Feast of Corpus Christi

The Papal Brief of Pope Urban IV on the insitution of the feast of Corpus Christi - Some of the most beautiful words written on the blessed Sacrament.

Pope Urban IV – Papal Brief on the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi .

Servant of the Servants of God, to our Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Archbishops, and other Prelates of the Church.

When our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, ere He left the world and returned to His Father, ate, on the eve of His passion, the Last Supper with His disciples, He instituted the Most Holy and precious Sacrament of His Body and Blood, in which He gave us the former

for our food and the latter for our drink ; ' for as often as we eat of this bread and drink of this chalice, we show the death of our Lord. At the institution of this mystery, He said to His Apostles: 'Do this commemoration of Me? giving them to understand that the great and adorable Sacrament, which He then instituted, was the greatest and most excellent remembrance of His infinite love towards us ; an admirable, agreeable, sweet, secure, and supremely excellent remembrance, in which all the benefits of God are renewed,

above all comprehension, in which we can find every pleasure, every sweetness and the most secure pledge of eternal life. It is the sweetest, holiest, and most salutary remembrance, which recalls to our mind the great grace of our Redemption, which keeps us from evil and strengthens us in good, which promotes our advancement in virtue and grace, our divine Saviour producing in us all these effects by His real presence.

The other mysteries which the Church reveres, we adore in spirit and in truth, but in none of them do we enjoy the real presence thereof. It is only in the commemoration of the Last Supper that Jesus Christ is truly present and truly with us. When He ascended into heaven, He said to His apostles and disciples: Behold I will be with you unto the end of the world. He said this in order to console them for His absence, and to assure them that He would always remain ever corporally in their midst. O worthy and ever adorable remembrance, which reminds us that death has lost its sting, and that we are saved from ruin, since the living Body of the Lord, which was raised upon the wood of the Cross, has restored life to us. It is a most glorious remembrance, which fills the faithful with salutary joy, and causes them, in the effusion of their joy, to weep tears of thanksgiving. We exult at the remembrance of our Redemption, and, because it reminds us of the death of Jesus, Who purchased us, we cannot restrain our tears. Over this mystery, which prepares joy for us and elicits our tears, we rejoice weepingly and weep joyfully, because our hearts are entranced with joy at the remembrance of so great a benefit, and, in the sense of the most just gratitude which we owe it, we cannot refrain from tears. O infinite, divine love ! O exceedingly great condescension of our God ! O astounding miracle of His liberality ! Not enough to make us masters of the goods of this world, He even places all creatures at our command. This was not even enough for His goodness to us. He raised man to so great a dignity, as to give him Angels to guard him, and celestial spirits to serve him, and to guide the elect to the possession of the inheritance which is prepared for them in heaven.

"After so many brilliant proofs of His munificence, He has given us a still greater pledge of His unspeakable charity, by bestowing Himself oh us. Exceeding the very fulness of His gifts, and the very measure of His love, He offers Himself for our food and drink.

O sublime and admirable liberality, in which the Giver is the Gift, and the Gift is the very one Who gives !

O unexampled liberality, by which He gives Himself! Our God has given Himself to be our food, because man, condemned to death, as he is, can be restored to life by this means only. By eating the forbidden fruit he incurred death, and by partaking of the tree of life, he has been redeemed. In the former was the sting of death, in the latter the food of life. By eating the former he inflicted a wound upon himself, by eating of the latter he recovered health. Thus the partaking of the one food wounded him, the partaking of the other healed him. Wound and cure proceed from the same source, and what entailed death upon us has restored us to life. Of the former it is said :

' On the day on which you shall eat thereof, you shall die the death;' and of the latter, i He that eats of this bread shall live for ever/ O substantial food, which perfectly satisfies and truly nourishes, not the body, but the heart ; not the flesh, but the soul !

" Our compassionate Redeemer, Who knew that man needed spiritual nourishment, has, in this institution of charity and mercy, prepared for his soul the most precious and most nourishing food that His wisdom could devise. Neither could any work have been better befitting the Divine liberality and charity, than that the Eternal Word of God, Who is the real food, and the real repast of the reasonable creature, should, after He was made flesh, give Himself to flesh and blood, that is to say, to man, for his nourishment. Man has eaten the bread of Angels, and, therefore, our Lord said:

' My flesh is meat indeed ! ' This divine bread is eaten, but it is not changed, because it assumes no other form in him who eats It. It transforms the worthy receiver into Him Whom it contains. O most excellent, most adorable, and most venerable Sacrament, to which we can never give adequate praise, honor and glory, and whose benefits we can never justly extol ! O Sacrament, which is worthy of being revered from, the bottom of the heart, loved with the most tender and fervent affection, and of being deeply engraved upon our memory in indelible characters ! O most precious remembrance, which ought to be made known and exalted in all places, which all Christians ought ever to remember with feelings of the deepest gratitude, which we can never sufficiently meditate upon, or ever sufficiently worship. We are, therefore, bound to cherish a perpetual remembrance of it, so that we may constantly have Him before our eyes, Who offers this inestimable benefit to us. For the more we consider the gift, the more we prize Him who bestows It.

Although we daily commemorate this benefit in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, yet, we think it just that, in order to confound the infidelity and madness of heretics, we should solemnize, at least once in the year, and celebrate a feast, in Its honor, with the greatest pomp and magnificence possible. On the day on which Jesus Christ instituted this Sacrament, the Church is occupied with the reconciliation of sinners, the blessing of the holy oils, the washing of the feet, and other mysteries. Wherefore, sufficient time is not left to honor this most sublime Sacrament, and thus it becomes necessary to appoint another day for this end. Finally, it is the custom of the Church to devote particular days for the veneration of her saints; although she daily honors them by prayers, litanies, in the Mass, etc., as also on other occasions. But, since on these days, Christians often do not comply with their duties towards the saints, either through negligence or press of domestic affairs ; or, from human weakness, our Mother, the Holy Church, has appointed a certain day for the general commemoration of all the saints, so that by this solemnity the omissions which may, perchance, have occurred, may be repaired. Now, if this has already been introduced into the Church, how much more are we not bound to do the same with regard to the lifegiving Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Who is the glory and the crown of all the saints.

We shall then be enabled to repair and make up for our want of devotion, and other defects which we may have had in hearing Mass, and ask our Lord's pardon for the same. And, indeed, at the time when our dignity was not so elevated as it now is, we learned how the Lord revealed to some few Catholics that the feast of Corpus Christi was to be celebrated throughout the whole Church. Therefore, in order to strengthen and exalt the true faith, we have thought it just and reasonable to ordain that, besides the commemoration which the Church daily makes of this Holy Sacrament, a particular festival shall be celebrated every year, on a certain day, namely, on the fifth day of the week after the octave of Pentecost, on which day pious people will vie with each other to hasten in great crowds to our churches, where the clergy and laity will send forth their holy hymns of joy and praise. On this memorable day, faith shall triumph, hope be enhanced, charity shall shine, piety shall exult, our temples shall re-echo with hymns of exultation, and pure souls shall tremble with holy joy. On this day of devotion, all the faithful shall hasten to our churches with joyful hearts, to discharge their obligations with unlimited obedience, and thus, in a worthy manner, celebrate this great feast. May the Lord vouchsafe to inflame them with so holy a zeal, that, by the exercise of their piety towards Him Who has redeemed them, they may increase in merit, and that He may also give Himself to them in this life for their food.

May this God likewise be their reward in the other world. We, therefore, inform and exhort you, in the name of the Lord, and through these apostolic letters, we command you, in virtue of holy obedience, and enjoin upon you to have, every year, on the abovenamed fifth day of the week, this so glorious and praiseworthy feast celebrated in all the Churches and places of your diocese. Moreover, we command you to exhort, yourself and through others, those under your charge, so to prepare themselves, the Sunday before, by a' perfect and sincere confession, by alms, prayers and other good works, which are suitable to this day of the Most Blessed Sacrament, that they may reverently partake of the same, and by this means receive an increase of grace. And as We also desire to stimulate, by Spiritual gifts, the faithful, to the celebration and veneration of this feast, We grant to him or her, who, truly penitent, confessing his or her sins, attends the morning service or vespers of the day, one hundred days' Indulgence ; and to him or her who is present at Prime, Tierce, Sext, None and Complin, forty days for each of these hours.

Finally, relying upon the merciful Omnipotence of God, and trusting in the Authority of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, We remit to him or her, who, during this Octave, shall be present at the morning service, Vespers and Mass, one hundred days of penance imposed upon them.

- Taken from the work, 'The blessed Eucharist, Our greatest treasure' by Fr. Michael Muller.