Monday, July 20, 2020 –
Today we are going to talk about the Thursday after Trinity Sunday: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), but here in the United States we transfer it to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday because, well, you’d have to ask the Bishops that.
Leaving aside the obvious question of why the Bishops move Holy Days, let’s get down to what today is really all about:
Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!
As we have seen before, the Catechism says a ton about the Eucharist. We won’t rehash all that stuff again. Instead, I will pick out a couple paragraphs:
1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” “This presence is called ‘real’ – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”
1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”
1377 The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.
So there you have it, today is all about:
Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!
Here is a short run-down of how Corpus Christi came about:
Juliana of Mont Cornillon (now Saint Juliana!) was a young girl in Belgium with a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament and longed for a special feast in its honor. Saint Juliana sent her request to several “higher-ups,” and eventually it made its way to Pope Urban IV.
He greatly admired the feast that her local Bishop had granted, and thus published a Papal Bull called Transiturus on September 8, 1264 in which he ordered an annual celebration of Corpus Christi to be held the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Of course, the bull indicated that many indulgences to the faithful who attended were granted! AND, none other than Thomas Aquinas (WOW!!) was recruited to compose the Office (prayers) for this Holy Day.
Sadly, Pope Urban IV died on October 2, 1264, and the spread of his decree didn’t go very far. BUT, Pope Clement V took up the matter at the General Council of Vienne (1311) and once more ordered the feast. Pope Clement V published a new decree, and later, Pope John XXII urged the observance of this most excellent feast.
May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!
