(Written to be read for Corpus Christi – 11/06/2020 or 14/06/2020)
Today is Corpus Christi and this religious festival serves the purpose of honouring the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus et Sanguis Christi) as a real presence in our lives through the sacrament known as the Breaking of Bread (Holy Communion / Eucharist / Lord’s Supper). This festival is also known by its extended name The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Sollemnitas Corpus et Sanguinis Christi) and is usually celebrated either on the 60th day after Resurrection Sunday (the Thursday after Trinity Sunday) or the Sunday following this. Ironically, this festival traditionally serves the purpose of being a less solemn and more joyful version of Maundy Thursday. However, due to recent events of discrimination against African Americans in the last few weeks, the solemnity of the season is embedded in the name and cannot be avoided.
Corpus Christi is also known as the Day of Wreaths, where the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus et Sanguis Christi) is also honoured by laying down flowers on the path of the priest’s procession. Originally, this serves to honour Christ as the self-sacrificial King that overcame death. However, the recent victims of racism (viz. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arnold and George Floyd) in the US are a cause for the laying down of flowers and processions for a reason opposite than that of overcoming death. Instead, the laying down of flowers and the processions of protest taking place worldwide are for the sake of mourning and outrage at the countless amount of Black lives that are persecuted, oppressed and afflicted to the point of being overcome by death.
In Judaism, the story of the Israelite Exodus is read and unleavened bread is eaten with bitter herbs at Passover (The Festival of Matzot) to remember and ruminate on the affliction felt, the bitterness tasted and the tears shed by their predecessors under Egyptian slavery.
In Christianity, this is reiterated through the story of Christ’s Passion where His disciples are mandated to eat and drink both broken bread and red wine in order to remember and ruminate on the affliction, the bitterness and the sorrow that comes with His sacrifice.
In whatever worldview or perspective you adhere to today, and from whatever background or culture you have been cultivated in, the stories of Black lives lost have granted us the space and time to both remember that racism is still very much alive despite seeming like history; and, we have all had the space and time to ruminate on the affliction and sorrow that follows the persecution of Black lives and is still a bitter taste to us right now.
Despite the original intentions of Corpus Christi being a festival of appreciation to God for the promise of new life – a thanksgiving celebration on the 60th day after Resurrection Sunday – recent observances show that the otherwise intended solemnity of the season is one that cannot and should not be forgotten. The solemnity of human suffering echoes from a past of Black slavery and colonialism to present day police brutality and White supremacy. The solemnity of the sacrament is rooted in human violence against God’s Word and Spirit and results in the affliction of His chosen’s body and blood (Corpus et Sanguine Christi). An affliction that is digested and shared by His servants through the eating of broken bread (His body) and the drinking of red wine (His blood). The solemnity of the season we know as Corpus Christi that we are compelled to remember and ruminate on is both embodied in broken Black bodies and embedded in innocent blood shed .
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
[…]
Surely He has borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:3-4 (NKJV)
In order to not forget the solemnity of either the suffering, the sacrament or the season, Christians consciously ruminate on the broken bread and red wine as Christ’s afflicted body and red blood shed. The significance of this is not simply symbolic for believers but invites the real presence of Christ into what is eaten; for followers of the faith, the meaning of this is more than metaphor as what is consumed is believed to truly be corpus et sanguine Christi (the body and blood of Christ).
“For My flesh is food indeed and My blood is drink indeed.”
John 6:55 (NKJV)
“How is this possible without promoting cannibalism?” Transubstantiation. This is part of Roman Catholic doctrine that claims the substances of bread and wine offered at Holy Communion transform into the actual body and blood of Christ without any of its sensory qualities (e.g. what is seen, what is felt and what is tasted) changing. In other words, the inner essence of the substance (viz. what it is) changes whilst the outer appearance of the substance (viz. what is sensed) stays the same.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:16 (NKJV)
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
Alternatively, we could say the material food & drink (broken bread and red wine) acts as a host for the spiritual food & drink (living bread & living waters).
On first glance this does not seem to answer the question as we may simply ask further “how does this transubstantiation process happen?” and if the question is answered “through faith” then the whole process appears doubtful to those on the outside … but this is exactly the answer that needs to be given as well as the point and purpose of the sacrament: it requires faith. We cannot seek, find and worship God through our senses or intellect alone, but through our faith and spirit.
” … the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
John 4:23-24 (NKJV)
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
“… We speak what We know and testify what We have seen and you do not receive Our witness.
John 3:11-12 (NKJV)
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
There are three earthly images that Christ uses according to the Gospel of John to show spiritual or “heavenly” truths: being born again, eating living bread and drinking living water.
The image of being born again: ” … unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
John 3:5-6 (NKJV)
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The image of eating living bread: “… Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
John 6:32-33 (NKJV)
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
The image of drinking living waters: “… if you knew the gift of God […] you would have asked Him , and He would have given you living water
John 4:10, 13-14 (NKJV)
[…]
whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
If we just take the example of eating living bread, on first glance, it may appear that Christ dismisses the mediator work of Moses from this quote, but this is not exactly the case. Rather, Christ attempts to stress that the bread from heaven that the Israelites encountered in the wilderness (the substance they named “manna“) was a gift from above, a heavenly or spiritual gift, that Moses and the material world alone could not provide without God, the Father.
This is one, if not the, central reason why Moses’ relay from God to the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy was reiterated by Christ during his own time of trial and temptation (viz. to create food for himself in the wilderness).
“But He answered and said ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
Matthew 4:4 (NKJV)
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV)
The Israelites failed to look beyond what they saw with their eyes and recognise through faith that what they called manna (viz. “what is it?”) was the spiritual food given by the Father. The Israelites were unable to perceive further than what was presented to them to know through faith that this bread encountered in the wilderness was God’s gift from above. The Israelites were unaware of how to transcend their senses through faith to experience – to taste and appreciate – God’s Word. This is why when they encountered the substance they asked “what is it?” (manna) and as they failed to look past appearances through faith to perceive and know what they experienced to be God’s Salvation through a fulfilled promise of provision. Because of this, they eventually grew unappreciative of what was provided and dimmed their sense of taste to the extent that the inner essence of the heavenly bread given was reduced to the material bread encountered through what they could see, smell, taste and touch. As such, the Israelites unconsciously concealed the divine origin (the Father) and essence (the Son) of the spiritual food to the material food that they did not know (manna). They encountered – but did not know – God.
” … on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
Exodus 16:14-15 (NKJV)
So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ‘This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.'”
“Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat? … now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!'”
Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV)
Through Christ’s earthly image of living bread in the Gospel of John, He answers the Israelites’ original question – “what is it?” – by being the answer, by being the bread from heaven, by being the spiritual food & drink. And to those who fail to look past earthly appearances, the answer that He offers remains concealed; however, to those who seek God through faith (i.e. those who worship him in spirit and truth) what he offers is revealed. In other words, the Truth of God cannot be revealed to those who fail to look beyond what they see, to those unable to perceive further than what is presented or to those who are unaware that they must transcend through faith to experience Him.
In attempt to receive a revelation from God, believers must attempt to transcend the world of material through faith to reach and experience a taste of the spiritual. Depending on the way you look at it, this attempt to reach the spiritual either trickles down to, or ascends from, the everyday observances of the material world such as eating & drinking. This is why true believers must attempt to go beyond the material substances encountered as broken bread and red wine (viz. the Breaking of Bread) to taste and experience the spiritual substances of God’s body and blood (viz. His Word and Spirit).
At this point, you may have another question: “What does this have to do with God’s body and blood being Black?” Well, part and parcel of this attempt to transcend through faith to reach the spiritual requires more than just looking past appearances – it also requires looking for patterns. In this case, it requires looking for the patterns of God’s work. If taken in reverse, the doctrine of transubstantiation helps us to realise that the bread and wine (material food) are, and have always been, God’s body and blood (spiritual food) given for us. In the book of Genesis, the fruits of Eden given to us to enjoy life are a result of God the Father’s creative work. On the other side of the metaphysical mirror (e.g. from the Gospel accounts), the fruit of the Spirit given is to restore life as a result of Christ’s redemptive work. In other words, the fruit of both Eden and the Spirit are the same result of life on two sides of the same story of labour (viz. God’s Creation and God’s Redemption) which are both accomplished through His selfsame body, blood, sweat and tears (i.e. living bread & waters).
“And God said, ‘See I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so”
Genesis 1: 29-30 (NKJV)
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:16-7 (NKJV)
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh which I shall give for the life of the world.”
John 6:51 (NKJV)
On the creative side of the mirror, the book of Genesis was, and continues to be, an account of God the Father’s process of creation. Each day in a series of seven contributes to the collage of Creation as a whole; each day is an individual image adding to a multitude of images that all express the Hebrew phrase “ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh“:
“I am that which I am”
“I am who I am”
and “I will be what I will be”
Exodus 3:14 (Halleluyah Scriptures / TS2009, NKJV)
On the redemptive side of the mirror, the Lord’s Supper was, and continues to be, a commemoration of God the Son’s process of redemption in the form of Breaking the Bread / Holy Communion / Eucharist. Each event of betrayal, suffering, death, burial and resurrection occurring in one Holy Week are all images remembered and ruminated on to help paint the big picture of Salvation. These events are all embodied and echoed throughout history as the Hero with a thousand faces and especially the Black lives who embody and echo the intermediary who cries out, the intercessor who suffers and the innocent who is sacrificed.
“… the hero is symbolical of that divine creative and redemptive image which is hidden within us all, only waiting to be known and rendered to life.”
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces, p.31
In our current climate of racism, the Black lives who suffer violence and are sacrificed are the scapegoats of undue discrimination, the Black lives lost are the innocent intercessors who die bearing the stigmata of White sin unjustly. The remaining Black lives who live on but cry out in protest are the intermediaries who witness and fight against the injustice, they are the Black lives who exist between heaven and earth as the messengers of God screaming to Pharaoh “Let My people go!”
“‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'”
“‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness.’
Exodus 5:1 ; 7:16 (NKJV)
The suffering endured, the sheer amount of sacrifices made, and the cries against injustice are not just the afflictions we currently experience, but are the echoes of one redemptive Hero’s journey since the very beginning.
Through faith broken bread and red wine are revealed by God to be disguises that we must transcend so that we may feel compassion for, or find endurance to act as, the suffering intercessor. They are disguises that we must transcend so that we can taste and experience the afflictions of the innocent sacrifice. They are disguises that we must transcend so that we may both hear and speak with the Spirit of God to be the intermediary crying out against injustice. Through faith the body and blood of Christ is a reminder to ruminate on the fruits of God’s redemptive work to uncover the taste of Salvation: the oppressed ones who intercede and bear the stigmata of our crimes, the innocent ones who have died in our stead and the protests of intermediaries that we both hear and are called to be.
“But He was wounded for our trangressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed”
Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)
“And for this reason, He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Hebrews 9:15 (NKJV)
All of this is what we should remember and ruminate on even when simply eating and drinking. This is why the sacrament of Breaking the Bread and the season of Corpus Christi remain a solemnity, and yet is also why Christ always gave thanks before He ate.
Bibliography:
Campbell J., 2008. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Third Ed. Novato, California: New World Library in assoc. with the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
The Holy Bible. New King James Version. 1982. Thomas Nelson, Inc. Tennessee.
The Religions Book. 2013. Dorling Kindersley (DK). London.
Britannica.com, 2018. Feast of Corpus Christi. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Feast-of-Corpus-Christi> [Ac
ReformJudaism.org, 2013. “Who is This God?” Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh. [Online]. Available at: <https://reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/shmot/who-god-ehyeh-asher-ehyeh> [Accessed 14 June 2020]
Encyclopedia.com, 2020. Corpus et Sanguis Christi, Solemnity of [Online]. Available at: <https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/corpus-et-sanguis-christi-solemnity> [Accessed 14 June 2020]
TheFreeDictionary.com, 2009. Corpus Christi, Feast of. Omnigraphics, Inc. [Online]. Available at:<https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Corpus+Christi%2c+Feast+of> [Accessed 14 June 2020]
Wikipedia.com, 2020. I Am that I am. [Online]. Available at:<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am> [Accessed 14 June 2020]
Wikipedia.com, 2020. Eucharist. [Online]. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist> [Accessed 14 June 2020]
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