Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ - It is the Holy Spirit That Makes Difference!

In solemnly celebrating the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, following the solemn celebration of the Most Holy Trinity, after solemnly celebrating the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost as the consequence of the Ascension of the Lord, let us first reflect the words of Jesus spoken to Nicodemus in the Gospel Reading of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:16-18).

The Father gave us His only begotten Son so that he has become our eternal and ultimate Pesach sacrificial Lamb (John 19:31-37; 1 Corinthians 5:7; cf. John 1:29; cf. Exodus 12:5-14, 46), whose flesh to be eaten as the Living Bread of Life and whose blood is to be drunk for resurrection and eternal life, as addressed by Jesus in the Gospel Reading of the Solemnity of the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi (John 6:51-58).

Unless the Father had not sent His only begotten Son (John 3:16), incarnating him in the human flesh of Jesus in the womb of the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:28-35), the incarnated Son would not be the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)(John 1:29), offered up as Passover Sacrifice (Korban Pesach)(1 Corinthians 5:7). Because of this, as John indicates (John 19:16-37), the incarnated Christ’s crucifixion into death means slaughtering the ultimate Passover sacrificial lamb (Exodus 12:6). Otherwise, we would not have the Living Bread of Life (Vivus Panis Vitae) as the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi) to eat and the Blood of Christ (Sanguis Christi) as the true drink for life, as the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which Jesus instituted at the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-30//Mark 14:22-26//Luke 22:14-20).

In the Gospel Reading for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (John 6:51-58), Jesus identifies himself as:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51).

The living bread means not just ordinary bread. Though manna was sent from heaven by God the Father, it was ordinary bread. That is why those who ate manna did not live for eternal life (John 6:49). But it is the living bread (John 6:51), which means that it is the spiritual bread, as well, for it is the spirit, the Holy Spirit, that gives life but not ordinary flesh (John 6:63; cf. Genesis 2:7; Job 27:3; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Luke 1:35; Romans 1:4; 8:6-13;1 Peter 3:18; cf. Luke 23:46). Note that the word used for the flesh in the original Greek text is sarx, not kreas. While the latter indicates “dead meat”, the former means “living flesh”, with haima (blood). And its equivalent Hebrew word is basar, which interestingly has connotation to “good tiding”.

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink (John 6:53-55).

In the original Greek text, the verb used for “eat” is phago. This Greek verb means devour or consume completely, as it is the same Greek word for “phagocyte”, which is an immune cell that “devours” pathogens to protect the body’s health. So, when Jesus says to eat his flesh, he means to completely consume it, not nibbling and leaving leftovers. And remember, his flesh is the living one as he calls it the living  bread of life. So, it is sarx (living flesh) that contains fresh haima (blood). This is why Jesus is also calling us to drink his blood as true drink.

Then, he says:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John 6:56).

Because it means to consume his living flesh and blood completely, as indicated by the verb, “phagos”(and as we know this from the way we handle the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist), we take Jesus, the Christ incarnated by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35, completely in us, we honor Jesus’ desire to be in us and us in him, as he in the Father and He in him (John 14:20; 17:21).

Jesus further says:

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me (John 6:57).

Yes, our Living Bread of Life with the blood, the incarnated Christ, the Son, was sent to be given to us, because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He did this to save us, and for this, the incarnated Son suffered and died to offer himself as the Korban Pesach for its bashan (flesh) to be eaten as the living fresh (sarx) in the form of the living bread of life (artos ho zon/panis vivus), not simply ordinary bread, like manna.

So, Jesus concludes his Bread of Life Discourse by saying:

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever (John 6:58).

Christ came from heaven (John 3:31; 8:23), incarnated in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:18, 20) on earth, sent by the Father to save us (John 3:16). Though manna was also sent from heaven by the Father, it did not lead its recipients to eternal life, because it was merely a physical food, not a spiritual food with a physical form. A key that distinguishes the living bread of life with the blood, which is Corporis et Sanguinis Christi from manna from heaven is the presence of the Holy Spirit. In other words, what makes the very body and blood of the incarnated Christ so unique to entitle us to resurrection and eternal life (John 6:54) is the Holy Spirit, which gives eternal life (John 6:63).

St. Ephrem of Edessa has put this truth well in these words:

In your bread is hidden the Spirit which cannot be eaten.

In your wine dwells the fire that cannot be drunk.

Spirit in your bread, fire in your wine:

It is a distinct wonder that our lips have received!  (Hymn De Fide 10:8)

The First Reading of the Solemnity of the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a) reminds us that the physical bread to feed the Israelites in the desert during the Exodus were satisfy their hunger. But, the passage also reminds us that we cannot live by bread alone but we do need what comes out of the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). And it is the Word (i.e. Exodus 4:15; John 12:49) and the Holy Spirit (i.e. Genesis 2:7; John 20:22). In fact, whether it is the Word or the Holy Spirit, what comes out of the mouth of the Son, who speaks what the Father speaks (John 12:49-50), is the Holy Spirit and life (John 6:63).

The manna was more like the bread and fish that Jesus multiplied to feed the hungry crowd of a great size of at least 5,000 (John 6:1-15). These did not have the Holy Spirit. So, it was only for a temporary satisfaction and relief from hunger but not for eternal life (John 6:22-34)

The bread from heaven in the desert is called “manna” because the Israelites said, “Ma’n hu?”(What is it?), as it was unknown and strange to them (Exodus 16:15; Deuteronomy 8:3a).

The Second Reading (1 Corinthians 10:16-17) explains why we call receiving the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi “communion”. The blood of Christ, which gives life (John 6:53) is a blessing, and the body of Christ, the living bread of life, makes us one body of Christ, thus making and keeping us as the Church, the body of Christ, as we are all baptized into this one body in one spirit, the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

Yes, the bottom life of the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, which makes life-giving, is the presence of the Holy Spirit, making the Body as the spiritual food and the Blood as the spiritual drink, for eternal life.

We are, indeed, on our Exodus journey from this world into our eternal home in the Father’s house (i.e. John 14:2), in New Jerusalem of the New Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1-27), in the Kingdom of God (John 3:5), entering through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14). Until we meet the Son there, we need to eat his living flesh as the living bread of life and drink his blood as the true drink to sustain ourselves (Mark 14:25), as the Israelites ate manna for 40 years until they reached the promised land (Exodus 16:35), while we remain as one body of Christ, one Church, in one communion (1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:27), as one flock of God’s beloved sheep (John 10:16; 17:20-23), shepherded by Christ the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14), the Parakletos (1 John 2:1), guided by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), who is another Parakletos (John 14:26).