Archbishop of Sydney

Feast of Corpus Christi
The Body and Blood of Christ

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Gen 14:18-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11-17

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
10/6/2007

We all know that Our Lord was a Jew by nationality and by religious profession and that the Jews were, and in some real sense remain God’s chosen people.

As His chosen people they received privileged access to God's teaching through the revelation to be found in their sacred Scriptures, which we call the Old Testament and which provides most of the foundation for Jesus' distinctive New Testament teaching.

There are particular rules and regulations e.g. endorsements of violence, descriptions of God as angry and almost vengeful, which we no longer accept, because we judge the Old Testament in the light of Christ's teaching in the New Testament. That is what we mean when we call ourselves Christians, New Testament people.

But Our Lord was a loyal follower of Abraham and Moses, while his teachings would be impossible to understand without the lessons of the great prophets such as Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the Pentateuch.  Therefore it is no surprise that we find the origins of the central Christian mystery of the Eucharist in a brief passage in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.

Here Melchisedec the king of Salem and described as a priest of the God Most High used bread and wine for the blessing of Abraham after his defeat of the four kings. The only other reference to him is found in Psalm 110 where the king is called "a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec".  He appears out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly.

From the end of the second century (with Clement of Alexandria) the Church has regarded this ceremony as a type or anticipation of the Eucharist and in the early centuries heretics were attracted to Melchisedec, with some believing he was the Holy Spirit, or an incarnation of the eternal Word and even a power of God superior to Christ himself!  And of course the author of the New Testament letter to the Hebrews used Melchisedec to demonstrate the superiority of Christ's priesthood over the ancient Jewish priesthood.

Luke's gospel recounts another incident, on this occasion from within Jesus' own lifetime, which also serves as a preparation and is an important help to understanding the Eucharist as spiritual food for our life journey in faith and morals.

Late in the evening and out in the wilderness far from any markets a large crowd was still with Jesus, disturbing the twelve apostles who did not know how they would be fed. The total resources they could find in the group were five loaves and two fish for the 5000 men present.

With the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, everyone was well fed and indeed there were twelve baskets of scraps.  This is a clear message to all followers of Christ that we must be concerned for one another, concerned to help the hungry, who can be defined in any number of ways.

But man does not live on bread alone and John’s gospel recounts that when Jesus promised to leave His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, quite a number left him. This was a step too far, a memorial meal which went far beyond the ordinary human significance of eating and communing together.

Paul’s letter to the Christians in the wild port town in Greece, the Roman colony of Corinth was probably written around 54 AD, one of the earliest writings in the New Testament and tody’s excerpt details the institution of this sacrament by Our Lord on the night before he died. At every Mass in any and every part of the world we do as Christ did, as a memorial of Him, and more particularly as a memorial of his saving life, death and resurrection.  We are commemorating our redemption achieved in Christ’s unique sacrifice.

The Church insists that Our Lord meant what He said; that the bread and wine though the priest’s words of consecration become Christ's Body and Blood.  This of course is a great mystery.

The nature of what we receive in Communion explains why the reception of Communion is not like accepting the offer of a cup of tea or coffee when we are visiting.  It is regarded as rude to reject such an offer, even if we do not particularly feel like a "cuppa".

That is why the Church surrounds Communion with a set of conditions.  One has to be a member of the Catholic Church, to believe in the Real Presence, to have been prepared for a solemn First Communion, to have been fasting from food for an hour and to be in, what is called technically, a state of grace.  This means that there should be no hate, no unrepented death bearing sin in our hearts, no canonical impediment to reception and that you should be a regular church-goer; or at least have repented that you are not regular!

A generation ago a well known Catholic prison chaplain was asked about an equally well known Catholic criminal. "Does he attend the prison Mass?" he was asked "of course" was the reply. "Does he take Holy Communion?" "No" said the chaplain, "he has genuine faith".

That criminal was well catechised.  He probably feared no one, except his mother, but he did have a proper fear and reverence of God and he knew his heart was not suitable to receive Communion.

There are many wonderful developments in Australian life, where most feel they are as important as anyone else.  But we have a diminishing sense of the sacred, especially any sense of a Transcendent God above the world of nature.  So receiving Communion is written down, banalized, reduced to taking a small holy wafer. Even many Catholics are uncertain the consecrated hosts are the Body and Blood of Christ, unfortunately.

This weakness is one reason why the renewal enthusiasm, especially among young people, for adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, for participation at Benediction is a providential redevelopment, an antidote to the levelling of religious life.

Let us pray for a deeper and stronger faith in the Real Presence on this feast of Corpus Christi.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.