Do we really believe in the Body and Blood of Christ?

Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
First Reading: Ex 24:3-8 
Second Reading: Heb 9:11-15 
Gospel Reading: Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. “By the consecration of the bread and wine” at Mass, “there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his Blood,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Do we believe this? Or are we in danger of slipping into the unbelief of Jesus’ contemporaries, who asked how he could possibly give us “his flesh to eat”?

Even our hymns deny or misrepresent the truth. One calls the bread and wine merely “symbols” of Christ’s Body and Blood. Another says that the “precious Body” and the “precious Blood” are here “in bread and wine.” A third urges us to “look beyond the bread” to see our Saviour and Lord.

No! After the consecration at Mass, bread and wine no longer exist. To safeguard this faith, we should refuse to sing hymns which falsify it.

Our lack of faith shows in our attitude to the Eucharist, particularly our growing habit of treating the Mass as a performance, before and after which we behave as if the church is a theatre. Pope Francis has deplored this habit several times since Nov. 8, when he began a series of Wednesday general audiences on Mass and the Eucharist.

“When we go to Mass, perhaps we arrive five minutes early and begin to chat with the person next to us,” he said. “But this is not the moment for small talk ... It is the moment for recollection within the heart, to prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important!”

The babble of conversation before and immediately after Mass in many of our Catholic churches is truly scandalous. Not only is it uncharitable toward those who are trying to pray; even more, it is nothing short of insulting to our Host.

The Mass is not a “spectacle,” the Pope said. As we enter the church, we should think: “I am going to Calvary, where Jesus gave his life for me.” Then the idea of a “spectacle” disappears, and so does “the small talk.”

“Think,” he said: “when you go to Mass, the Lord is there!” We go to Mass “to encounter the risen Lord (or, better still, to allow ourselves to be encountered by him), to hear his word, to nourish ourselves at his table, and thus to become the Church; that is, his Mystical living Body in the world.”

“How can we practise the Gospel without drawing the energy necessary to do so, one Sunday after another, from the inexhaustible source of the Eucharist?” he asked.

Indeed, Jesus is present in the tabernacle 24 hours a day: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. “Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the Sacraments, the one dearest to God, and the one most helpful to us,” said Pope St. John Paul II.

Make your behaviour in church conform to your belief in the real presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. First: do not “talk in church” yourself. Focus, in silence, on God alone. Do not try to catch your neighbours’ eyes, even to smile. Do not interrupt them, even to say “Good morning.” If you must talk to them, wait until they leave the church.

Second: to discourage others from talking to you, make it clear that you are praying, from the moment you enter the church until Mass begins, and from the end of Mass until you have to leave. Kneel, close your eyes, bow your head, join your hands, read the missal, etc.

Third: do not respond to the talk of others. Do not be rude; just say, with a smile, “I’ll see you outside after Mass,” and then resume your prayer. People will get the message.