Corpus Christi / Anglican Communion Sunday

In two of today's readings (I Cor. 11: 23-29 and John 6: 47-58), we encounter Saint Paul warning of the serious importance of discerning the Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and Jesus offering an extended sermon on his Real Presence under the appearances of bread and wine.

Such belief has never been questioned in the Oriental Church, and was not called into question in the Western Church until the twelfth century.  In response to inchoate heresy, Saints, scholars and ordinary faithful rose up to defend eucharistic faith.  Coming out of that disturbance in the force, a mystical nun named Julianna in the following century had a vision in which she saw a bright moon and a black dot on its face.  She discerned that the moon was the panoply of beautiful feasts in the Church's annual cycle and the black dot was the failure to dedicate a special feast to Christ's sacred Presence in the Eucharist.  As a result of her efforts, the Church began to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) on the Thursday or Sunday following Trinity Sunday.

The central ritual of the Church whereby we celebrate who we are and receive empowerment goes back to the "Lord's Supper."  There Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, declared it his Body, and gave it out.  Then he took wine, blessed it, declared it his Blood, and gave it out.  Then he ordained his successors to repeat the ritual forever: "Do this as a memorial of me."

Belief in Christ's abiding real presence at Mass is a core Catholic belief.  It is held in the three great branches of the historic Church:  Roman, Anglican (Episcopal), and Orthodox.  That Church is served by bishops, priests and deacons in apostolic succession.  It holds to Catholic Faith which may be defined as the faith coming down from the apostles, reflected in Scripture, clarified by seven true Ecumenical Councils, and summed up in the Creeds.

Moreover, the Anglican expression grew out of a constitutional reformation in England focused on ending papal tyranny in the Kingdom. but not interested in joining the continental reformation in discarding the faith, doctrine, discipline, and worship of the ancient Church.  Thus the English retained Catholic Faith, reformed things that really needed reform (like clerical celibacy and the denial of the Chalice to lay people).  The result was a Communion which was Catholic, reformed, and inclusive, cutting across lines of theological and liturgical preference, and discerning God's revelation through Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.  In time we developed into a worldwide association of thirty-eight national churches and affiliated bodies, comprising eighty-five million Christians.