Corpus Christi 2025
This has been quite an extraordinary week. We opened it with the celebration of the Holy Trinity and we are closing it with the feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ given to the Church as the source of her life. From Easter to Pentecost, from the gift of the Holy Spirit to the adoration of the Holy Trinity, from the confession of our Triune God through the gift of Jesus’ life in the sacrament of the altar and to the revelation of His love in the feast of the Sacred Heart, next Friday, the liturgy of the Church is a great hymn to life. God is life. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life. Jesus’ Heart is the wellspring of love out of which divine life is poured into our hearts. The Holy Eucharist is the fruit of life which nourishes our life of faith and prepares us for the banquet of eternal life. Christian faith is life through and through, life victorious over death, life swallowing death in the double victory of Mercy and Love.
Nevertheless, this week has put before our eyes the maybe not surprising but certainly saddening public affirmation that it is good, or at least lawful, to kill a human being – say an unborn child or a terminally ill person – that death is good if it serves the interests, or the views, or the whims of any individual and of a merciless society, unwilling to care, to support, and to love to the end.
The words of St John’s gospel come to mind: “the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light” (3:19). This is a harsh thing to say, obviously. But there seems to be two logics at work: the logic of life which trusts God and goes hand in hand with Jesus through death into life, on the one hand; and, on the other, the refusal of the life offered by Jesus with its own more or less hidden logic, sooner or later resulting in death. St John Paul II coined the phrase of a “culture of death” to describe this inner logic which accompanies the No said to Jesus, to His Cross which saves us from eternal death and to His Resurrection which gives us divine life. This is before our eyes every day.
Let us not think, though, that, despite our true faith and good intentions, we are not part of the present world’s errors. This culture of death is everywhere, even in our own hearts and minds if we are not vigilant. We are part and parcel of the fight between light and darkness. This fight begins within our own hearts, in our own lives and with our own choices. This may take a new form nowadays, but it is not in itself new. Already in the book of Deuteronomy Moses said to the people: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, cleaving to Him, for that means life to you and length of days” (Dt 30:19-20).
When we come to Holy Communion, we choose life, and we receive life. “This is my Body, This is my Blood”: this is my life as a gift, my life given for you, my life which is for you. We choose life and that means “loving our God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to him”. These “loving”, “obeying” and “cleaving” which are so essential are precisely what is given to us in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. This is the Sacrament of Love through which we are loved, and we are given the ability to love in a new and divine way, to love as Jesus loved us.
What can we do against the culture of death? – Certainly, we should begin by choosing life and working at allowing Jesus’ love grow in our lives. In the Holy Eucharist, He gives Himself to us so that His love be in us. His love alone is victorious over death. His love alone saves the world. Anything else we may do must come from this source otherwise it will not go anywhere.