Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi B: Mk 14:12-16.22-26

“Take it, this is my body”. “Do this in memory of me”. Brothers and sisters, we are celebrating today the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi – Jesus’ biggest gift to humankind, just before his Passion and Death. In fact, Jesus gave to us not only one body. According to the Fathers of the Church, Jesus gave us three bodies: 1) his physical body, incarnated in Mary’s womb from the Holy Spirit; 2) his sacramental body, the Eucharist, that we celebrate in a special manner today; 3) and his mystical body, the Church, composed of all those who were baptized in his death and resurrection.

But someone might argue: “Would it not be easier if Jesus simply made himself visible in his flesh among us, just like the apostles and the Virgin Mary have seen? Everybody would believe, then, much more easily! How can we be sure that Jesus is present here, in this church, in this sacrament? Who can see him this way?” (By the way, that was exactly what Saint Thomas said to his fellow apostles after the Resurrection: "If I do not see in his hands the prints of the nails, if I do not put my finger in the print of his nails, I shall not believe”). All that reasoning may seem appealing to our scientific-driven generation, but in fact, the opposite is true. Faith is an absolute condition for true love. Where there is no faith, no love can subsist, and we become less human. Imagine a woman saying to her husband (or vice-versa): “Honey, if you do not give me scientific proof of your love for me, I will not believe you, and everything is over between us”. What would happen? How many people would be able to present concrete, convincing proof of his/ her love? And if you succeeded once, do you think it would suffice? In Portuguese we say: “No signs are necessary for those who believe and no signs are enough for those who do not believe”. The lover who can only believe in a scientifically proven love will not be content with a single proof – s/he will ask for more: that is the seed of jealousy, not love.

Faith develops our love and our trust in others – our trust in other physical bodies other than ours, and in other mystical bodies, as the Church. And that is why, right before dying, Jesus wanted to offer us the biggest gift of his love: the plenitude of his physical, sacramental and mystical body. Bodies teach us how to love, how to live, how to be human. When I believe in the words of my neighbor, I am saying that he is worthy of my attention, of my trust and of my love. Is it risky? Yes, it is. Is it subject to errors? Yes, it is. But try to imagine a world without faith, in a world where only scientific evidence reigns supreme.

Unfortunately, many have already tried: Hitler tried to do that, Stalin, too and all dictatorships around the world. If it is true that faith has fueled many wars along the ages, faith’s recent absence has made much more victims than all the wars of religion put together. We need to believe in order to be fully human, in order to learn how to live and to love, how to forgive and how to die as a Christian. And that is what we are celebrating today. Not a beautiful esthetical feast (in Brazil, most cities have processions in the streets, adorned with magnificent rugs, made of flowers or dyed sawdust) nor a relic of the ancient past. Today’s feast is a school of love, faith and humanity – all of that, the fruit of our faith. 

May our faith in Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist teach us how to recognize Jesus’ body in my neighbor (even in my not-so-lovable neighbor – he, too, is God’s image) and Jesus’ body in my Church, who is my body, of baptized Christian, as well. Doing that, we will truly be flesh of Jesus’ flesh, bone of Jesus’ bones, helping to make visible, incarnate, our faith for all those who are wavering in their following of Christ. Let us do this in memory of him. That is the biggest gift of love that we can offer to Jesus and his Church.