On Sunday, June 11, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi. The feast day celebrates the True Presence of the Eucharist—which is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. One major tradition for this feast is to process with the Eucharist. Following the 11am Sunday Mass on June 11, we will process outside with the Eucharist as a visible sign to our community, in the same way that our parking lot Masses were!
The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith. When the priest prays the words of consecration during Mass, the bread and wine are transformed miraculously into Jesus’ body and blood. It’s not a symbol or metaphor. It is truly Jesus, present with us. But this is a teaching that many wrestle with. How can something be Jesus’ body and blood when it seems unchanged? When Jesus first tells the disciples about the Eucharist, scripture records them as saying, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John 6:60).
The feast of Corpus Christi gives us an opportunity to wrestle with this teaching once more and ask ourselves, “Do I truly believe? ” If you have doubts or questions, know you are in good company with the disciples themselves! Check out this video from Fr. Mike Schmit to dive deeper into those questions and understand why we believe in the True Presence: