Corpus Christi Sunday Year C
Rev. Thomas Kuffel
Secrets seduce. They draw us as a treasure map does, enticing us to explore the hiddenness. Not all secrets, however, are seductive. Some are scary, others threaten. Not every secret needs to be known either, for some have forbidden and hidden knowledge that ought not be exposed, especially those concerning evil. Other secrets, although they have forbidden and hidden knowledge, are dangerous not because of their knowledge but rather, because we fail to understand. We are incapable of grasping what is hidden because we are not ready to receive.
The Eucharist is one such secret so sacred that ought not be treated carelessly. It seems almost trite that this wafer and wine which are so common in everyday life are the source of life itself. This bread and wine which feed the body becomes the most perfect of all sacrifices that feeds our heart and soul with divine nourishment.
We see this connection in the story of Melchizedek, an obscure figure of the Old Testament, who prominently foreshadows the greatest figure of the New Testament, Jesus. Abram after defeating the conquering armies of Sodom goes to Salem to offer thanksgiving for the victory. There, he meets Melchizedek, the king and priest of Salem whose name means king of righteousness. Melchizedek, the son of Noah: Shem, rules and yet, Abram the chosen one of God goes to him. Melchizedek,
“King of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” (Gen 14:18–20).
It was not Abram who offers the sacrifice of bread and wine, but Melchizedek. He is the king and priest of Salem who supplies the sacrifice and offers it. In exchange, Abram offers a tithe, a token appreciation for the intervention of God to grant him victory, saving his nephew Lot.
This offering of bread and wine foreshadows the Eucharist in which Jesus takes bread and wine, offers it to his heavenly Father as did Melchizedek. He then declares that this bread and this wine is his body and blood offered to the Father in thanksgiving for the victory: Jesus will conquer sin and death and restore life and love to those who believe.
In his sacrifice, not of lambs and bulls: “for it is impossible that blood of bulls and goats should take away sin” (Heb 10:4), Jesus takes away all sin as St. Paul declares:
“’Behold, I have come to do your will.’ He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:9–10).
Jesus declares the bread to be his body and the wine to be his blood which sanctifies us. How can bread and wine make us holy unless there is something secret and sacred about them?
The secret is not in the offering for anyone can offer bread and wine. Nor is it in the intention declaring this to signify Jesus and his offering at the Last Passover. The secret is in Christ Himself. It is not a human offering to God. Rather it is a Divine Offering to the Father through the Son of God Who is also the Son of Man. He offers Himself vicariously through the actions of the priest who offers bread and wine to the Father in reparation for sin to redeem what was lost: our communion with the Divine.
This new sacrifice sanctifies. It takes what is common, though in reality, it is sacred. The bread and wine Jesus offers is the sustenance of life, and He offers it as a thanksgiving for the great victory hidden within the Offerer. Jesus is more than a man. He is the promised King and Priest Who is also God and Man. His words have power for He is the Logos Who makes all things new. He, Divine, declares the greatest secret ever. The bread and wine are no longer what they appear but are the greatest secret.
No greater poem captures the secret than St. Thomas Aquinas who in his heart reveals the great mystery. Falling down in adoration, “faith will tell us Christ is present, when our human senses fail.” Such mystery reveals the depth of this secret. So too St. John Paul II declares, “Christ thereby becomes substantially present, whole and entire, in the reality of his body and blood” (Mane Nobiscum Domine # 16). He continues:
“Receiving the Eucharist means entering into a profound communion with Jesus. ‘Abide in me, and I in you’ (Jn 15:4). This relationship of profound and mutual ‘abiding’ enables us to have a certain foretaste of heaven on earth. Is this not the greatest of human yearnings? Is this not what God had in mind when he brought about in history his plan of salvation? God has placed in human hearts a ‘hunger’ for his word (cf. Am 8:11), a hunger which will be satisfied only by full union with him” (Mane Nobiscum Domine # 19).
To be in full communion with Jesus, King and Priest, is the greatest secret. His heart holds our heart in the most intimate and mysterious manner.
In a world in which the heart is hurt, profoundly stabbed by every sort of deception and manipulation, Jesus reveals his heart to us in the Eucharist. Nothing separates us from his communion except our rejection of his invitation. He invites us into the recesses of his heart, revealing Himself as the Man Whose Heart is also Divine, wanting nothing other than our communion. This communion sanctifies and purifies us so that we want nothing other than full communion with Him.
During the Eucharistic Celebration, we enter into the depths of Christ’s love. His woundedness upon the cross reveals the depths of sin’s roots in our soul. Yet, when we meditate upon his passion, his love pours over us, filling our being with his purity and sanctity by which we become holy, united to his suffering, death, and resurrection. His offering of Himself in the Eucharist reveals the incredible secret for which we all long. By living in Christ’s wounds, death, and resurrection we, believers in the Real Presence, authenticate their faith and prayer offered. In this authentication, He makes us new, and, in this newness, we explore and experience the depth of his infinite love.