Corpus Christi – Latin for ‘the body of Christ’.
The real presence of God under the form of bread and wine? The ‘Bread of Life’ as food to sustain us into eternity? What is this gift that the Catholic Church celebrates? And is it more than gift? Where does it take us?
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
What are we to make of this mystery?
Is it the gift of God Himself sore present,
Received in faith, foretaste of eternity?
Is it then gift, immense gift for all that,
Or does it bring task and responsibility?
Spotlighting how we’re to live as brothers,
In the greater body of the community?
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Does it take us to the wretched poor?
Do we see them in His broken body:
Their powerlessness and vulnerability?
The have-nevers, and the haves’ shoddy
Response: too little, too late, as they
Feed their greed from earth’s bounty,
Their neighbours’ hopes flat as the Host,
All the long while, pretending not to see.
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Does it take us to the starving masses,
For whom ‘bread of life’ means nothing,
But bread for life is a dream too far?
Where loving parents stare, agonising
Over survival of children or themselves,
One lost without the other, no sacrificing
Solves their dire dilemma, and a wafer
Might even nourish another day’s living.
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Does it take us to the stranger among us?
The foreign folk trying to make a living in
Another land, far from family and friends,
Fearful of cruel taunts and never fitting in,
As they clean our toilets and gut our fish,
And loud locals moan of job opps being thin?
Are our eyes opened at the bread’s breaking,
To see Love that reaches far beyond our kin?
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Does it take us through the sham tabernacle
Veil of popular correctness, to the grim
Slaughtering of the innocent’s tiny body,
The slogan’d choice to terminate them,
Who are alive, with potency enfleshed:
Future Einsteins, Mozarts, and dustbin men?
Small sacred life placed in our very hands,
That we might receive them in trust – amen.
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?
Does it take us… to care for Jesus’ least?
The inadequate, the marginalised; those
Who live lives of quiet desperation, with
No great hopes to address so many woes.
Yet whose care is love’s very touchstone.
What is it that Holy Communion bestows:
Heavenly manna, the ultimate power food?
To strengthen us to better serve our fellows?
Where does the Body of Christ take us?
When all is said and done,
Is it merely hocus-pocus?