June 8, 2026
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) on June 7, 2026 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; and John 6:51-58.
Today, on this Solemnity of Corpus Christi, our first reading and our gospel have been chosen to emphasize our belief that Jesus Christ is truly present — body, blood, soul, and divinity — in the consecrated bread and wine. In the first reading, Moses recalls to the Israelites how God provided for them during their 40 years in the desert through the miraculous manna, the bread that came down from heaven every night for the people to gather the next morning to eat. In the gospel, Jesus explains that he himself is the living Bread that came down from heaven.
In our time of scientific reasoning, some of us can struggle to believe that Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine. But the early Christians accepted it. In fact, it is Paul in our second reading who challenges the early Christians to understand that there is also a mystical, metaphorical sense of Christ’s presence, too. We are all part of Christ’s Body by sharing in the one loaf.
As we continue confronting the forces within us and outside of us that desire to divide us, we ask for God’s mercy.
Lord Jesus, you are the bread sent down from heaven. Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you feed us with your Body and Blood. Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you bind us as one into your mystical body. Lord, have mercy.
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and lead us into everlasting life. Amen.
So much misunderstanding. The ancient Israelites, within a few days of escaping Egypt, were complaining to Moses and God. “Why did you lead us into the desert? The food was so good back in Egypt.” Forget about the whole being enslaved in captivity for generations. And gathering up the manna every day was a drag. Lots of labor, same food, day after day after day. Forget about the fact that it was a miracle, or that the reason they were stuck wandering in the desert for 40 years was that when God instructed them to enter the Land of Canaan during the first year, they didn’t trust that God would protect them.
So much misunderstanding. When Jesus told the people who saw him multiply the fish and the loaves that he was the bread of life come down from heaven, they didn’t believe him. And they didn’t appreciate the irony of how they were repeating the sins of their Israelite ancestors: “Thanks for the miracle, Jesus, but what have you done for us lately?”
So much misunderstanding. Some of the first Corinthian Christians believed that once they were baptized, they were unconditionally saved, so none of their later actions would matter for their salvation. Paul is forced to write back to the Corinthians to chastise them about all the terrible things they are doing to each other. If you’re baptized, says Paul, you have an obligation to one another; it’s not that you have free license to do whatever you want.
So. Much. Misunderstanding.
As we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary, I hope we’re not misunderstanding things in the same kinds of ways. We should proudly celebrate our values of freedom and independence, but let’s make sure we’re celebrating them in the best of the Judeo-Christian understandings of those terms.
In moral theology, freedom is not the ability to do whatever one wants, regardless of the consequences. Freedom is actually having the capacity to choose to do the morally right thing. As Paul said, freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that you get to do whatever you want; freedom in Christ gives you the gifts of the Holy Spirit — wisdom, knowledge, piety, courage, etc. — those gifts are given to us so that we can choose to do the right thing.
Two weeks ago, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, I spoke about how St. Paul’s analogy of the body was a deliberate inversion of a famous allegory written 500 years earlier. The point of the original allegory was that some parts of the body were more important than others, and those who were less important should shut up and accept their lot in life. Those who are the pinky toes in the body politic should accept that they live to serve the brain. But Paul says no, we are interdependent: all parts of the body rely on all the other parts.
Today, we heard both the first and the last accounts in the Bible about the Eucharist. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians predates the writing of any of the gospels. He recounts Jesus instituting the Last Supper because he is angry with the Corinthians. The rich Corinthian Christians are treating the poor ones with such contempt, even though they are all members of Christ’s mystical body. How can the rich Corinthians be comfortable consuming the physical body of Christ, when they have just profaned Christ’s mystical body by mistreating the poor Corinthians?
John’s “Bread of Life” discourse was written decades later, reinforcing to Christian believers that the act of coming forward to consume the Eucharist is an act of belief, an act of covenant.
As we approach the 250th birthday of our country, let’s recall the values of another nation, the nation of ancient Israel 3,000 years ago. It was very different from the modern United States. It was a monarchical theocracy, populated by a people of remarkable religious and ethnic homogeneity. Even that nation had many laws dictating that everyone was obligated to care for widows, orphans, and aliens living within their borders.
So, four weeks before the Fourth of July, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi invites us to make a declaration, a covenant of INTERdependence. As much as we want to delude ourselves into thinking we can be independent from other people, God intends for us to rely upon one another. I have a few questions for each of us to contemplate:
- What do we have in abundance? How are we blessed?
- What is scarce in our lives? How are we impoverished?
- What does God invite us to share?
- What does God invite us to receive from others?
St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “[T]hough [Christ] was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich…. [Y]our abundance at the present time should supply [the] needs [of those who are burdened], so that their abundance may also supply your needs.”
None of us are God. All of us depend on others to carry what we cannot lift ourselves. As we fortify ourselves with the Eucharist, God invites us to fortify one another with our abundances whenever and however we can.