From the Passover Seder to the Corpus Christi Feast
Corpus Christi is a moveable feast, celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, 60 days after Easter.
Corpus Christi a.k.a. “Maundy Thursday” initiates the Paschal Triduum, the period which commemorates the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This period includes Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and ends on the evening of Easter Sunday. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper a.k.a. “Maundy Thursday” is normally celebrated in the evening, when Friday begins according to Jewish tradition, as the Last Supper was held on the feast of Passover, according to the three Synoptic Gospels.Corpus Christi is a Western Catholic feast held every year on the second Thursday after Pentecost.
As we have discussed before when we talked about the events that took place in Jerusalem on “Easter” week. Jesus who was a Jewish preacher and religious leader, went to Jerusalem to celebrate “Passover” on a Sunday [a.k.a. Palm Sunday] when he was welcomed by the Jewish community. Please refer to “Easter 2023, on April 9th, from a Historical Point of View.”
Corpus Christi is a moveable feast, celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, 60 days after Easter.
From the Passover Seder to the Corpus Christi Feast
According to the Catholic faith, the unleavened bread and wine that Jesus shared with his apostles during that “Passover” Seder became the “Body and Blood” of Christ, known as the Eucharist, a feast of communion. The principal element of the liturgy of the Catholic mass, Corpus Christi is indeed the Latin term for body of Christ.
This day honors the Real Presence of Christ in the communion a.k.a. Eucharist. It does not commemorate an event in the life of Jesus or Mary. Instead, it is dedicated to a fundamental creed of Catholicism — Jesus’ sacramental presence in the consecrated bread and wine.
The Origin of the Celebrations Feast of Corpus Christi
The festival was inspired by the religious experience of St Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, (1193-1258), a Belgian nun, who dreamed repeatedly of the Church under a full moon with a black spot. The dream was interpreted to her in a vision by Christ. The moon, she said, was the Church’s calendar of festivals and the black spot was the lack of a festival to celebrate the holiest element of the Church – the Eucharist.
Juliana shared this with her local bishop, who in 1246 issued a decree for such a festival to be celebrated in his territory.Corpus Christi was made an obligatory feast for Roman Catholics by Pope Clement V in 1311 at the Council of Vienne. Corpus Christi was celebrated in England from 1318 on wards.
Celebrations of Corpus Christi around the world.
Some people, children in particularly, may celebrate their first Communion on this day accepting bread and wine in memory of the body and blood of Christ, and most communities have a procession displaying the
Blessed Sacrament in the container known as monstrance that holds the Holy Eucharist.
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