Corpus Christi, this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, which we celebrate this weekend is of huge importance to Christians. We forget sometimes, but Eucharist is the “source and summit’ of our Christian life and it is impossible to overstate its importance. It is not a localised, limited event. Eucharist is a manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Pope Saint John Paul II calls the sacrament “cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church (like ours in Warragul, Drouin and Neerim South), the Eucharist is always, in some way, celebrated on the altar of the world.”[1] Pope Benedict asserts it “joins heaven and earth; embraces and penetrates all creation … in the bread of the Eucharist, creation is projected towards divinisation … toward unification with the Creator himself.”[2]

Eucharist is entwined with Jesus’ incarnation, his “en-fleshment” as part of creation. In the sacrament of his body he actually gives us his own flesh, which he has united to his divinity. Both the Incarnation and the Eucharist reveal to us that God actually wants to abide in us and us in Him. As the Creator is in Christ and Christ is in us, so we find ourselves in unity with the Creator. What is the Creator’s purpose in uniting us to himself? That, nourished by his body and blood, we act as Jesus did during his earthly life: serving his children, especially the poor, sick, dispossessed and marginalised. Is it only the flawless who are to be so nourished? Emphatically not! Pope Francis tells us: the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”[3]

Deacon Mark Kelly  

[1] Pope St John Paul II Ecclesia de Eucharistia.

[2] Pope Benedict XVI Corpus Christi homily

[3] Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium 47