Father Dan Juelfs
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Feast of Corpus Christi, June 2, 2024

This is my body. This is my blood. 

Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, proclaiming our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The readings help us to kind of situate this belief in the history of salvation, in the history of God’s contact with mankind, bringing them back into oneness with God after our sinfulness. God’s proclamation of the forgiveness of his people. 

In our first reading, we find the account of Moses presenting God’s law, the Ten Commandments, to the people following their being led out of Egypt, being led out of slavery, and the people proclaiming their acceptance. “All that the Lord has said we will heed and do.”  They’re offering sacrifice to seal the covenant. Moses built an altar that symbolized God’s presence in their midst, and he also built the 12 temples, 12 pillars, to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel. 

Then he took the blood from the sacrifice and sprinkled half of it on the altar, half of it on the people. A sign that proclaimed God sharing his life with them. Blood symbolizes life. Without blood nothing can live. Consequently, blood became the Providence of God. It was what belonged to God. It wasn’t something that people had anything to do with as such other than using it in sacrifice. And so, we find that image, that symbolism of God sharing his life with his people — both God the altar, the pillars the people — received that blood, received that sign, that life coming from God. 

Our Gospel account today gives us the account of the Last Supper. Jesus proclaiming that it’s now his Body and his Blood that is being offered and is being shared with all who accepted it. That this is what he has come to do. It’s no longer blood sprinkled on people, but now it is consumed. The blood being the life of God shared with us as he proclaims the cup of wine and the bread being turned into his Body and his Blood. 

And like the people of Moses’ time, the people who promised to do all that God had said, we too affirm our acceptance of this new covenant. We proclaim amen as we receive the cup, as we receive the host, the Body and Blood of Jesus. We proclaim, “so be it, yes I believe.” That’s what our Amen is. It’s that acceptance, that proclamation of our being a part of and allowing that presence of God to work in our lives, to be one with us. 

You know as we gather today our celebration of the Body of Blood of Christ certainly has a long history. A long history from the very first covenants that God offered, and sealed with the blood of sacrificial animals, to the covenant that Jesus sealed with his blood. We continually remind ourselves of this covenant each time we celebrate Mass. Each time we receive the Eucharist. Each time we proclaim, “Amen. Yes, I believe.”