
The Feast of the Body of ChristThe Feast of the Body of Christ is celebrated generally by Holy Church on this fifth weekday [Thursday]. Because this food is wondrous, it is therefore of the highest novelty; and this is shown by its fourfold character: namely, verbal power, essential exemption, partial totality, and accidental permanence. Its effect is saving, and therefore of the highest utility, because it is preservative of spiritual life, generative of spiritual joy, and collaborative of spiritual strength. It is also a magnificent banquet, because it is of the highest majesty. Wherefore therein are considered the benefits of the highest love, the prodigies of the highest shepherd, and the astonishing privileges of the highest honor.Therefore, since this sacrament is the viaticuм of our pilgrimage, let us pray that we may be comforted by it as travelers here, so that through this we may attain perpetual joy on earth. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen
Old Testament (Left)In the Fourth Book of Kings, chapter 2, it is written that Elijah, having been caught up into heaven, left his cloak to Elisha, with which, touching the waters of the Jordan, he dried them up and passed through unharmed.
Elijah is Christ by reason of holiness; He was caught up into heaven in His ascension by the power of truth, but yet He left His cloak of merit and righteousness to Elisha, that is, to every faithful soul; that is, He gave the true body of Christ to be venerated under the appearance of bread, as if under a covering and a veil. And with this cloak, that is, the veiled sacrament, Elisha, that is, any devout Christian, if he receives it worthily, manfully overcomes and passes through without harm by this cloak not only the water of the Jordan, that is, certain tribulations, but rather all the waves of the sea, that is, worldly attacks.
Old Testament (Right)In the Second Book of Kings, chapter 6, it is written: That David distributed to the whole multitude of Israel a loaf of bread, a piece of roasted beef, and a cake of flour fried in oil.
David, meaning "strong hand", is Christ, according to his power, who is much more merciful from His supper to the whole multitude, namely of Israel, that is, to those who see God fully and to the other righteous ones, distributing a loaf of bread, that is, the pure corporality taken from the Virgin and bent under many sufferings; and also a piece of roasted beef, that is, the most bitter passion of His body; and likewise a cake of flour fried in oil, that is, His spiritual and corporal sacramental body, which provides confirming grace, because if it is prepared and anointed in mercy, it is distributed beyond royal munificence.
Nature (Left)Ambrose, Pliny, and Isidore say: That if the blood of a lamb is offered to a raging leopard, it is immediately appeased.
The raging leopard is God the Father, angered by our sins, fiercely raging in His righteous judgment. If He sees the blood of the Lamb, the Immaculate One, that is, the body and blood of Christ His Son, offered to Him in the sacrament of the altar by an intercessor, that is, by any righteous person quickening sinners to righteousness or by a priest, nothing else remains but that He will immediately hold him as well-wishing and appeased without any intermediary.
Pliny says that birds living on raw flesh never drink, so men devoutly receiving the body of Christ can never receive waters, that is, health-bringing waters [in vain].
Nature (Right)Augustine says: That is properly called a "worm" which is generated from clean and pure earth without any mingling of seed (semen), a fact to which John Naturalist also bears witness.
To this worm, the most pure flesh of Christ is not undeservedly compared. For His flesh was assumed from clean earth—that is, from the most holy Virgin—and was generated without the seed of man. Furthermore, at the Last Supper, under the appearance of most pure bread, it was commended by Christ to His disciples and the faithful by the authority of His divinity, in memory of His passion. Worms are also used as bait in fishing rods to catch fish.
It ought now to be clear to the devoted Christians that this Body must be venerated most devoutly. For we are gathered at the table with the body of Christ, in such a way that—if we are willing— with the grace of communion we can swiftly catch and overcome all the slimy, slippery and evil deceptions of the devil and the world.