Carlos J. Gallardo, a diocesan priest in Córdoba, Spain, offers Exaudi readers this article on the Feast of Corpus Christi.

At the end of the Easter season, the Church celebrates a series of celebrations that concretely express the entire mystery of Christ. One of these celebrations is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord.

We can affirm that this is one of the most deeply rooted feasts among the faithful. Our attention is focused on the person of Jesus Christ, who, out of love, chose to remain with us, to share our existence even after His resurrection and ascension to heaven. He desires, even if only sacramentally, to live among us all. The same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, who lived hidden in Nazareth, who walked the dusty roads of Jerusalem. The same Jesus who met the Samaritan woman and Zacchaeus. The same Jesus who healed the man born blind or the leper. The Jesus of merciful love who forgave the adulterous woman, or chose to eat with tax collectors and sinners. That Jesus who conquered fear in the night of betrayal and pain. That Jesus was crucified and resurrected on the third day… that same Jesus is the one who appears under the appearance of bread and wine.

His entire Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity are hidden in the bread and wine. He lives and pulsates with love for each of us, for you in particular, in the tabernacle. Therefore, the feast of Corpus Christi is the feast of a love that never passes away, a love that endures; it is the feast of Jesus’ presence.

This truth of faith has always remained in the Church’s conscience. But historically, there is an event that makes the Church desire to emphasize this truth of faith with a specific solemnity within the celebrations of the liturgical year.

How does it all come about?

At the end of the 13th century, a Eucharistic Movement emerged in Liège, Belgium, centered on the Abbey of Cornillon, founded in 1124 by Bishop Albero of Liège. This movement promoted, among other customs, the exposition and blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, the use of bells during the Elevation of the Eucharist at Mass, and the feast of Corpus Christi.

Saint Juliana of Mont Cornillon, prioress of the Abbey at that time, was the soul chosen by God to propitiate this feast. The saint was born in Retines, near Liège, Belgium, in 1193. Orphaned at a very young age, she was raised by the Augustinian nuns at Mont Cornillon. She later made her religious profession. In time, she was elected superior of her community. She died on April 5, 1258, in the house of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses.

From a young age, Saint Juliana had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament. She longed for a special feast in her honor in the Church. This desire grew when she received a revelation in which she saw a black spot in the Church, under the appearance of a full moon, signifying the absence of this solemnity.

Juliana communicated these apparitions to Monsignor Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège, also to the learned Dominican Hugh, later Cardinal Legate of the Netherlands, and to Jacques Pantaleon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, later Pope Urban IV.

Bishop Robert ordered the celebration of this feast for his diocese. The Pope asked a monk named John to write the office for this feast.

Later, a German bishop learned of the custom and spread it throughout present-day Germany. It became customary to celebrate it on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, although in some countries it was later celebrated on Sunday.

At the same time, Pope Urban IV learned that a miracle we call the Eucharist had occurred in Bolsena in 1263. A priest celebrating Mass doubted that the Consecration was real. When the time came to break the Sacred Host, blood flowed out and soaked the corporal. This relic was carried in procession to Orvieto on June 19, 1264, where the Pope was with his court.

The Holy Father, edified and filled with devotion by this miracle, and also at the request of several bishops, extended the feast of Corpus Christi to the entire Church by means of the bull  Transiturus  of September 8 of the same year, setting it for the Thursday after the octave of Pentecost.

There is a tradition that tells how Pope Urban IV commissioned an Office for the Liturgy of the Hours from Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas. When the Pope began to read aloud Saint Thomas’s Office, Saint Bonaventure tore his own Office to pieces.

Over the centuries, this feast has become increasingly entrenched in the life of the Church. Many saints have encouraged this celebration and inflamed the hearts of the faithful with a fervent love for the Eucharist.

Living the solemnity

And how can we prepare ourselves today to celebrate this solemnity full of faith? Simply by performing three actions:

Act of faith: Awaken our faith before the mystery of Christ, living and present in the tabernacle. Adore the God hidden beneath the Eucharistic species, venerate them with profound respect.

An act of hope: Knowing that this food we receive, which we partake of in Communion, is nourishment for the journey toward eternal life. Each Eucharist is a “pledge” from heaven. Heaven unites with earth at the altar, and we are now nourished by the “bread of angels,” the bread that has the taste of eternal life.

Act of charity: Let us think a lot about Jesus’ love for each of us, for all humanity, for me… and contemplating his love should move us to greater love. Let us desire to love him with all our being, with all our lives, for he is waiting for me in the tabernacle and understands only love.

Let us, therefore, live this feast full of faith, hope, and love, and feel how Jesus always fulfills his promises and tells us: “I will be with you always, until the end of time.”