – those who receive me in Holy Communion heartily, their venial sins are forgiven. 1,000 venial sins cannot equal 1 mortal sin
• Therefore, the graver sins or the mortal sins, we need to go to confession
• I just want to make clear on this, that we can even receive holy communion even if we have committed a horrible sin if we have been sorry about that sin provided that you have to make a confession later on
• Failure to make a confession and you continue to receive holy communion then you are committing a sacrilege
• God is so good to us we can even advance the graces we need just like what God did to the Virgin Mary. Mary already enjoyed redemption even before the redeemer was born because God made it possible
• What I mean is that the little sins that we commit is already forgiven during the mass
• Do not take for granted the sacraments of the Church because they are also one of the means of salvation
• The guilt of the sins that we commit depends greatly on the consequences or effect of the sin that we have committed
• So you see, there are really no strict rules in the reception of the Eucharist. It is to be understood in the eyes of faith
• After all Jesus himself will be the judge in the end if we are guilty or not
• The reception of the Eucharist will be less meaningful if we will not understand the Eucharist through the eyes of faith
C. Challenge
• So today in this feast of the Corpus Christi we are challenged and called to appreciate the gift of the Eucharist, the bread that we receive in the form of a host
• That this is the bread that forgives our sins, the bread that cleanses our souls
• This is where the challenge of the gospel lies that we continue to receive the Eucharist in all the years to come
• In this way, the Corpus Christi or the gift of the Eucharist, will become the summit and the source of our Christian life
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Mark 14 verse 12-16, 22-26
