Homily for the Morning Mass on Corpus Christi
Readings for Year A: Deuteronomy 8:2-16; I Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
Many of you who come to this beautiful church will know one of our most treasured paintings. The beautiful painting ‘In Memoriam’ by Andrew White. It is an unusual contemporary representation of the Last Supper, the Thursday evening gathering in the Upper Room in Jerusalem before Jesus’ crucifixion and death on the first Good Friday. Many visitors over the last few years have stopped in front of the painting and spent time contemplating it. I often wonder what it is they see. For me it is an extraordinary inspired work of art as the apostles gathered around the table are so vividly recognisable, not as they might have been in Jesus’ time, but resemble people I’ve met. And visitors often say they too see familiar faces there. I’ve heard people say “that’s me around the table” or “that’s my friend there with Jesus”. Andrew White himself said: “Most of the models who sat for the painting were unknown to me the year I began the work. But as the hours and months passed and friendships grew, the painting became less about the disciples of 2000 years ago and more about Christ among His disciples today”.
For me ‘In Memoriam’ symbolises how the Lord wants to invite us all, of whatever race, background, age, gender, whatever it is that seems to separate us, around the altar. I am really looking forward to that being possible again, whenever that will be. Over these last 10 weeks many have said how much they have missed that. Yes, many have been very grateful for our livestreaming – and we have attracted many more to our celebration of Mass, 3 times as many as is usually the case. And we will carry on with that now and want to engage with our new digital congregation. But many have also said how much they miss gathering around the altar to pray, to worship, to receive Holy Communion, yes, to be Church together. In a certain sense, despite all we have been doing to continue to minister here during the pandemic, and despite all the wonderful expressions of sharing faith at home which also are an unexpected gift of this time for our future – the domestic Church in small groups being rekindled - there is no substitute for being physically gathered around the altar. Without that we have been struggling to be Church. Because the Church is the gathered assembly from all over, bringing together a scattered diverse group of people around the table of the Last Supper.
And there is much more to this experience which gets to the heart of our faith. When we gather around the altar at Mass we never do so simply as individuals. Christ’s command to “do this” in memory of him is a command, a mandate to be a mature disciple. So when we gather around the altar we are also called, as were the first apostles, as part of Christ’s Body the Church with the mandate to bring others closer to Christ. To gather in the scattered children of God. Every time we come to Mass we hear the words “do this in memory of me”. And every time we participate in this Eucharist we not just remember the last supper but, through our adoration of the Eucharist as the central mystery of our faith, we are strengthened to act out the Lord’s command.
This call also includes the need to work for reconciliation between Christians of other churches and ecclesial communities, to do all we can as a truly Catholic community to show how Christians are united as a vital force in our society. Normally we would be celebrating today with a Procession with our neighbours and friends at the Grosvenor Chapel and the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. Here we live also the pain of separation between Christians and our desire for full unity in the one communion the Lord desires. Of course we cannot have a Corpus Christi Procession this year. But that does not mean we cannot share our faith in what the gift of the Eucharist is all about.
What more important time than this for us to show how we are united as Christians as we see violence on our streets whipped up by identity politics which try to separate people on grounds of belief and association, and yet we see also the yearning for the common good of a humanity showing its unity as we emerge from this time of pandemic in which we’ve all been in it together. We see a surge of energy to end discrimination for all, Christians and others together showing their anger at the evil of racism, fighting to ensure everyone is treated with the dignity they deserve. How much we see a yearning to respect, to feed, to shelter, those many more new homeless, to bring them to the table where all are fed and given the care they deserve as human beings. For the Christian disciple we do not simply receive the Eucharist ourselves as individuals in isolation but we are called to live out the Eucharist in the world.
Our volunteers in Trafalgar Square do that every day, confronting the scandal of the hundreds of new homeless in our city and country left begging for shelter, food, and recourse to public funds. We do this in collaboration with those of other faiths and none. This is faith in the Eucharist, lived out as a Church at the heart of society. As we see more and more of these women and men in Trafalgar Square you cannot but conclude as a Christian we must continue as Church to work with civic authorities to ensure that everyone is round the table of mercy – a call made by the Church and a prerequisite of any civilised society. To profess a faith in the Eucharist is quite an undertaking. This is a tough time to be a Christian. Because it is to commit oneself as a member of Christ’s Body to bring about what the Eucharist is all about, where everyone has a place at the supper.
Pope Francis sums this up well: “The Eucharist also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals, but one body. As the people in the desert gathered the manna that fell from heaven and shared it in their families (cf. Ex 16), so Jesus, the Bread come down from Heaven, calls us together to receive him and to share him with one another. The Eucharist is not a sacrament “for me”; it is the sacrament of the many, who form one body, God’s holy and faithful people… Whoever receives it cannot fail to be a builder of unity, because building unity has become part of his or her “spiritual DNA”.
This is why the Eucharist is so central, the source and summit of our faith, as St John Paul II called it. This is the central mystery of our faith. It can never be a private devotion. It expresses our Christian vocation to love as Christ loved. Each time we approach the altar to receive Holy Communion we say yes to this and so say yes to our Christian calling.
“Go in peace” is in a sense the very beginning, not the end of the Mass – it is what the Mass is all about. And yet following Christ’s command to do this in memory of him we are reminded that our Faith is not based on our own efforts, however great and courageous and commendable they are. Rather, our faith is located deep in the power of the eucharistic sacrifice itself, deep in the mystery of the person of Christ who wants to touch each one of us with his love, to lead us forth as pilgrims on a journey, to be drawn into the mystery of his sacrifice for us, which gives ultimate meaning to our lives of Christian service and finds its final resting place at the eternal banquet in a heavenly destiny when all will have a place at that table of mercy, a purpose we strive for in our own society and yet ultimately even beyond this passing world.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ