FEAST OF

CORPUS CHRISTI

Deut. 8: 2-16
I Cor. 10: 16-17
John 6: 51-58

Cycle A
18 June 2017
INTRODUCTION:

This Feast signals the

distinctiveness of the
Christian Religion from
all the religions and
philosophies of the
world.
INTRODUCTION:

No other religion like

Judaism or philosophy
like that of Aristotle is
called to eat the flesh
and drink the blood of
its founder or of the
very person it reveres.
INTRODUCTION:

That is just what

Jesus tells his
followers today:
to eat his blood and
drink his blood.
1 Paul explains this distinctiveness to his
Christians in Corinth in our second reading
today this way:
"The cup of blessing
that we drink, is it not
a participation in the
blood of Christ? The
bread that we break, is
it not a participation in
the body of Christ?"
1 The word Paul used for
"participation" in Greek
is "koinonia" meaning
communion.

Communion resonates with

John 15: 1 and 4: "I am the
vine; you are the branches.
. . Remain in me as I
remain in you."
1

What John and Paul want to say here

is that Jesus is not only a teacher we
listen to or a leader we follow but the
field of force in which we share.
2
Nowhere is this
communion clearer
than the Gospel in
John 6: 51 where
Jesus says plainly:

"I am the living bread come down from heaven:

whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread
that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
2
Jesus wants to live in his
followers and his
followers to live in him.
Jesus' listeners react
very strongly as he lays
down the foundation of
his "Eucharistic
Mysticism" that is part
and parcel of
Christianity.
2
"How can this man
give his flesh to eat?"

Jewish Laws prohibit

eating the flesh of animals!

How much more the

eating of human flesh?
2
Jesus drives his point more emphatically:
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life and I will raise him
on the last day. For my flesh is true food
and my blood is true drink."
2
The word Jesus used
for the verb "eat" is
not "fogein" but
"trogein" meaning to
gnaw like a goat.
2
What then is the
effect of this eating?
"Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my
blood remain in me
and I in him."
2
The word used for "remain" here in
John 6: 56 as well as in John 15: 4-5 is
"manein" meaning "to stay" as in the
incident with the two disciples of the
Baptist at the beginning of John's Gospel
in John 1: 38-39 who were following
Jesus and wanted to know where he was
staying.
2

The one who eats the body of Jesus

is drawn into the Divine Life.
3
How is this possible?
Our first Reading from
Deuteronomy gives an
interpretative key to the
Theology of
Transubstantiation:
3
"He, therefore, let you be
afflicted with hunger and then
fed you with manna, a food
unknown to you and to your
fathers, to show you that not
by bread alone does man live,
but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God."
3

God's Word at the beginning of Creation

and at the beginning of the new Creation is
not only descriptive but also creative.
3

and light was created!

3
"And the Word was
made flesh and dwelt
among us." Jesus ties
his teaching about his
flesh as food to the
Manna from heaven of
the Old Testament.
3
Just as in the Old
Testament, so now in the
New, Jesus is the new
Manna come down
from heaven as we the
Church journey away
from the slavery of sin on
the way to our salvation.
3
When we eat the
body of Christ,
not only is our
body nourished
but something
changes in us in
the realm of the
Divine!
CONCLUSION:
Christ wants us his
People to be fed by
his Body and Blood.
Receiving
Communion is a
positive sign of
the vitality of his
People!

+ART