Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 / 1 Cor 10:16-17 / John 6:51-58
The Feast of Corpus Christi, or otherwise known as the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, can be said to be the feast that expresses the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith.
This feast expresses the truth of the discourse by Jesus in the Gospel, which is taken from the Gospel of John. The whole of Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is dedicated to the “Bread of life” discourse.
The feast is also an expression of the teachings, Traditions, practices and devotions of the Catholic Church.
The doctrine of this feast can be found in the Mass, the teaching on the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Hour and other Catholic devotions.
Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, which started off as the Passover meal.
But the Last Supper became uniquely the Institution of the Holy Eucharist when Jesus gave the Church His Body and Blood for the salvation of the world.
So instead of a Passover lamb, Jesus is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.
But going earlier than the Passover event in Egypt, we may remember that at the beginning of Creation, there were two trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the tree of Life, and the other was the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam and Eve were instructed by God not to eat of the fruit of those two trees.
But they fell into the temptation of the devil and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil.
God drove them out of the Garden of Eden and in order to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life, God set an angel to guard it.
There was no further mention of that tree of Life after that.
When Jesus was crucified on the Cross, the Cross was often referred to as a tree. (Acts 5:50)
The connection between the Cross and the tree becomes profound when Jesus died on the Cross to save us and to give us a new life.
Jesus now invites us to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life. And that fruit of the Tree of Life is none other than His Body and His Blood.
Through the saving death of Jesus, we now have life and salvation through His Body and Blood.
On this Feast of Corpus Christi, let us give thanks for such a great Divine Gift of Life.
May we always treasure this gift and may we never take this Gift for granted.