Corpus Christi (Thurs. after Trinity)

Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of the Holy Eucharist

The Body and the Blood

Gen. 14:18-20; Ps. 116:12-19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 6:51-58

[Jesus said], “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.”’ John 6:56-57

A comparatively late feast

Corpus Christi has a relatively short history, being adopted in 1247 at Liege, and in Rome not until 1264, when Pope Urban IV promulgated it for the whole Church. Its acceptance was patchy; by 1314 most of the Italian churches had still not taken it on board, though churches further north were observing it. Nowadays, many Anglican churches mark it by special services, though few treat it as the holiday (‘holy day’) it enjoyed in the later Middle Ages.

Focus on the Eucharist

Sometimes known as the ‘Institution of the Eucharist’, Corpus Christi focuses our minds on the Last Supper: why Jesus turned the meal in the cenacle, on the night of his arrest, into such a special occasion; why he used such unique terms; and the particular importance that the observance has had ever since in the Church – to the extent that it now forms in many Anglican churches the main service each Sunday, as of course it has for centuries in the Roman Catholic Church.

Why was the meal made special?

It would be the last meal that Jesus would share with the Twelve before his Passion. Even Judas was not excluded. Jesus knew what lay ahead – for himself and for his disciples. They would be tested to the limit: he had to give them something positive to remember for after the Pasch. He needed to emphasize not only the memorial, but the sacrifice – knowing that they would not understand at the time, but that his resurrection would make some of it plain, and that his Holy Spirit would supply a deeper understanding in due course.

‘My body – my blood’

To Jewish ears, this was sheer anthropomorphism, and shocking in the extreme; yet it was the simple truth. Jesus was not going to float away – immanent, impassive, impersonal, non-human. He was going to give his back to the smiters, his blood to the floggers, for the sins of Everyman. As Everyman’s sins had made the sacrifice necessary, Everyman needed to be totally committed to entering into the contract of salvation as intimately as only God could devise. The sin was ours – the terms of redemption, God’s. We can take them – or leave them.

The Church’s Eucharist

That the Eucharist made an immediate impact on the early Church was hardly surprising. On the actual day of his resurrection, Jesus re-enacted it in part at Emmaus, and then in the upper room. The message: ‘Do this in remembrance of me’, that had left the disciples on Maundy Thursday perplexed and fearful, suddenly took on its full meaning. The sacrifice had now been made. The memory of it may still hurt, but the ‘thanksgiving’ (‘eucharist’) element had now real significance.

Whether we subscribe fully, partially or not at all to the doctrine of transubstantiation, we can surely mingle our understandings of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘memorial’ as we accept the bread and wine. Where we go from there is between ourselves and our Lord.

Suggested hymns

And now, O Father, mindful of the love; Author of life divine; Once, only once, and once for all; We hail thy Presence glorious.