Filed under: Patristics In the United States, Sunday, June 18,
is the feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy
Body and Blood of Christ. It is one of the Church’s two great
feasts of the Holy Eucharist. On Holy Thursday, we remember the
institution of the sacrament at the Last Supper. On Corpus
Christi we celebrate and adore Jesus’ abiding presence in the
sacrament. He remains with us in all the tabernacles of the
world, everywhere the sacrament is reserved. That is the meaning
of the red vigil lamp that burns before the altar of repose. The
Word was made flesh, and He has made His dwelling among us. What
remains at the end of the liturgy is no longer bread, no longer
wine, but the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
Jesus does not vanish with the dismissal. He lives, He abides.
The feast day is medieval in origin, but the Church observed the
reality from its earliest days. Around 150 A.D., St. Justin
noted that the deacons took the reserved sacrament to the sick
and homebound immed