Corpus Christi
The Feast of Corpus Christi Flannery O’Connor, a renowned Catholic author, tells the story of a Protestant friend who started to go to Mass with her. After doing this for several months, her friend decided to become Catholic herself. When asked why, she replied, “Well, the sermons were so horrible, I knew there had to be something else that made those people want to come to Mass.” That “something else” is the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, the real, true, substantial presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament. This is what we are celebrating today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This feast began with an idea of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the thirteenth century, he suggested to Pope Urban the fourth that the Church should have a solemnity honoring the Eucharist. Of course, at every Mass, we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ, because in each Mass the substances of bread and wine are changed, by the words of the priest an...