Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi. In designating today as a Solemnity, the church wants us to know this is a feast day of the highest order – one which points to a foundational truth of our faith.
As regular church goers we know and acknowledge that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. Though for a time we do not see him face to face, we believe he has not left us alone but rather remains close to each of those who love him. St. Thomas Aquinas would write that, "It is the law of friendship that friends should live together. Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood". So, by his body and blood you and I are joined to Jesus. But how often do we consider his soul and his divinity, which he also shares with us? For after all we do acknowledge, that he is present, body, blood, but also soul and divinity. His soul and his divinity are not to be separated from his body and blood.
How do we know that his soul is present to us? We can know that his soul is present because Jesus is alive and living. And to be alive means to be ensouled – for to be without a soul is to be dead. So, in receiving the Eucharist we also receive Christ’s soul. And since this is the soul of the one who broke the chains of death, in rising from the dead, we are wedded to the source of life that is itself freed from death. In this we can be confident.
We also receive His divinity. Christ is the Godman – he is God made man. And this too is shared with us, for his divinity is likewise present in the Eucharist because of the hypo-static union, which makes one his humanity and his divinity in his person-hood. Body, blood, soul and divinity are given to us unreservedly and with generous abundance.
When I was a little boy, we had only two TV channels. TV programs were in black and white and when not broadcasting you would see what was called a trade card transmission – this was a picture containing various shapes and patterns, at the center of which was a girl playing a game with a toy clown. Then between scheduled programming we would have a short film of a potter making a pot; forming it out of clay as it spun on the potter's wheel. It was never quite finished but was formed and reformed as the potter's wheel continued to spin. Frequently we ask for God to assist us, to help us, to form us, to heal us, to transform us, to remake us, and this he does by way of the sacraments and the Holy Spirit. It is his divine and soulful presence within each of us that works for healing, formation and transformation, like the potters' hands on the clay. Yet, ironically, we resist the change we pray for because, though we ask for it, we seldom want to really change. We are comfortable, and prefer what we know, so we pray, "Lord change me, but please don't let me have to make any changes”. There is therefore a spiritual tension formed between, who we are, what we were made to be, and what God is doing within us and for us. But by means of the Eucharist and by our willing and imperfect participation, we are gently sanctified and made holy.
On this Solemnity consider not just the body and blood which Jesus gives to nourish and to sustain us. For Jesus gives not only his body and blood but also his soul and divinity. This divine and soulful presence finds a place within each of us who believe and welcome him, and by means of this we grow in holiness, in the love of God, and in the service of his plan of salvation.
We pray for the courage, not just to ask for change, but to also make the changes we know we need to make, accepting that this may not always be easy. We draw consolation in this life task since we are not left to do this by ourselves, for Jesus is present to us, body, blood, soul and divinity.
Deacon Peter Bujwid
St. Agnes Church, Arlington, Massachusetts
Sunday 22nd June 2025
