This Sunday, on the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi, we reflect on the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the Church readings point out to Jesus’ invitation for us to eat his body and drink his blood, so that we may have eternal life.
The First Reading (Genesis 14:18-20) talks about Melchizedek, priest and king of Salem, offering bread and wine, and in so doing, blessed Abram. This Melchizedek prefigured Jesus who, as eternal high priest and king of heaven and earth, offers us his own body in the form of bread, and his own blood in the form of wine, as sources of eternal blessings to all who receive him in faith.
The Gospel (Luke 9:11b-17), on the other hand, narrates the familiar story on the multiplication of bread and fish. With only five loaves of bread and two fishes, Jesus fed five thousand men, and countless women and children, with leftover fragments filling twelve wicker baskets. The same story, which is narrated in John 6, will then tell us of the people following Jesus because of this miracle, but with him telling them, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:26-27a).
The Second Reading (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) teaches us what this food is. In St. Paul’s account of the Last Supper, as taught to him by God, he said, “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”
The bread – the food that endures to eternal life – is no other than Jesus himself. Jesus declares, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Going further, he says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:53-56).
This is obviously a hard and heavy teaching. How must we understand it? Should we take it literally or figuratively? In eating the bread on Holy Communion, are we literally eating the body of our Lord Jesus, and in drinking the wine, are we literally drinking his blood? Or are we to take the bread and wine as mere symbols of Jesus’ body and blood?
Different Christian churches have their own interpretations of this difficult teaching. As a Catholic, I believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, but I respect the faith of many well-meaning brothers and sisters who believe differently. Our goal should not be to argue with each other and force our beliefs on people who believe otherwise. Rather, we should look at Holy Communion as a unifying element of Christianity – a testament of God’s immeasurable love and selfless giving to his people. If we take this stand, we are doing our part to bring into fruition Jesus’ own prayer to the Father in John 17:21, “That they may all be one, as you, Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.”
United thus with the body and blood of Christ, the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi challenges us to live our lives away from sin, to bear fruits of good works, and to share the love of God in words and in actions to our neighbors. Like bread, we must be broken, and like wine, we must be poured out, so that we can be a blessing to others. With Christ in us, and with Christ in others, our brokenness will then be turned into wholeness – one with God and one with all others who believe in him.