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SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
CORPUS CHRISTI
REFLECTION
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HOMILY BY SAINT AUGUSTINE
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For while by food and drink
men seek to attain this end
that they shall neither hunger nor thirst;
there is nothing that truly does this,
except that food and drink,
which makes those who partake of it
immortal and incorruptible;
namely, the very fellowship the saints,
where there will be peace,
and full and perfect unity.
And so, just as men of God
understood this before us,
our Lord Jesus Christ has commended
to us his body and blood in those things,
which from being many are reduced
to some one thing.
For a unity [bread]
is formed out of many grains;
and another unity [wine]
is made by the juice of many berries
flowing together.
At length, he now explains how that
of which he speaks comes to pass;
and what it is to eat his body
and to drink his blood.
“He who eats my flesh,
and drinks my blood,
abides in me, and I in him.”
And so it is apparent that one
eats that food and drinks that drink,
if he abides in Christ,
and Christ in him.
Consequently,
he who does not abide in Christ,
and in whom Christ does not abide,
without doubt doubt does not
spiritually eat his flesh,
nor drink his blood,
though he may, in the flesh and visibly,
press with his teeth the sacrament
of the body and blood of Christ;
but rather does he eat
and drink the sacrament
of do great a thing to his own judgment,
because he , being unclean,
has presumed to draw near to
Christ’s sacraments,
which no man takes worthily,
except he who is clean:
of whom it is said:
“Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God.”
“As,” says he,
“the living Father has sent me,
and I live because of the Father,
so he who eats me,
he shall live because of me.”
As though he should say:
“That I live because of the Father;
that is, that I ascribe my life to him
as to one greater than I,
is brought about by that emptying
of myself in which he sent me;
but, that one lives by me is effected by
this participation in which he eats me.
And so I, being brought low,
live because of the Father;
while that man, being raised up,
lives because of me.
But if it is said:
“I live because of the Father”;
so as to mean that he is of the Father,
not the Father of him,
it is said without disparagement
to the equality between them.
But on the other hand, by saying:
“He who eats me, he shall live
because of me”;
he did not signify equality between
him and ourselves,
but he thereby showed the grace
of the mediator.
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(ROMAN BREVIARY)
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responsorialpsalmcatholic 