Today we celebrate “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ,” better known as Corpus Christi. The Body and Blood of Jesus, the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it’s one of my favorite subjects to talk about, it’s the primary reason I became a Catholic priest.

 

I feel like I’ve covered it from lots of different angles in my five years here, but since yesterday was the memorial of Saint Justin, a famous 2nd Century Martyr, I am going to try to cover it from his perspective, which I believe has a lot of value.

 

Justin was born around the year 100, so in theory, he may have met people who knew the Apostles, disciples of the Apostles like Ignatius of Antioch or Polycarp, but more than likely he met their disciples, so just a few generations removed from Jesus.

 

Justin was educated in philosophy, which back then was a real luxury, and would have put him in the top 5% in the society, and he left us three writings which you can still read today.  In them he described himself as an “Eclectic,” learning many different philosophies, but not much about God with the first teachers whom he followed.  Then one day, as he was walking along the seashore, Justin met a mysterious old man and had a long conversation. 

 

The conclusion of their long discussion was that the soul could not arrive through human knowledge at the idea of God, but that it needed to be instructed by the Prophets who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had known God and could make Him known (“Dialogue with the Jew Tryphon”, 3, 7).  

 

This sent Justin into a deep dive into Christianity, and remember, at that time it was illegal to be a Christian, a crime that carried a death penalty, but despite that, there were two aspects of Christianity that most strongly influenced St. Justin - he was moved by its moral beauty (1st Apology, 14), in the by its truth (Dialogue).  Moral Beauty and Truth.

 

Through those he came to believe that Christianity was the right way to live and despite the risks, he became a Christian in the year 130. At the end of his writing known as his first Apology (65-67), he gives a detailed descriptions of Christian Worship, the Eucharist, and the Sunday observance. 

 

I don’t have time to read it all, but I’d like to read a bit of it,* …in my homily last night I read a whole section which talked about the structure of the Mass, which the elements are still here, the Readings, the Creed, the Universal Prayer, the Sign of Peace, the Wine mixed with Water, the Eucharistic Prayer, the Great Amen, pretty amazing, so if you are following along in the printed text, skip five paragraphs. 

 

Justin goes into the Eucharist saying: And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

 

So Justin is saying there that to receive the Eucharist a person must be baptized and believe in the teachings of the Church.  He goes on:

 

For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. (66)

 

Justin wrote this in the year 155, saying the Eucharist “is the flesh and blood of Jesus.” For me, learning that belief in the True Presence has been professed continually since the time of Jesus was really important in order for me to believe it too and wholeheartedly return to the practice of my faith.

 

In another writing, the “Dialogue” (117; cf. 41) Justin completes this doctrine by the idea of a Eucharistic sacrifice as a memorial of the Passion.  Worship is not complete without a Sacrifice. 

 

And when we think of a Sacrifice, like the ultimate sacrifice, we should think of Jesus on the Cross, our High Priest who made the ultimate Sacrifice in His Passion, aka His suffering and death on the Cross, the innocent lamb who was slain for the forgiveness of our sins.  At Mass we are transported in space and time back to that sacrifice on Calvary.

 

Now when Jews celebrate the Passover, it is a memorial or a remembering of when God freed them from Egypt.  Christians remember being freed from our sins so this Mass is a memorial or a remembering of the Passion of Christ for us, but they remember being freed from Egypt.  But the Jewish Passover memorial has a very striking similarity to Christianity that Justin brought to light.

 

St. Justin the Martyr, who actually grew up in the second century in Northern Israel and Syria, had witnessed Jewish Passovers - the Samaritans, for example, are still doing it up to today - he describes it and this is how Justin says the Jews prepared their lambs:

 

For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of a cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.

 

Now the first time I read that (in Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre) it really blew me away, the idea that of the tens of thousands of Passover lambs sacrificed on Holy Thursday, on the day the Eucharist was instituted, they would all be spitted, they would all be roasted in the form of a cross. 

 

So, looking at today’s Gospel, imagine Peter and John, they are going up into the city, and what would they have seen? They would have seen men coming out of the Temple with lambs on their shoulders elevated and spitted in the form of a cross. In other words, they would have seen lambs being crucified before being eaten as the Passover lamb. 

 

It is a powerful sign, a powerful foreshadowing that we learn about from Jewish tradition of the fact that, from the beginning, God has the crucifixion in mind, God has the cross in mind, that the Passover lamb and all the sacrifice and all the blood and everything associated with it at the time of the Exodus which we heard in our first reading is really just a shadow of what is going to be accomplished on Calvary on Good Friday. 

 

Jesus Himself would have seen all these crucified lambs coming out of the Temple as He went up to the Passover every year, and in a sense foreseeing a shadow of His own passion and His own death on Calvary.  

 

Things like this really bring everything together for me and help solidify my belief. Our faith is so rich when we dig in and learn, and we learn that it is so true.

 

It’s so true that Justin, ten years after writing his first “Apology” - which is really just a word that means “Defense,” right, Justin was trying to “defend” the Christian faith - so in the year 165 he got put on trial for being a Christian, where he made another defense. 

 

He refused to worship the Roman pagan “gods,” and they put Justin to death along with six other people, by beheading them.

 

That was when Justin became a “martyr” for the faith, which is another word for “witness.” Martyr equals witness.  People won’t willingly die for a lie, but they are more likely to die to defend the truth.

 

We become witnesses when we believe in the truth of anything.  This goes back to my homily two weeks ago on Pentecost, we are “on fire” for those things we believe so strongly in, St. Justin clearly believed, we all need to get there with our belief in Jesus too, that it would be so strong that we would willingly die for our faith as well, on fire with the Holy Spirit and the love of God, witnesses to God’s love…

 

One final thing, one super subtle liturgy thing that I’ve wanted to address but have been waiting for the right time… have you noticed that I changed my posture over the last year or so, when praying the Eucharistic Prayers?  I used to hold my hands out pretty wide, like Jesus extended His arms on the cross, but I have shifted them to be more vertical…

 

Well, the reason is, what I learned from a brother priest is that they are supposed to be more vertical because it is like us swearing an oath, or like if we are going on the witness stand at a trial, I don’t even know if they do this anymore, but people place one hand on the Bible and the other in the air, swearing by Almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…

 

Well this is me saying I believe this, I am swearing that I believe in the truth of this like I’m on trial, I’m swearing that Jesus is truly present yes, but I believe the truth of everything our faith professes, and I am re-entering this covenant relationship with God on behalf of everyone here in this Passover feast, much like Moses, and then everyone here participates.  

 

And thankfully, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus into our mouths, instead of having “the blood of goats and calves” sprinkled on us like Moses had to do with the first covenant.  This Mass is a renewal of the New Covenant made with the unblemished blood of Jesus Christ, but it is done in an unbloody way, thankfully.

 

So, as you receive the Eucharist, recommit to your covenant promise to God, and ask for the grace and strength from Jesus to be committed witnesses to our faith in Him and in His Church.