by Fr. Tommy Lane
Our celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, contain so much that we could benefit from more time every year to reflect on and absorb what God has done for us. We have this extra time by reflecting last Sunday on the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. That extra time for reflection continues today in our celebration of Corpus Christi which gives us another opportunity to ponder Jesus giving us the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. Our celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus next Friday will give us another opportunity to reflect on Christ’s salvation for us on Good Friday. So, our celebration of the Most Holy Trinity, of Corpus Christi today, and of the Sacred Heart on Friday, allow us to continue to draw spiritual fruit from the Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.
Our celebration today of Corpus Christi is a joyful celebration of Jesus continuing to be present with us. Our Gospel today was Mark’s account of the Last Supper (Mark 14:22-23) when Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the apostles saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then Jesus took a cup of wine and gave thanks and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which will be shed for many.” Luke gives us a slightly longer account of Jesus’ words over the bread and cup (22:19-20), and the words of consecration during Mass are closer to Luke’s. Jesus knew he would die the following day, but he gave the gift of himself in the Eucharist in advance, so Jesus remains with us in the Eucharist. In the Old Covenant, God’s presence was limited to the Holy of Holies in the temple. Now in the New Covenant, Jesus is with us in every tabernacle in every Church. Jesus is with us in every monstrance in adoration chapels. We receive Jesus in the Eucharist in every Mass. We see Jesus in the Sacred Host when the priest elevates it at the moment of consecration, and again when holding the Sacred Host above the chalice/paten saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”
That continuing presence of Jesus with us is seen in the first recognized cure at Knock Shrine. On the first Sunday of September 1989, Marion Carroll in Athlone, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis, went on a pilgrimage to Knock Shrine, with her diocese, Ardagh & Clonmacnoise. Due to her condition, she went on a stretcher in an ambulance. She had not walked for a number of years and was expected to die soon. The side effects were very severe as she had to be fed, washed, changed, and moved, and had impaired sight. While she was at Knock that day, her parish priest wrote the homily for her Funeral Mass. She remained on her stretcher all during Mass in the basilica. Before Mass, during the anointing of the sick, she was anointed by her bishop who was leading the pilgrimage. When she received Holy Communion, which she was able to do normally without difficulty swallowing, she got an unusual pain in her heels and then that went away and all the other pains in her body. During the prayers for the sick, when the bishop walked around the basilica blessing the sick with Jesus in the monstrance, she heard the words, “the lame shall walk.” Then she describes what happened in this way: “I got this magnificent feeling – a wonderful sensation like a whispering breeze telling me that I was cured…telling me that, if the stretcher was opened, I could get up and walk.” (Marion Carroll, My Miracle Cure p130) At first, she did not say anything because she didn’t want to look stupid but when she was back at St. John’s - the rest home for the sick at Knock - she asked to have the stretcher opened and her two legs swung out and she stood up, the first time in three years she was able to do so. She even drank a cup of tea unaided. Her speech was perfect, and her hands and arms were perfect. She came home again in the ambulance, sitting up, and walked out to meet her husband. Of course, her healing was scrutinized by a committee and all medical evidence was looked at. There are three criteria for a miraculous cure. It must be sudden, must be complete with no residual manifestation of illness, and it must be maintained for years. (Marion Carroll, My Miracle Cure p135) So, the Church always moves slowly in such matters and finally in September 2019, thirty years after it occurred, her bishop declared that her recovery “defies medical explanation.” (Marion Carroll, My Miracle Cure p203) It is the first officially recognized cure at Knock Shrine though there are reports of many others. What is significant about her miraculous cure for us today, as we celebrate Corpus Christi, is that it began to occur when she received Jesus in Holy Communion and continued when she was blessed with Jesus in the monstrance. She was cured by Jesus in the Eucharist. (For a full account, see her beautiful book: Marion Carroll, My Miracle Cure) Jesus remains with us in the Eucharist. He is just as present with us as he was in Galilee, and the first recognized cure at Knock Shrine is living testimony to that.
Jesus’ continuing presence with us cost him dearly. It cost him his body and blood. The first and second reading today remind us in particular of Jesus shedding his blood. We make an agreement now by signing our name. In the ancient near east, the two people making an agreement walked on animals’ blood to signify they deserved death if they broke the covenant. In the first reading (Exod 24:3-8) we heard Moses sprinkled the people with animals’ blood at Sinai to seal the covenant. The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (9:11-15) describes Jesus’ death like no other New Testament document. It describes Jesus’ death as a liturgy in which he took his blood to heaven and presented it before the Father to atone for our sins. Jesus’ blood sealed the New Covenant. Our celebration of Corpus Christi today is a very joyful celebration of Jesus continuing to be present with us. But it cost Jesus his body and blood.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for Corpus Christi
The Eucharist: the Greatest Gift 2023
Faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and Eucharistic Miracles
Year A: Meet Jesus in his Real Presence in the Eucharist 2008
Year B: Hungry for Jesus 2024
Year C: Is Jesus in the Eucharist the center of your life? 2007
Related Homilies: Homilies on the Eucharist