THE Solemnity of the Most Sacred Body and Blood of Christ
(Corpus Christi) is a good occasion for us to once again relish the
tremendous love of Christ for us. He did not only teach us about what
is truly good and bad insofar as our human spirituality and morality
are concerned.
Christ went all the way to offering his life for us, for
our sins. He was willing to go that far because of his love for us.
Whether we realize it or not, Christ in total obedience to his Father,
went that far because we are indescribably precious to God.
We can only deeply wonder why, and express that wonder
with these words of the Psalms: “What is man that you are mindful of
him. And the son of man that you visit him?”
Of course, the answer to that question is because we are
children of God. We have been created in his image and likeness. We
are meant to share in the very life of God. That is why he did not
only create us with the spiritual faculties of intelligence and will,
enabling us to know and love him. He unsparingly gives us his grace,
so we can truly rise to his level and become one with him.
And even if we strayed and sinned, and continue to do so,
Christ’s love never stops. It’s always there, constant and universal,
irrespective of how we are, ever willing to help us solve our problems
and to ultimately return to him.
This love is made even more amazing because not contented
with offering his life on the Cross for us, he chooses to stay with
us, especially through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, where his
redemptive sacrifice on the cross is renewed, his real and not just
symbolic presence is actualized, and his own self, his own body is
offered to us as our bread of life, our spiritual nourishment in our
earthly sojourn.
A saint once described this phenomenon as a divine madness
of love. And we, on our part, should try our best to correspond that
divine madness of love. The first thing we have to do is to always
acknowledge and to be deeply moved by that tremendous love, since only
then would we start to repay that love with love.
Our usual problem in this regard is that we often take
this love of Christ for us for granted. We have to do everything to
handle this tendency properly. Offhand, what we can do is to pause
from time to time if only to remind ourselves of the significance of
the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We have to keep alive our faith
and devotion to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
It would be helpful if we can attend and participate
actively in the Holy Mass as often as possible, and not just on
Sundays and holy days of obligation. We should follow as closely as
possible the different parts of the Mass, and join in the dynamic of
Christ’s total self-giving to us so that we too can learn to give
ourselves completely to him and to the others. The Mass should be the
center and root of our spiritual life.
We should also receive him in holy communion. Christ is
practically begging us to do so, because only then would we have
divine eternal life, even while we are still on earth and in time.
Let us also visit the Blessed Sacrament as often as
possible. That way we would be spending time with Christ, if only to
have some rest and relaxation and recover our spiritual energies.
The only effect of a true devotion to the Corpus Christi
would be nothing other than love for God which is also expressed in
our love for the others, a love that discriminates no one, that goes
all the way to offering even our life for the others!
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