Corpus Christi

Sermon preached at the Church of the Advent on Coprus Christi, 2005

“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

Today is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ: Corpus Christi. This is the day that we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus himself. To be more specific, we celebrate Christ’s real presence among us in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. I think Christians, and especially Anglo-Catholic Christians recognize that Jesus is really present in the elements of the bread and the wine. Not just in a spiritual warm and fuzzy way, but in a way where we really do know, and feel and recognize the presence of God among us.

But far too often we as Christians and especially as Anglo-Catholics stop there. We are perfectly happy to come to Mass, partake of Christ and go home. We are sometimes even happier when we can come to Benediction, adore our Lord and then go home satisfied to have been in the presence of God. Satisfied to have entered into his courts with praise and thanksgiving. And satisfied once again to go home and leave Jesus where he belongs in church.

But the real presence of Christ in the sacrament is only the first part of what it means to talk about the Body of Christ. We too are the Body of Christ. When we are baptized we die to this world and we rise again with Christ into eternal life. We are marked not only as Christ’s own forever, but also as part of his Corporate Body forever. Christ is the Head and we, the Church, are his Body. When we eat and drink his Body and Blood at the Mass we are recognizing and partaking of the unity that we already have with Christ from our Baptism. The Eucharist isn’t a magical elixir that brings us temporary closeness to God – that would make it no different than the manna in the wilderness that maintained life. It is the most precious Body and Blood of Christ which was shed for us so that we can be children of God who have eternal life in unity with Christ, now and forever.

The fundamental identity that we have as Christians is not as sinners who occasionally get to be in God’s presence at Mass but who never manage to live up to the bar of perfection that we set for ourselves and for others. We all spend so much time trying to distinguish between sinners and saints that far too often we all fail to see that we all are children of God and we all are one in Christ as members of his Body.

All of those walls that we ourselves build to divide us can’t separate us from the love of God in Christ and no matter how hard we try it just isn’t possible for one part of the Body to tell another part that they aren’t needed or that they are any less important than any other part. The Father’s house doesn’t have penthouses for saints and doghouses for sinners: its one house and we will all be together under one roof. The heavenly banquet that Jesus is preparing isn’t going to take place at different times for different people with different menus to suit all of our personal preferences. When Jesus feeds us, he provides more than enough food for all of us, and the food he gives is his own flesh and his own blood which doesn’t just bring us long and prosperous lives in the land of milk and honey, it brings us eternal life in unity with God.

We have a very personal, close and intimate God. He became fully human – fully God and fully man – died, rose again, and ascended to the bosom of the Father so that nothing could ever separate us and God. He abides in us when we eat his body and drink his blood just as we abide in him when we accept him as our Lord and savior. We are his Body and he is our Head.

Our job, as his Body in the world, is to spread the message of salvation that we already have in Christ by inviting everyone to be baptized into his Body just as Jesus commanded us to do before he ascended; by making sure every single person knows that he or she is welcome at our Lord’s table just as Jesus himself ate with everyone from Pharisees to tax collectors; by letting everyone know what there is more than enough to feed and satisfy us all so that will never hunger or thirst again; and by telling every single person that they don’t need to worry about reserving a room at the Father’s inn in advance. We all already have a room in is how house waiting for us. And Jesus himself isn’t only right here with us, calling us each by name, and showing us the way, he is abiding in us all today and every day. With all of us every step of the way, now and for ever.