A man and his wife had a disagreement. They stopped talking to each other. Eventually, they separated, and the man went to live in a different city. They had an only child, a son, caught in the middle of the fight. He did everything within his power to bring his parents together, but they would not forgive each other. One day, while traveling between Dad and Mom on yet another peacemaking mission, he got into a car accident and died. Every year, on the anniversary of his death, his parents went separately at different times of the day to pray by his grave. On the fifth anniversary of his death, the father was praying silently at the cemetery. Then he heard a sound behind him, he turned around, and there she was, his ex-wife. Their eyes met. Their hearts clenched. The impulse was to walk away. But they did not do that. Because there, at the grave of their son, they shared something deeper than bitterness. They shared love. They shared loss. They shared a son. Tears flowed. They did not need words. They held hands over the grave of their son. And at last, they were reconciled. Their son’s effort in life would not reconcile them. But his death reconciled them.
We gather today to celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present under the appearance of bread and wine. This mystery of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is at the center of our faith. Today is the solemn commemoration of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament. Holy Thursday marks the anniversary of the institution of the Holy Eucharist. However, the agony in the garden with the passion of the Lord that follows suppresses the rejoicing that is proper to the occasion. As such, today’s celebration highlights the joyful aspect of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, which we missed on Holy Thursday.
What happened in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday closely connects to what happened on the Cross the next day, Good Friday. On Holy Thursday, Jesus gave his body and blood under the appearance of bread and wine; on Good Friday, he gave his body and blood on the Cross. So, the Holy Eucharist is the very fruit of his suffering. It is the gift of his dying love. It is his pierced heart that has become our table. In his death, we find our food for eternal life.
We live in a world full of division. There is division in families, religious groups, political groups, and even individual hearts. The whole earthly mission of Christ was to reconcile everything in his person and bring peace through shedding his blood. When the day was ending in today’s Gospel passage, his apostles came to him with the suggestion to “Dismiss the crowd,” but that was contrary to the mission of Christ, who came to gather and not to scatter. He, therefore, asked the crowd to remain and challenged the apostles to feed them.
In the second reading, Paul took the Christians in Corinth back to the institution of the Eucharist because their practices contradicted the Holy Eucharist. Christians in the Corinthian community always had a shared meal (potluck) before the Eucharist. They realized they needed to share the material bread before sharing the living bread worthily. Unfortunately, instead of sharing with everybody what each brought from home for the meal, the community broke into groups: the rich gathered and shared their delicious meals. In contrast, the poor, who had close to nothing, gathered separately. It was a life of contradiction. How could they celebrate something that meant unity (eating the same bread/body and drinking from the same cup) and still promote division and disunity?
Paul then reminded them of how the Eucharist began. Someone had to give all he had to institute the Eucharist to reconcile us to God and one another. Though he was God, he humbled himself and became a human being like us. He kept giving all he had and finally gave his life on the Cross to give us the Eucharist. If Jesus Christ went that far for us, why can’t the rich give up their pride and share with the poor? Why can’t parents swallow their pride and reconcile with each other for the good of their children? Why can’t siblings, after a quarrel, swallow their pride and forgive each other? Why can’t friends sacrifice being right and reconcile after a fight for the sake of their friendship? Why can’t we give up some of our comforts to let others have less discomfort? Christ did it that we may follow in his steps (cf. 1 Peter 2:21)
In our opening story, the son died, and his grave became the place of reconciliation. Even though the parents failed to reconcile while he was alive, they would not let his death be in vain; they reconciled at his grave. In our case, sin alienated us from God and one another. We have been stubborn and proud. The law, the prophets, and the kings could not reconcile us. So, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to bridge the gap and reconcile us to God and one another. He yearned for our hearts. He called us to forgive one another. He asked us to return to the Father. But we rejected him and nailed him to the Cross. And yet, even there on the Cross, he loved us and prayed for us: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” My dearly beloved in Christ, now Jesus invites us to the altar, not to shame us, but to reconcile us. The altar is where his body was broken, and his blood poured out for our reconciliation with God, with one another, and with ourselves. The parents in our opening story could have walked away again unreconciled, but they would not let their son’s death go to waste. Now, I ask you as you approach the altar today: would you let the death of Jesus, the Son of God, go to waste in your life?
Homily for Solemnity of Corpus Christi Year C 2025
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