The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
Readings: Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 109; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17
22 June 2025
Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi – the Body of Christ. I have blessed memories of giving the Eucharist to each of my parents just prior to their deaths. Each of them was able to consume only the smallest fragment. But it summed up the faith life of each of them. Pope Francis put it well in his encyclical Laudato Si’: “It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures. The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter.”[1] For us Catholics, that fragment of matter is food for the journey. In today’s Mass, we pray a preface of the Eucharist that addresses the Father: “Nourishing your faithful by this sacred mystery, you make them holy, so that the human race, bounded by one world, may be enlightened by one faith and united by one bond of charity.”
Listen at https://soundcloud.com/frank-brennan-6/homily-22-6-25
During the COVID pandemic, we endured six lockdowns in Melbourne totalling 262 days. During that time, I was relieving part-time chaplain at St Vincent’s Hospital. At the height of the lockdown, we were not permitted to give patients the Eucharist. One day, I visited a patient with all the protective paraphernalia and explained that we could pray together, but I could not give him the Eucharist. This patient was a doctor with a terminal illness. He was pained and said to me: “If a nurse can give me a tablet which I need, why can’t you give me communion, provided you follow the same safeguards as the nurse?” He pined for the eucharist even more than he did for the life-giving tablet. From that day on, I gave communion to those patients who wanted it, while following all the appropriate safeguards.
Often, when visiting hospitals or nursing homes, I encounter people with a longing for the Eucharist. They have endless hours in bed able to contemplate their lives while enduring their suffering. The Lord reaches their intimate depths through a fragment of matter. Some people with dementia may have lost much ability to communicate, but they still know the basic prayers. They still remember the basic ritual. They profess that though they are not worthy that the Lord enter under their roof, if they say but the word, they will be healed. At such moments, grace manifests itself tangibly.
Distributing communion in a parish, I encounter people of all ages and dispositions. I constantly marvel at the variety of hands that receive the Eucharist. Every pair of hands tells a story. Some are tough and gnarled; others are soft and gentle; some are aged and mis-shaped; others are smooth and manicured. As the fragment of matter, the host, is placed on the hand, I say, “The Body of Christ” and most reply, “Amen”. Occasionally, a parishioner will look me in the eye and say, “Thank you”. It is a blessing to be in a parish which is welcoming of all, no matter what their story.
Pope Francis got himself into some trouble with theological conservatives when he stated in two of his Apostolic Exhortations at the beginning of his papacy in 2013 and again in 2016 that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment of the weak”.[2] This is the way he put it in Evangelii Gaudium:
“The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such openness is that our church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door. There are other doors that should not be closed either. Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community, nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason. … The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”[3]
Having received the bread of life, food for the journey, we are missioned to go forth proclaiming the good news to the world. Pope Francis insisted that “the mysticism of the sacrament has a social character”. In Amoris Laetitia, he wrote: “When those who receive it turn a blind eye to the poor and suffering, or consent to various forms of division, contempt and inequality, the Eucharist is received unworthily. On the other hand, families who are properly disposed and receive the Eucharist regularly, reinforce their desire for fraternity, their social consciousness and their commitment to those in need.”[4]
Having received the Eucharist this Sunday, we go forth as what Francis describes as “God’s leaven in the midst of humanity”[5] and what our new Pope Leo describes as “a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity within the world”[6]. Together we are the Body of Christ.
Amen.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ is serving as part of a Jesuit team of priests working within a new configuration of the Toowong, St Lucia and Indooroopilly parishes in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Frank Brennan SJ is Adjunct Professor of the Thomas More Law School at ACU and is a former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA).
[1] Laudato Si’, #236.
[2] Amoris Laetitia, footnote 351.
[3] Evangelii Gaudium, #47.
[4] Amoris Laetitia, #186.
[5] Evangelii Gaudium,#114.
[6] See https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/homilies/2025/documents/20250518-inizio-pontificato.html
