Homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi: Year B – June 2, 2024.
Readings: Exodus 24:3-8; Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-24,29-31,34; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16.22-26.
The first reading recalls the Covenant between God and the people of Israel that was sealed with the blood of animals. In the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews established that Christ initiated a new covenant not through the blood of goats and bulls but through his blood which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. The gospel which discloses that Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples introduces singing/praying the psalms as an essential component of the Liturgy. We are charged to be truly a Eucharistic people by celebrating the Most Holy Sacrament as the source and summit of our lives and existence.
Introduction
Friends in Christ, today the Church celebrates Corpus Christi Sunday – the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast of the Body of Christ, Corpus Christi was introduced into Church calendar in 1264. He claimed that the vision of a glistening full moon, in which an Augustinian nun, Juliana of Liège influenced the celebration. The moon she saw was perfect but for some hollow dark spots which she was told represented the absence of a feast of the Eucharist. This led to the official pronouncement about the solemnity (Munachi, 2016).
Summary of the Readings
The first reading (Exodus 24:3-8) recalls the Covenant between God and the people of Israel which was sealed with the blood of animals. It is instructive that before ratifying the Covenant, Moses read the Book of the Covenant to the people. The Sacred Text prefigures the place of the Liturgy of the Word and the Holy Eucharist in the new and everlasting covenant that Christ would establish by his blood.
In the second reading (Heb. 9:11-15) established that Christ initiated a new covenant – not through the blood of goats and bulls but through his blood which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. Accordingly, it states that: “He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised: His death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant.”
The gospel (Mark 14:12-16.22-26) which discloses that Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples introduces singing/praying the psalms as an essential component of the Liturgy. It states that the bread and the chalice replace the blood of animals because it takes away the sins of the world. The blessing and the thanksgiving reveal the true nature of the sacrifice of the Holy Mass.
Pastoral Lessons
- Be Active at Mass: The reading of the Book of the Covenant to the people captured in the first reading as well as the singing of the psalms in the gospel assures Catholics of the place of the Liturgy of the Word as an indispensable part of the Holy Mass even as it urges them to actively participate in the mass.
- Belief in the Real Presence: We are charged to belief in the real presence bearing in mind that Christ is present with us in body, soul, and divinity at every celebration which means that whenever we receive the Eucharist, it assists us in our daily struggles against sin and death.
- Preserve the Faith: Priests, who are custodians of the faith and ministers of the Holy Eucharist must preserve the faith and pass it on while urging the faithful to pay homage to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in a deep and profound way.
- Shun Fetish Covenants:Since the blood of Christ replaces the blood of rams and bulls, we are encouraged to shun all fetish covenants that are contrary to our faith in the power of the Holy Mass, medicine for body and soul.
- Be in Full Communion: On this day, we urge those who have excommunicated themselves from receiving Holy Communion for many years to do the needful by going for confession so as to be in full communion with Christ and with the Christian assembly (Cf. CCC, no.1415).
Summary Lines
- The first reading recalls the Covenant between God and the people of Israel which was sealed with the blood of animals.
- In the second reading, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews established that Christ initiated a new covenant not through the blood of goats and bulls but through his blood which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.
- He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised.
- The gospel which discloses that Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples introduces singing/praying the psalms an essential component of the Liturgy.
- It states that the bread and the chalice replace the blood of animals because it takes away the sins of the world.
Conclusion
As a Eucharistic people, the Holy Mass draws us to the unity of all God’s and daughters – it calls us to eradicate divisions in our society bearing in mind that though we are many, we are one in Christ (Cf. 2 Cor. 10:16-17). As the source and the summit of our lives and existence (Cf. SC, no 10; & LG, no. 11; CCC no. 1324), the Holy Eucharist fulfils the prayer of thanksgiving, petition, supplication, and adoration. As the highest form of prayer, Latria, it prefigures the bloody sacrifice of Calvary and the Last Supper which translates as food for our journey. May Jesus in the Eucharist inspire us to be truly a Eucharistic people. Amen. Happy Corpus Christi Sunday!
