Thoughts for the Day

For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

More commonly called the 'Day of Thanksgiving for Holy Communion' by Anglicans, its older title 'Corpus Christi' is still used for today by many churches. This feast day is observed by the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to certain Western Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches. Two months earlier on Maundy Thursday we remembered Jesus' Last Supper, but it was the day before his death, and so the church felt it inappropriate to hold such a festival and hence moved it to today.

Many years ago when I worked in Suffolk I had a patron. Patrons can be individuals or organisations and they are responsible for choosing a priest for a parish and suggesting their name to the Bishop. My patron was Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a couple of years later I was invited by the College to preach at their Corpus Christi Service. It reminded me of how important this festival which celebrates the Eucharist (ie the Communion Service or Mass) has been for centuries. Corpus Christi from the beginning involved processions both in church and in the streets, and the service has always been elaborate, based as it is on one created by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE).

Corpus Christi at Emmanuel College was a wonderful Service with glorious music sung by an amazing choir, all the clergy in elaborate robes, and with much incense. Although this style was not my tradition, it was nevertheless a truly memorable experience to celebrate the Holy Communion; to remember that our Lord broke bread and said "This is my body broken for you"; that he commanded them to continue to do so in "remembrance of me"; that he took the cup of wine exclaiming it was the new covenant with God's people sealed with his blood; and that they should continue to do so in "remembrance of me.

Perhaps we sometimes take the service of Holy Communion too much for granted!

Collect for Corpus Christi

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.