June 7, 2026 Homily: The Eucharist, the Incarnation, and the Wonder of Corpus Christi
Readings and Virtual Homily for June 7, 2026, Corpus Christi Sunday; A Literary Summer; Let the Good Times Roll
:Dear Friends and Family
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16
Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58
The two Sundays after Pentecost celebrate the deepest mysteries of our faith -- the Trinity, last Sunday, and the Incarnation, this. Officially this Sunday is titled the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. More typically, it is referred to as Corpus Christi.
The readings reflect the theme, with the first reading reminding the Israelites that God took care of them in the desert, feeding them with manna, "a food unknown to your ancestors" (vss. 3 and 16). The manna -- "bread from heaven" -- of course prefigures the Eucharist.
The psalm assures us that God fills us "with finest wheat" (vs. 14). Psalm 147 looks to the future; it is, in fact, a prediction of the time of the Church, of the New Jerusalem (vss. 12-14). The Eucharist, heart of Christian worship, does indeed constitute the "finest wheat." In it, God gives us his very self, the body and blood of the God-Man, Jesus of Nazareth.
The passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians is a proof text for us Catholics (and the Orthodox) that the first generation of Christians believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Here are Paul's exact words; they are hard to misconstrue. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (vs. 16). That the first Christians believed Christ was truly present in the Eucharist is attested to by the fact that they were sometimes accused, by their pagan neighbors in the Roman Empire, of conducting "cannibal rites" in their worship services.
The last third or so of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John is known as the Bread of Life Discourse. In these verses and beyond, Jesus repeatedly assures his listeners that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood or they will have "no life" in them. He does not beat about the bush here. He says his flesh is real food and his blood real drink and he says it several times.
Later on in the chapter, Jesus lets those who cannot accept the teaching leave (vss. 66-67). He does not chase after them assuring them that he was speaking metaphorically. He lets them go. He then turns to the apostles and asks if they also will leave him. Peter answers for all Catholics and Orthodox Christians for all time when he says "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (vs. 68).
The Church's understanding of the Real Presence has been clear (both in the Scriptures and in the earliest liturgical documents) from the time of the apostles. It has been repeatedly reinforced, through the writings of theologians going back to the second and third centuries. It has at times been clarified in conciliar documents (most significantly at the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century).
The presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a mystical reality -- but the term mystical must not be thought of as diminishing that reality. Indeed, that which is mystical is, in a manner of speaking, more real than earthly realities. While decidedly NOT a cannibal banquet, the Eucharist is a real "participation" in the body and blood of Christ; it is a mystical union (as in, communion) with the Second Person of the Trinity, through the medium of his body and blood.
As I say, one of the deepest mysteries of the faith.
An emphasis on the Eucharist is entirely appropriate in homilies today, but the feast itself is more than an acknowledgment of sacramental doctrine. Corpus Christi is a celebration of the astonishing reality that lies at the heart of the Christian faith: That God from God and Light from Light, the One through Whom all things were made, became one of us. The Second Person of the Trinity -- human. Human body, human blood, human soul. God partaking of human nature, and in so doing, elevating us, empowering us to become partakers of the Divine nature -- the bread we break, the cup we share, are they not a participation in the body and blood of Jesus, true God and true man?
I could go on. You get the idea. While an emphasis on the Real Presence is entirely appropriate today, we are in fact celebrating something beyond sacramental theology. We are celebrating the fact that God, the Second Person of the Trinity, is one of us.
Wow. I mean, like...WOW. As in Wonder Of Wonders WOW. God. One of us. The Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, that is, Corpus Christi Sunday.
You may remember my hope, at Easter break, of completing a new book -- a hope blown out of the water by an entirely unforeseen set of difficulties surrounding annulment paperwork and an imminent overseas wedding. I rolled with the punch -- not all that graciously, but I rolled with it -- promising myself I would get the new book done this summer.
And I plan to do so. Just as soon as I finish another new book. A brand new book. A novel. A novel that came to me almost as a download, Tuesday evening as I was crossing the front grounds at Moreau (the high school sits adjacent our property here) praying my sunset Rosary. The book came in a flash of insight -- as now and again, a novel will do -- and by late Tuesday night I had fourteen pages of notes on it. By Wednesday noon, as I was heading out to a twentieth anniversary lunch celebration with friends here in the parish, I had twenty pages of notes. This evening (Friday) I am closing on forty. I am talking here notes hand-written in pencil on lined yellow legal pad. I always write a book out first, for fifty, sixty, seventy or more pages, before I start to type it up.
The novel tackles a very current issue -- artificial intelligence -- and does so in a Hollywood milieu, an entertainment world milieu set in Los Angeles thirty years in the future. As the Catholic faith is part of the novel's deep background, I am thinking I better read Leo's recently released encyclical on this subject.
The novel's working title is borrowed from Marilyn Monroe's last (and unfinished) film: SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE. Monday (June 1) was Monroe's centenary; that is, the one hundredth anniversary of her birth. There were a lot of features, articles, photo spreads about MM this week. I looked through a few of them, Monday, Tuesday, while catching up on the news and...I think that is how the Spirit inspired me. AI is aiming at some of the deepest questions the human heart can ask; it gets at what it actually IS, to BE human. My new novel aims to explore some of those questions, from, as I say, a deep Catholic background and within the glitzy milieu of the entertainment world.
So now I am at work on TWO new books this summer -- and check with me at Labor Day, but I plan to have both done by then. Having scored some initial successes at YouTube this past year, we are moving this summer, this fall into book promotion at San Gabriel Media. I want both these new books ready to hit the market, by the end of the year.
I wrapped the last two or three weeks of the spring semester immersed in twentieth anniversary celebrations -- I am splashing into the summer the same way. Was out to dinner in Sacramento Monday evening with seven of the Men from Marysville -- former members of the Marysville youth group. I've had two lunches this week as well, here in the East Bay, marking twenty years as a priest. And on Wednesday our parish school knocked me over with an involved and touching tribute, following the weekly school Mass.
I'm headed to London next week, but it is a short trip and when I return, I have several additional celebrations on my calendar -- and all of this before the big party, here in the parish, in late July. Let the good times roll, I guess. The last time I made any effort to celebrate my anniversary was ten years ago and it will be another five, before I do so again, so...as I say, let the good times roll.
Feeling grateful, as this summer of 2026 gets underway. Hopeful. Joyful. Grateful.
God be praised.
Take good care and God bless.
Love,
Fr. Brawn