Corpus Christi

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16
1 Corinthians 11:23-29
John 6:47-58

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

A priest recently told me a story about a devout Christian who had never experienced Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This priest suggested that he attend a service. It horrified the man: waving the Blessed Sacrament around, putting the communion host in a shiny, gaudy monstrance, ringing bells, swinging bowls of incense, wearing fancy dress, prostrating before it. Later he told the priest that he had found it offensive. The priest made no excuses. He told him, "Well, it's no substitution for communion, but it's an extension of it. It's what communion is all about. It's at the heart of our religion, the essence of Christianity."

Despite his dislike of Benediction, this man stuck with it and continued to attend Benediction, and soon thereafter his attitude changed 180 degrees. He got it! It made sense. He saw the beauty. Benediction became a deeply moving experience for him. That's grace; that's a lively faith, someone who keeps an open mind and learns new things, someone who allows God to work in his heart and mind, someone who is persistent, someone who is not rigid and inflexible, but changes and grows. Each of us needs that; each of us could change 180 degrees about something, and probably more than one thing; each of us should pray to be so open to the Spirit.

I love this feast, and I love Benediction. Corpus Christi is as fundamental to Christianity as Christmas. Indeed, it's the same idea. This morning I am going to give four reasons why the Blessed Sacrament is at the heart of our religion. We could count many more, but I give you four that really excite me, four that remind me why I am a Christian and why it would be crazy not to be a Christian.

First, the Blessed Sacrament assures us that creation is good, real, and trustworthy. One of the more popular films at the cinema these days is The Matrix Reloaded. From what I understand, one of its basic assumptions is that the world we live in isn't real. Adam Gopnik wrote about it:

The curious thing about the movie was that everybody could grasp the basic setup instantly. Whether it occurs in cult science fiction or academic philosophy, we seem to be fascinated by the possibility that our world might not exist. We're not strangers to the feeling that, for much of our lives, we might just as well be brains-in-vats, floating in an amniotic fluid of simulations. It doesn't just strike us as plausibly weird. It strikes us as weirdly plausible. . .

[The epiphany in The Matrix is that the world] is a cascade of cold digital algorithms, unfeeling and lifeless [and that human beings are not free]. . .
This moment of discovery – that the world is not merely evil but fake — has become a familiar turn in American entertainment.

I think that Gopnik has a point. It does seem to be a popular idea in American culture that the world is fake, but it is thoroughly anti-Christian. The Church assures us that God made us and that material things are real. Our experiences are real, not a dream; material things, physical sensations are not an illusion. God uses material things for us to know him, for us to have union with him. The Blessed Sacrament affirms that physical things are a good gift from God, that we can trust our physical senses, that our world is real, that material, worldly things may connect us to eternity.

One of my heroes is S. John of Damascus, an eighth century priest in the Byzantine Empire. John opposed the Emperor who had prohibited holy images and had ordered their destruction. John understood that holy images, Christian art, are not idols, that God in Christ had entered the world, taken human flesh, and so material substances could convey the truth and reality of God. He wrote:

I do not worship matter. I worship the God of matter; who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. . . Do not vilify matter, for it is not dishonourable. Nothing is dishonourable that God has made.

In other words, if you want eternal life, you can't run away from physical things. Eternal life comes from physical things and using physical things in a godly way. The Blessed Sacrament reminds us that when God created the world, he saw that it was good. So number one: God only makes good things.

Second, the Blessed Sacrament assures us of God's presence with us. God is not only out there, out in the ether, outside of time and space, but also with us here and now. One of the ways God becomes present is when we do his will, when we obey him. At the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel came to S. Mary, and Mary said, "Yes. I will cooperate with God. Be it unto me according to thy Word." Mary said ‘yes' to God, and God's Son came into the world. Because of Mary's ‘yes' we have Christmas: God became man. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his followers, "Do this in remembrance of me." Every day we say mass, and every day we are saying ‘yes' to our Lord's command. We obey what Jesus told us to do, and he becomes present.

The same thing happens in our lives. When we do what God calls us to do, we allow for his presence in our lives. Every human being has a vocation, that is a calling from God. We pray to know what God wants us to do, and we try to do it. We ask God, "What do you want from me?" And once we discern an answer, then we screw up the courage and fortitude and humility to do it. We ask God to give us the strength, the comfort, of the Holy Spirit to do what he wants us to do. For a lot of what we are given to do may not only seem difficult, but also lowly and not worthwhile, thankless, unappreciated, beneath our dignity and ability, but our worldly standards of importance often warps our perspective. We do what God gives us to do, and he is with us, building up our character, sanctifying our souls. So number two: God is with us.

Third, the Blessed Sacrament assures us that we are not alone, that God unites us with him and with one another. The Body and Blood of Christ makes us one. S. Paul said, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." (1 Cor 10:17) When we all come to the altar to receive Christ, we have a foretaste of heaven, where all people will be in harmony. S. Matthew wrote, "If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Mt 5:23-24) The altar is where all of humanity is reconciled, where we forgive one another, where we heal our divisions, where we support one another. The Blessed Sacrament nourishes us, sustains us, unites us. So number three: God unites us.

Fourth, the Blessed Sacrament assures us that God transforms us. In the mass, bread and wine transform into the Body and Blood of our Lord, and when we receive them, God transforms us. The Body and Blood of Christ are not an opiate, not a balm. Rather, it changes us. It is an affront to our status quo; it should jiggle us up a bit, challenging us, because it promotes our growth, our spiritual maturity. The mass re-presents our Lord's sacrifice, his giving of himself to the Father for us, so that we may have life, now and always. When we receive the Blessed Sacrament, we become one with Jesus, and so with his self-giving, with his sacrifice. We receive God's self-giving love into us, and it helps us to love as Jesus loves. So number four: the Blessed Sacrament fills us with God's love, and that changes us.

This is what Benediction is about: creation is good; God is with us; God unites us; God changes us. That's exciting, and it's something to praise and adore.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.