Corpus Christi

Although Jesus is present in his Church in many ways, his presence in the Eucharist is special because this is where He is real, substantial, and complete. The bread and wine are not just a symbol but are Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

Referring to Himself as living bread from Heaven, Jesus told his disciples that they must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood to attain Eternal Life. Because Jesus was literally talking about consuming his Flesh and Blood many people stopped following Him.

At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist and said that the ordinary bread and wine of the Jewish Passover that He held in his hands had become the sacrament of his Body and Blood, to be consumed in an unbloody manner.

Jesus made the Apostles priests and commanded them to do this liturgical action in memory of Him. The Apostles handed down this Sacred Tradition, not because Jesus is gone but because He is truly present with his people for all time in the Eucharist.

At every Catholic Mass, what appears to be bread and wine have become Jesus’ real Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Church teaches that this occurs through a unique process called transubstantiation.

The Feast of Corpus Christi was inspired by visions of a young 13th century religious woman from Belgium and gained greater devotion after a Eucharistic miracle occurred in Orvieto, Italy in 1263.

The Latin phrase for Body of Christ is Corpus Christi. The term Corpus Domini may also be used, meaning the Body of the Lord.

Extended to the Universal Church by Pope Urban IV in 1264, the sole purpose the Feast of Corpus Christi is to emphasize this real, true, and substantial presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist to Catholics every year.

Now known as the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Feast of Corpus Christi was traditionally celebrated by Catholics on the 60th day after Easter, a Thursday, but it is now usually celebrated on the following Sunday.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
John 6: 51

The New Testament Manna must be greater than the old manna:

Catholic Productions

It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, He wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since He was about to offer himself on the Cross to save us, He wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which He loved us “to the end,” even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence He remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave Himself up for us, and He remains under signs that express and communicate this love: The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet Him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1380

“If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.”:

Bishop Barron

The Word of God can change existing matter:

Creed 101

We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His Body and his Blood which were to be offered for us on the Cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in Heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.
Pope Paul VI, Solemni hac Liturgia, 30 June 1968