Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ/B
Massimo Palombella
On 11 August 1264, in Orvieto, Pope Urban IV with the bull ‘Transiturus de hoc mundo’ (When he was about to pass from this world) extended the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ to the whole Church (the previous year there was the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena) entrusting Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) – at that time resident in Orvieto – with the composition of the texts of the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass. The construction of the Cathedral of Orvieto (started in 1290 by Pope Nicholas IV to give worthy location to the Corporal of the Miracle of Bolsena) has its origin precisely in the institution of this Solemnity.
Only in Christianity can we encounter God through historical signs (water, wine, bread, oil…). Signs that are ‘fragile’ because they are vulnerable, subject to wear and tear, ageing…. The same condition in which the Son of God made man found himself.
In that bread that can become inedible and in that wine that can turn to vinegar there is all our fragility, our limitation, our weakness. But that very bread and wine can become the ‘pledge’, the guarantee of our future glory, just as our weaknesses and frailties. If accepted and loved, they can become our greatest asset.
Today’s antiphon to the Magnificat (second Vespers) has the following text attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis eius,
mens impletur gratia
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.”
(O sacred banquet! In which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given. Alleluia).
The attached music is by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), and comes from the Cantiones Sacrae published in 1586 (TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA, Cantiones Sacrae [Dilingæ, Excudebat Ioannes Mayer 1586]). The live performance is by the Musical Chapel of the Duomo of Milan at the Chapter celebration on 26 May 2024.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
