It's the Second Sunday after Pentecost. Breathe easy! We are back in Ordinary Time and we can get back to normal!
You wish.
Some of our congregations in the Church celebrated Corpus Christi last Thursday and today falls in its Octave, that 8 day solemn period that certain important observances get. Even if they don't there is something that is the special focus of Corpus Christi that is still happening on ordinary humdrum Sundays the world over.
Jesus Christ meets us in the Bread and Wine offered at Mass.
Now, there has been a lot, and I do mean a lot, of excessive wrangling over the past few centuries concerning the exact meaning of it. Many (Catholic, Orthodox, some Anglican...but not all, but indeed some Anglicans...and others) believe that the Bread and Wine change so that even though they have the material appearance and properties of bread and wine they indeed become the Body and Blood of Jesus. Others move from this to a purely metaphorical representation, and others hold everything in between. The thing is, the teaching of the Church and of Scriptures is that it is the Body and Blood of Christ, but just how is more properly explained as Holy Mystery, which we can rationally approach but never quite "get there".
No, this miracle, for indeed it is a wonder, occurs regularly within the congregations of the faithful. The Holy Spirit descends upon the gifts and renders them for us our post-baptismal participation in the Eternal Sacrifice of the Lamb of God upon the Cross for our redemption.
I read once a book that outlines four characteristics of the Bread and Wine that have their roots in Scripture and the Church Fathers' exposition of Scripture (Pitre, Brant, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper, New York: Doubleday, 2011) which bear repeating:
The Eucharist is the Passover Sacrifice
The Eucharist is the Bread of the Presence
The Eucharist is our Manna in the Wilderness
The Eucharist is the Cup of Blessing/Praise
It is clear from the Gospel of the Feast (St. John 6.41-56) that Jesus does not intend a metaphorical participation in his sacrifice:
“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
We as the Church have within the Eucharist the very Presence of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the Eucharist we find the Passover Sacrifice which, in order to participate in, we must eat. In the Eucharist we have the food and drink of our Spiritual Life. In the Eucharist we offer likewise a sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God alongside Jesus' Paschal Sacrifice on the Cross. It is our fuel in our repentence, it is our sustenance as we live by the Word, and it is a visible and tangible demonstration of God's love for us so that in turn we are enlivened to show God's love to the rest of this sorrowful world.
Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him who takes away the sin of the world, Behold God's love for us.
Coptic Icon of the Last Supper
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