Homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi 2020 by Rev Fr. J Egbulefu CCE

@1 My dear people of God on a day like this in which we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ we make a halt to ponder on the mystery of the continued presence of this Body and Blood here on earth of our Lord Jesus Christ even after He has ascended into heaven with this same Body and Blood of His, the Sacrament of which is called the Eucharist.

@2 The Eucharist is the Sacrament - sacred sign and instrument - of that Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ which recaptures that humanity of the Godman Christ as a single unit 1) the unity of which results from the mediated dissoluble union of His visible and mortal human body  with His invisible and immortal human soul (symbolized by His white blood corpuscles) through His invisible and immortal human spirit (symbolized by His red blood corpuscles) contained by the body and containing the soul and thus uniting the soul with the body, a humanity 2) which is united with that divinity  of the Godman Christ 2a) which is constituted by the eternal Word as Son of God, the divine life lived by Him and the divine Will of the Father done by Him, and 2b) through the union with which the humanity of Christ as the aggregate of His human Body and His human Soul (symbolized by His white Blood corpuscles) and His human Spirit (symbolized by His red Blood  corpuscles) is united with the divine Trinity as the Most Holy Trinity, a humanity  3) which on account of this mediated union with the Most Holy Trinity is called the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, and 4) which serves 4a) not only as the proper sign (and instrument) of the fulfilment of the promise of Christ to be with us Christians as His believers and adherents till the end of times, 4b) but also as  4ba) the proper instrument for Christ’s continuation to do in our midst today of those things that only God can do and that He did in the past before we were born, namely the miracles - especially those of waking up the dead and of healing the sick physical and psychical - and the forgiveness of sins, 4bb) the proper instrument for our worship of the true God as the Most Holy Trinity in spirit and truth as He wants to be worshipped by us Christians, and 4bc) the proper instrument for Christ’s  fulfilment of the promise of eternal life and of the resurrection on the last day made by Him to us eaters  of His Body and drinkers of His Blood.

@3 The mystery of the continued presence of the Body and Blood here on earth of our Lord Jesus Christ even after He has ascended into heaven with this same Body and Blood of His, the Sacrament of which is called the Eucharist, consists in the wonder of how it is possible for solid and liquid material creature to be at once in heaven and on earth.

@4 The mystery is unravelled by the fact that since on the one hand 1) there is  the permanent indissolubility of the union - and hence inseparability - of the humanity of the Godman Christ from the divine Trinity effected by the inseparability of the eternal  Word 1a) not only  from that incarnate Word as the Godman a component of whom He is as long as the Godman  is the unity resulting from the union of the eternal Word living the divine life and doing the divine Will with the human spirit uniting the human body with the human soul, 1b) but also from the Son of God (a component of whom the Word is as long as the Son is three-dimensionally constituted by His being the substantial image of the Father by which He is related to the Father, His being the Wisdom and power of God by which He is related to the Holy Spirit, and His being the eternal creative Word of God by which He is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit) and hence from the divine Trinity (a component of whom the Son is as long as the Trinity is the unity resulting from the union of the three persons in one God, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with the one and indivisible divine substance), but 2) on the other hand God is omnipresent (present in all places at the same time at all times), it follows 3) that the heavenly Christ can be on earth with His human Body and Blood at the same time that He is in heaven with it.

@5 Since heaven is invisible and earth is visible, and whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver, it follows that the earth has to receive the Body and Blood of the heavenly Christ only in visible mode. For that reason the invisible Body of the invisible heavenly Christ is received in the visible form of consecrated bread (as means for nurturing, sustaining defending and promoting the spiritual life of the human receivers) on the visible earth planet, while the invisible Blood of the invisible heavenly Christ is received in the visible form of consecrated wine (as means for eliciting the liberating truth as the proper way to life and for rendering lively the spiritual life of the human receivers) on the visible earth planet.

@6) The Faith of the Christians in the presence of the invisible Body of the heavenly Christ in the form of visible consecrated bread on earth and in the presence of His invisible Blood in the form of visible consecrated wine on earth is rooted in the belief that  during the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the Body of Christ our Lord and the change of the whole substance of the wine into His Blood, and the Holy Catholic Church aptly and properly calls this change Transsubstantiation (cf. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacraments, in: Heinrich Denzinger, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Moral, edit. Peter Huenermann, 43rd Edition, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2012, n. 1642). And it is on the basis of this truth of faith in what happens during the consecrated that the Church teaches on what happens after the consecration during the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist: “In the divine Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, after the consecration of the Bread and of the Wine, Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is contained truly, really and substantially under the appearance of those sensible things” (Ibid, n. 1636).

That the heavenly Christ is contained really in the consecrated Bread and wine means that He the Godman is present therein with His whole humanity. That He is contained therein substantially means that He is present therein with His whole divinity. That He is contained therein truly means that He is present therein with the unity resulting from the indissoluble union - hence inseparability - of His divinity and His humanity.

The passage of the substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ is the passage of the bread’s capacity to quench the hunger of the human body for material food into the capacity of the Body of Christ to quench the hunger of the human soul and human spirit for the spiritual food that the divine Will and divine Life and divine Word constitute.

The passage of the substance of the wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ is the passage of the wine’s capacity to quench the human body’s thirst for material liberation, sincerity and merriment into the capacity of the Blood of Christ to quench the thirst of the human soul and human spirit for the spiritual drink  that the three persons in God, namely the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who created man in the image and likeness of themselves are.