Solemnity of Corpus Christi
June 22, 2014
10 am Liturgy
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
It’s been said “the obvious answer is sometimes the right
one.” That is sometimes true, like today. So what’s the question?
The simple question is: So, “who am I”: Who, really, am I? And
who are we together?
Way back in 1967, Erik Erikson published his seminal work
Youth: Identity and Crisis. It was followed rather quickly by
Identity in the Life Cycle. I’m sure many of us of a certain age
remember those days. We all got permission to have our very own
Identity Crisis.
“Who am I” is a big question for all of us. Growing to a
relatively secure and more-or-less permanent ego-identity is one
of the primary invitations of adolescence. And most of us come
through that period of our lives more-or-less intact.
But as Erikson himself theorized, and subsequent research
has confirmed, growing-up is also accompanied by a kind of
identity diffusion. Who I once thought I was, and the dreams I once
felt secure pursuing, sometimes gets muddier and less certain as I
age. What seemed like a permanent and primary identity begins to
shift, as we get older.
Once-upon-a-time, my profession, my “job” in the world,
sufficed for a primary identity. But sometimes, even positions of
honor or respect can begin to fade. Once-upon-a-time, my wealth
or cars or home or family sufficed. But then again, sometimes a
vacuum still grows again as we grow older. And the question of
who I really am, and what I really want to become, returns with a
softly nagging urgency.
What becomes clear at today’s liturgy is that we didn’t even
need to wait for modern psychology to tell us this. Modern
psychology only re-discovered the phenomenon. St. Paul already
knew about it. Ask the people of Corinth. The author of the Fourth
Gospel already knew about it. Ask anyone who heard today’s
gospel. St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas already knew about
it.
Who am I really? At the most deep and penetrating and allencompassing heart of my being, who am I really? The obvious
answer: I am part of the Body of Christ! Knowing that identity and
living that identity is what it is all about!
2
That identity, that Body, is terribly flawed, barely
recognizable most days, sinful in the extreme often, but
nonetheless, we are still primarily the Body of Christ. And this
celebration today, more than most celebrations, is OUR
celebration. This is a people’s feast. This is the day Christians took
over the streets, literally. There used to be long, winding
processions around the world today. Some fired-off canons from
mountaintops; they marched and sang their hearts out through
their towns trying to capture their primary identity and display it
for the world to enjoy.
St. Thomas Aquinas composed the entire Divine Office for this
feast in the 12th century. The language is a bit pious to
contemporary ears, but it is beautiful. “O precious and wonderful
banquet that brings us salvation itself and contains all sweetness.
Could anything be of more intrinsic value? What could be more
wonderful? No other sacrament has more healing power; through
it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is
enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift.”
St. Augustine, living centuries before Thomas, sums it up
more succinctly (and you have heard me use his words often).
3
Before communion, the Bishop of Hippo would hoist high the
Bread and Cup and say to his people: “Receive what you are; be
what you receive.”
We will never find a more secure anchor for our self-esteem.
We will never find a more challenging invitation for our lives.
Receive what you are; be what you receive: The body and Blood of
Christ.
Do you remember the little ditty that Gilbert & Sullivan
penned for their Mikado? A chorus enters and sings: “Do you want
to know who we are?” We are gentlemen of Japan, etc. Well, do
you want to know who we are? Look at that altar, that table, sitting
in our midst. We have a primary identity that no one can ever
diminish or tarnish. It is so fundamental an identity that all else
pales in significance. It doesn’t matter that we are young or old; it
doesn’t matter whether we are black or white, or brown, or yellow;
it doesn’t mater that we are gay or straight (or anything inbetween); whether we are rich or dirt poor, bright or slow. It
doesn’t matter whether we are doctors, or lawyers or Indian chiefs.
4
Remember, sometimes the obvious answer is the right one!
We together are the Body of Christ. That’s primary! And this is our
feast! There is no other anchor for our souls. Happy Feast Day!
5