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Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
(June 10, 2007)

JRR  Tolkein – the great Catholic author wrote:  I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all loves on earth and more than that.

We used to call this Feast Corpus Christi, but since the Cup has been restored to the whole congregation, the Church now calls this the Feast of the Body and  Blood of Christ. In I Corinthians 11: Paul connects the early Christian Liturgy with the what Jesus did at his last Passover Supper. 

4 Cups: According to some authors (Lion Handbook), at the Passover Seder Supper, Jewish people would normally drink from four cups of wine. After the first cup, the youngest child asks 4 questions about the meaning of the Passover. After songs of praise and a second cup, the Father breaks and shares the unleavened Matzah bread with all those present. Most likely the moment when Jesus gave his Body to be broken for us and shared with us.
       After the meal came the 3^rd Cup which is known as the Cup of Blessing.  In I Corinthians 10:l6 Paul asks: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? So it seems it was  when they shared the 3^rd Cup that Jesus gave us his Blood.
     Then there was more singing, and drinking from the 4^th cup – the cup of staggering or trembling before God’s wrath (Eerdmans p.248). Since it was after the Passover Supper that Jesus went to the Garden to encounter the grim forces of sin and death, could there be a connection between the cup Jesus would rather not drink and the cup of God’s wrath? 

     Today at this Mass the EMHC will be asked to renew their commitment. A Minister of Holy Communion, we are privileged to offer the Cup of Blessing. While not everyone chooses to drink from the Cup, all of us praise, thank and bless God for this Wine, which has become the Blood of Christ, the seal on the New Covenant.  While the Jewish Covenant was sealed with the blood of a  lamb, our New Covenant is sealed with the blood of The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World.

We need to appreciate more fully what we are doing in receiving Communion. We are taught that in Jesus, God gives himself to us. So, if I truly believe that I am receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, if I approach the Eucharist too lightly or unworthily, I am in danger of an insult against God. That’s why before receiving Communion we always pray:  Lord I am not worthy to receive you, and ask for forgiveness.

If we appreciate what we are doing when we drink from this cup we will become more like Christ and pour out our lives in loving sacrifice for others.
    Mother Theresa of Calcutta was asked what gave her the motivation to devote her life to caring for the poor.  She explained that it was it was through receiving the Body of Christ at Mass as well as spending an hour adoring Christ in the Eucharist each day. Nothing less than the Christ (especially in the Eucharist) has the power to make us fall in love with the poor.
         All of us are meant to have our minds and hearts more and more transformed into the mind and  heart of Christ by lovingly receiving Christ’s Body and drinking deeply of Christ’s Blood.