Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year C)

 Corpus Christi

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 22, 2025

Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17

(Image courtesy: Google)

Dominic Tang, the courageous Chinese archbishop, was imprisoned for twenty-one years for nothing more than his loyalty to Christ and Christ’s one, true Church. After five years of solitary confinement in a windowless, damp cell, he was told by his jailers that he could leave it for a few hours to do whatever he wanted. Five years of solitary confinement and he had a couple of hours to do what he wanted! What would it be? A hot shower? A change of clothes? Certainly a long walk outside? A chance to call or write to family? What would it be, the jailer asked him. “I would like to say Mass,” replied Archbishop Tang. 

The Vietnamese Jesuit, Joseph Nguyen-Cong Doan, who spent nine years in labour camps in Vietnam, relates how he was finally able to say Mass when a fellow priest-prisoner shared some of his own smuggled supplies. “That night, when the other prisoners were asleep, lying on the floor of my cell, I celebrated Mass with tears of joy. My altar was my blanket, my prison clothes my vestments. But I felt myself at the heart of humanity and of the whole of creation.” Today’s feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus constantly calls us beyond ourselves to sacrificial love for others.

The Feast sums up three important confessions about our Faith. First is that God became physically present in the person of Christ, True God and True Man. Secondly, God continues to be present in His people as form the Mystical Body of Christ in his church. And thirdly, the presence of God under the form of bread and wine is made available to us on the altar at Mass and preserved there for our nourishment and worship.

In the first reading, we encounter a mysterious figure-Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram, recognizing the hand of God in Abram’s victory. Melchizedek appears out of nowhere and disappears just as suddenly-his role is deeply symbolic. He offers bread and wine not as a casual gesture but as a sacred act of thanksgiving. This foreshadows Christ, who will offer not bread and wine alone, but His very Body and Blood.

In Melchizedek’s action, we already see God preparing humanity to recognize the sacredness of the meal-of nourishment that goes beyond the physical.

The Gospel takes us to a familiar scene: Jesus surrounded by a large crowd, hungry and far from home. The disciples want to send them away to find food, but Jesus says, “You give them something to eat.” They reply, “We have only five loaves and two fish.” But in the hands of Jesus, little becomes abundant. He blesses, breaks, and gives the bread-a rhythm that echoes the Last Supper and the Mass.

This miracle is not just about feeding bodies-it’s a foretaste of the Eucharist. Jesus satisfies their physical hunger, but more deeply, He reveals Himself as the one who truly nourishes.

The Eucharist: Mystery, Meal, and Mission

The feast of Corpus Christi invites us to reflect deeply on three dimensions of the Eucharist:

a) The Eucharist as Mystery

In the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. This is not merely symbolic. As Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence—that Jesus is truly present in the consecrated host and chalice. This is the mystery that has sustained saints and martyrs, missionaries and mystics.

It is a divine paradox: Heaven comes to Earth in the smallest of forms.

b) The Eucharist as Meal

Jesus gave us the Eucharist during a meal, the Last Supper. He wanted us to understand that to be His follower is to gather, to share, to break bread together. The table is the place of communion, forgiveness, and inclusion.

We are invited not as worthy guests, but as sinners loved and called. No one earns a seat at this table-it is Christ who invites.

c) The Eucharist as Mission

“Do this in memory of me” is not only about repeating a ritual. It’s about living what we celebrate.

We become what we receive. The Body of Christ in the Eucharist sends us to be the Body of Christ in the world: Feeding the hungry, Comforting the suffering, Reconciling with enemies, Welcoming the outsider.

To receive Christ and walk past the poor is a contradiction. The Eucharist compels us to live with compassion.

Let us conclude the reflections with this short anecdote: On a hill near Cape Town, South Africa, just below the famed Table Mountain, a gun is fired every day at noon. The hill is known as Signal Hill. The firing of the gun once served a beautiful purpose. It signaled that a ship, on its way to or from India, had arrived in the harbour with a cargo of goods, and was in need of supplies of food and fresh water. A beautiful exchange resulted. There was receiving and giving. But that was a long time ago. The purpose no longer exists. Yet the gun is still fired dutifully every day. However, the firing is now little more than an empty ritual. Once it had a beautiful meaning. Now the meaning has gone out of it. Most of the local people ignore it. Visitors are told, 'If you hear a loud bang at mid-day, don't worry. It's only the gun going off.' However the ritual still has one thing going for it. Most people know the story behind it. If that story were to be lost, then the ritual would become poorer still. 

The Eucharist celebrates a wonderful event - the gift which Jesus made of his life on our behalf. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we tell that story again. But like anything that is repeated over and over again, there is a danger that it may become just a ritual.

Let us come before the altar not as holy people, but let us know that this altar makes us holy. 

Happy Feast

Feast of the Holy Trinity (C)

Feast of the Holy Trinity June 15, 2025

Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

(image courtesy: Google)

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it would be a long journey. So one day he got up early and packed his bag with some biscuits, chocolates and soft drinks and set out on his journey without telling anyone. He had walked a short distance and reached a garden and found an old woman sitting quietly and feeding pigeons. The boy went and sat next to her and kept watching her action.  Then he felt hungry and took out a biscuit and was about to eat. But he looked at the old woman and shared some with her. She willingly accepted it and gave him a bright smile. He too smiled.  He shared his chocolates and drink and each time she gave her a smile better than previous one.  They shared no word with each other. Evening approached and the boy was tired and wanted to return home.  He had but taken a few steps, he turned back and gave a hug to the old woman who hugged in return giving the biggest smile ever. The boy reached home and the mother asked him why he looked so happy. The boy said: “Mom I had lunch with God today.”  Before she could say anything he added, “Look mom, she had the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.”  The Old Woman too reached home and her son asked her why she was so happy. She responded saying, “Look son I had lunch with God today and I did not know he was so young.”

In our daily life, we begin every one of our prayers, activities, programmes or works with the sign of the cross and call upon God, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Even though we remember the Trinity several times a day, it is difficult to comprehend the full meaning because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we invoke constitute a great Mystery.

Today's First Reading is taken from the Book of Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings and counsels.  This Book reminds us of the many facets of God.  There is the creative action of God the Father, forming the world and all that the world contains.  It portrays God, not as an authoritarian remote figure but someone intimately accessible to the created world.  

The farewell discourse of Jesus is characterized by five Paraclete or advocate passages.  Two important aspects of the Paraclete is emphasized in these passages: first the Holy Spirit as the continuing presence of Jesus in the post-resurrection community and second the Paraclete as a teacher and a witness.  These passages have become very important in the church’s subsequent theological development of the doctrine of the Trinity.  John provides us with a rich understanding of the divine mutuality that existed between the Father and the Son. When those insights are combined with these Paraclete passages we have all the necessary ingredients for shaping the rich and essential doctrines of the Trinity.

As a whole the readings of the day could be summarised with the following lines 

1.  Experience is how we ENCOUNTER God

2.  Theology is what we KNOW of God

3.  Spirituality is how we LOVE God

Let us try to understand the three Persons 

The first person is the Father and he is called Father because he is the source of life for the son. 

The second person is called the Son because he receives his life from the Father. Father and Son love each other with a love more complete and perfect than we can imagine. Their love is so perfect that it is a person, the Holy Spirit. 

The third person then is the personal love between Father and Son and is the bond of unity between the Father and the Son. Yet in our practice of faith, there is no other words remembered than the names of Father Son and the Spirit and this Trinity is needed for us to fully live our Christian life.

St. Augustine said: “The Sign of the Cross was introduced by the Apostles themselves.” Tertullian (194 AD) observed: “At every step and movement, whenever we come in or go out, when we dress ourselves or prepare to go out of doors, in the bath, at table, when lights are brought, at lying or sitting down, whatever we may doing, we make the Sign of the Cross.”

The Sign of the Cross as a form of our devotion to the Blessed Trinity is very venerable and holy because it reminds us of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity and of our redemption.

Trinity is the source, model and reference point of all human communities. It is a Source because we are created in the image and likeness of God i.e. Trinitarian God. We are social beings and by nature we are Trinitarian. In us we have Father dimension: Transcendence – capacity to go beyond, Son dimension: transparency/openness and Spirit dimension: Immanence, i.e capacity to go within oneself. 

Model: We are community beings. Our communities are modelled after the Trinitarian communion. We come together on Sundays as a community to reflect the Trinitarian aspect in us. 

Basic reference point for Christian communion: the entire humanity is a community. We are relational and community people and therefore as a community we refer back to Trinity to live a fitting Christian life. 

Living the Trinitarian Life

Understanding the Trinity is not merely an intellectual exercise but a call to live in a way that reflects the relational nature of God. The Trinity teaches us that at the core of reality is a community of love. We are created in the image of this Trinitarian God, which means we are made for relationship—with God and with one another.

To live a Trinitarian life is to embrace a life of love, unity, and mutual self-giving. It challenges us to build communities that reflect the unity and diversity of the Trinity. In our families, parishes, and workplaces, we are called to foster relationships marked by respect, compassion, and solidarity.

The Trinity in Worship and Prayer

Our worship and prayer are deeply Trinitarian. Every time we make the Sign of the Cross, we invoke the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reminding ourselves of our baptismal identity and our connection to the divine community. In the Eucharist, we participate in the Trinitarian love of God as we are united with Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out the Gospel.

In our personal prayer, we can deepen our relationship with each person of the Trinity. We can turn to the Father with our needs and gratitude, seek to know and follow Jesus more closely, and invite the Holy Spirit to fill us with wisdom, courage, and love.

As we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, let us embrace the mystery of the Triune God with awe and gratitude. Let us strive to reflect the love and unity of the Trinity in our lives and communities. By living out our faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we become witnesses to the world of the transforming power of God’s love. Just like the boy in the story who could find God wherever he went may we too make the trinity personal. May our understanding of the Trinity deepen our faith and inspire us to live as true disciples of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and united in the love of the Father.

Happy Feast