Reflection/Homily: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – Corpus Christi (June 2 2013)

Reflection/Homily: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – Corpus Christi (June 2 2013)

Theme: “The Second Transubstantiation”

Today’s celebration of the solemnity of the Most Holy Eucharist is a celebration that is at the center of the Church’s liturgical life and worship. It is the source and summit of our Christian life and faith. The Council of Trent and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1376) make it clear that by the consecration of the bread and wine, there takes place a change of the whole substance of bread into the Body of Christ and the whole substance of wine into the Blood of Christ. This change, the Council of Trent calls Transubstantiation.  

For us to understand this dogma of transubstantiation better, it is important to look into what it is not first. There are two heretical theories opposed to the theory of transubstantiation. The first, the heretical theory of Annihilation claims that at consecration, the bread and wine cease to exist and the body and blood of Christ is created ex nihilo (out of nothing) to take the place of the former bread and wine. The error here is the assumption that the ordinary elements of life are annihilated and supplanted by grace. Thus, grace does not build on nature and in fact destroys nature. This makes divine transformation a magic without the aid of the agent.

The second, the heretical theory of consubstantiation as advanced by Martin Luther claims that at consecration, along with the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ are really present in the bread and wine. In other words, the words of consecration do not change the bread and wine but rather the Body and Blood of Christ are created ex nihilo and made present with the bread and wine. Thus, in the Sacred Species there are two substances each (substantial dualism). The host contains the bread and the Body of Christ and the cup contains the wine and the Blood of Christ. The error here is the assumption that the ordinary elements of life are not sanctified by grace and that grace and nature work independently.

But in the theory of Transubstantiation, the Church teaches that the very substance of bread is itself changed into the Body of Christ and so does the wine change into the Blood of Christ. By implication, the ordinary elements of life are not annihilated or supplanted by grace but are themselves truly sanctified by grace. In other words, grace builds on nature and sanctifies the ordinary elements of life. That is why we see in the ordinary bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus, transubstantiation remains the transformation of mere bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

However, our concern today is on a “second transubstantiation”. The first transubstantiation happens on the altar of sacrifice at the moment of consecration while the second happens on the altar of our souls at the moment of reception of the consecrated species. In this second transubstantiation, we see the substantial change effected on the soul of the recipient by divine grace. This soul of the recipient becomes “Transubstantiated” and in it Christ becomes present. The difference between the first and the second is the degree to which the substance is transubstantiated. In the first, the bread and wine become metaphysically transformed into the real body and blood of Christ with the qualities of permanent presence and adorability. But in the second, the recipient becomes “God-bearer” to the extent one’s behaviour can.

Christ spoke of this second transubstantiation when he said “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them” (John 6:55, 56). Since it has always been believed that we become what we eat, it then follows that those who eat the Eucharistic species become Eucharistic beings, bearing in them Christ who is God. For this reason, St. Johnvianney considers genuflecting before a recipient of the Eucharistic specie as an act of adoration to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. St. Philip Neri would ask his altar boys to carry lighted candles beside those who received communion at mass. St. Augustine is also said to have heard the following words from Christ in prayer: “You will not change me into yourself as you would change food, instead you will be changed into me”.

Beloved friends, the idea behind our entire discourse is to enable us understand better what happens when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Our interest is not on what happens to the Sacred Species after consecration or how it happens but on what happens to us after receiving them. Do we feel any change in us? Does it in anyway challenge us? The Eucharist is Christ’s sacrifice to the Father through the Holy Spirit and in receiving it, we should also offer ourselves as living and acceptable sacrifices to God for the good of the whole universe. We make this possible when we deny ourselves mundane pleasure in exchange for divine grace. The Eucharist (meaning thanksgiving in Greek) is also Christ’s form of thanksgiving to the Father and in receiving it, our words and actions should portray our gratitude to God who has redeemed us in Christ.

We see the prefiguration of the Eucharist as sacrifice and thanksgiving in the first reading (Gen 14:18-20) when Melchizedek offered the sacrifice of bread and wine to God and Abram offered his thanksgiving after his victory in battle. The Holy Sacrifice of the mass is then the way of offering the Eucharist as our sacrifice and thanksgiving to God. For this reason, the second reading (1 Cor. 11:23-26) recounts how Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist and asked his Apostles to celebrate the Eucharist in his memory. So that whenever we gather as a people to celebrate the Eucharist, Christ feeds us with his Word and his Body as he did in the gospel reading (Lk. 9:11-17). In the crowds that gathered, we see the faithful gathering from various families for mass. In the disciples, we see the Priests and other sacred ministers. In the words Jesus spoke to them, we see the Word of God that is spoken to us at mass and in the loaves of bread and fish, we see the communion we share.

Beloved children of God, if we understand  “sacrament” to mean a physical sign of a spiritual reality, then we know that Jesus is the sacrament of God, the Church is the sacrament of Jesus, the Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of the Church and we who receive it ought to be the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist. We should make the Holy Eucharist alive in the community in which we live because the Holy Sacrifice of the mass is an invitation for the recipient to be transformed into the received. For this reason, certain thoughts, words and deeds should not be associated in any way with us. Therefore, let us always strive not only to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily but also to be transubstantiated into what we receive. God loves you.