Corpus Christi for the Secular Life

The Feast of Corpus Christi is now upon us, and I reflect on what this feast means to me in all its spiritual fullness as I do every time the feast comes. It’s an important day (week, actually; as we celebrate it for eight days) because it calls to remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ, and His actions on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper when He turned bread into His Flesh and wine into His Blood. It’s a Divine Mystery that cannot be fully understood with our feeble human minds (as are most Holy Mysteries), even though it is something that can be experienced by us. It’s the Sacrament that He gave us, to feed us in our life “in exile.” 

Nobody believes in that anymore!

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi – a major feast of the Church werein we celebrate the Eucharist, given to us by Christ, Himself, in the Upper Room the night before He died. Since we cannot offer the excellent pageantry due this glorious Mystery on Maundy Thursday because of the solemnity of the Triduum and the drama of the impending Good Friday and the Passion of Our Lord, this Feast Day was set up so that we can, with everything at our disposal and within reach, can celebrate as is due. Of course, in this day and age, churches no longer celebrate Corpus Christi on it’s actual day. Rather, they push it off until the Sunday after – to make it easier for the people to attend.

Corpus Christi

The Church celebrates the great feast of Corpus Christi (or, The Body of Christ) now. Yesterday was the day of the feast, and we will celebrate it for eight days. In the catholic church, it’s called an ‘octave.’

It’s a special day for me for a number of reasons.