June 22 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
One of the noblest and strongest instincts with which God has endowed human beings is that of sociability. Another instinct that is less noble, but also very strong, is that of self-preservation, which leads man, among other things, to seek food. These two instincts could not fail to be intimately related – so much so that it is only in life in society that man finds the means to subsist in safety and stability.
This relationship between the two instincts can be seen in a common occurrence in our daily lives: people who love each other invite one another to socialize over a meal.
Paradoxically, the greatest disaster in human history was caused by friendship and a meal. Eve picked the forbidden fruit and called Adam to eat. Adam, out of friendship for Eve, disobeyed God by accepting the invitation (cf. Gn 3:6). Original sin was committed, as a result of which the gates of Heaven were closed to us and we were subject to death and every kind of misfortune.
However, from all eternity God had already prepared His response: if from the food received in that iniquitous meal came death and damnation, from another food, offered in a sacrum convivium, would come salvation and life.
While in Eden the Lord forbade our first parents to eat what would become, through disobedience to this command, the fruit of perdition (cf. Gn 2:17), in the Holy Church – the new Earthly Paradise – He prescribes that the banquet be perpetuated: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor 11:24).
There, eating was a death sentence: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Gn 3:3); here, eating is a pledge of eternal life: “he who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54).
This Flesh and Blood were generated by Our Lady. Thus, the same God who, in a gesture of unimaginable love, becomes food when the priest pronounces the formula of Consecration, became flesh in Mary’s virginal cloister when He heard her say, “let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
Indeed, from Eve mankind received the fruit of death, but through the Blessed Virgin came to us the Bread of Life, for by God’s will, if there were no Mary, there would be no Eucharist.
In the Blessed Sacrament, the instincts of self-preservation and sociability are fulfilled in their highest purpose, since they were given to man with a view to achieving intimate and lasting friendship with the Creator. Now, as St. Peter Julian Eymard1 states, after the hypostatic union, the Eucharistic union is the most intimate and perfect that we can have with God.
A hostess who offers a banquet is happy when the guests enjoy the delicacies she has prepared so much that they desire more. This is the case with Our Lady who, obeying the divine command, prepared for us in her virginal cloister the Bread of Life and the chalice of salvation. ◊
Notes
1 Cf. ST. PETER JULIAN EYMARD. Considerações espirituais: sacerdócio e vida cristã. São Paulo: Cultor de Livros, 2020, p.346.
