Two-Minute Homily by Fr Adrian Farrelly for the Feast of Corpus Christi 2024 (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).
“At Eucharist, in communion, we literally believe as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we take our Lord into ourselves.”
- Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane
The Catholic expression of our faith in Christ is very physical and graphic. Having a Sunday celebration focussing on the body and blood of Christ takes us into a face to face encounter with his torture and death. Though the soldiers broke no bones, his body was broken and his blood poured out onto the soil of Calvary. When Jesus withdrew from being with the disciples as the Risen one, they recalled what he had said at the last supper to do in memory of him.So the Eucharist emerged as the way par excellence they encountered him, do this in memory of me. At each celebration, known in the beginning as the breaking of the bread, the one presiding said to the brothers and sisters gathered. This is my body. This is my blood. Not this is a reminder of me. This is me!
Devout Jews all, the disciples were at home with sacrifices where animals were killed and blood poured out. They were people of a covenant God had made with them. Now at their gatherings as followers of Jesus, they easily saw Jesus as the lamb sacrificed at Passover, their annual celebration of deliverance to freedom from slavery. Jesus took them into a new freedom. Saint Paul at his encounter with the risen Lord on the way to Damascus realised that Jesus indwelt the men and women who acclaimed him as the messiah. Why are you, Saul, persecuting me! Not them, but me! These people then could rightly be called the body of Christ. Where they went, Christ went. When they spoke, Christ spoke. When they loved others, Christ loved others.
At Eucharist, in communion, we literally believe as we eat the bread and drink the cup, that we take our Lord into ourselves. How the Spirit brings about this transformation need not disturb that faith we express when we receive what is offered to us with a resounding Amen, I believe.