Feast of Corpus Christi

Why We Celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi

The Humanity of Jesus has remained with us in the Holy Eucharist; in that mystery of love Jesus accomplishes his unparalleled marvels in souls, and all operations of grace through the other sacraments are irradiations of that mystery, which in the Church is the center not only of her worship, but of her life and sanctity.

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist have divine connections; both mysteries are fountains of purity and of life, but not two separated fountains; united by an inexpressible harmony, they form but one and the same fountain.

Therefore, although the Sacrament of Love was instituted on the eve of the Passion, it was not dispensed in the Church until Pentecost. On that day the heavenly fountain, united with that of earth, would pour throughout the world the holy inundation of purity; when the Holy Spirit, the eternal Perfecter, would complete all that Jesus had established, which, like holy seeds, needed to be watered by power from on high in order to germinate.

The Church, having a profound sense of divine things, celebrates the feast of the Eucharist soon after the solemnity of Pentecost, intertwining in the liturgy the mysteries that are intertwined in the designs of God….

Someone has said that a single surge of either love or of suffering can save the world; the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist envelop the world in those two waves because the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist both come from Calvary and they extend upon the earth the empire of the cross formed with love and suffering.

Servant of God Luis María Martínez