The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the feast of the Real and enduring Presence of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Most Holy Eucharist, is a critically significant celebration for us.  Because this truth is an enormously important part of the whole Catholic way of thinking.  Every major religion in the world has doctrines; every major religion has philosophical principles; every major religion has standards of morality and behavior; every major religion has experiences of worship and prayer.  We have those things too, and they are good and indispensable and important.  But we also have a gift in our Catholic Church which is uncommon, extraordinary, majestic, almost unthinkably wonderful.  We have the real, enduring, irrevocable, substantial presence of Our God in our midst, every day, in every single Church, at every single Mass: hidden in humility, clothed in the humble appearances of bread and wine, even at this very moment, honored and protected by those white curtains and the gold doors which are behind them: is Our God, Himself: really, truly, substantially.  It’s really him.  It’s really him. 

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord promised to remain with us until the end of time.  And he does that in several ways: he remains with us through the Holy Spirit, he remains with us in his Sacred Word, he remains with us in the community of faithful believers.  But there’s a way that he remains with us that is different: a way that is substantial, material, tangible, visible.  Christ is still with us.  In the Most Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood. 

There are some non-Catholic theories of church history which split everything up into three eras corresponding with the three persons of the Trinity: this fairly common theory would say that everything up through the Old Testament was the era of the Father; the time of the New Testament itself was the era of the Son; and everything after Pentecost has been the era of the Holy Spirit.  But that’s wrong.  Because we are still in the era of the Son.  He is still here.  And not just in a metaphorical or symbolic or spiritual sense.  Our doctrine of the Holy Eucharist is that he is here, really, substantially, his Body and his Blood, and his Soul, and his Divinity.  And because you can’t split up the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit are here too.  We live in the era of God being in the world, God being accessible to us, God being visible to us.  And we have the opportunity to be with him every single time we come to Mass, every single time we set foot in a Church.  When we see that little red flame burning in front of a tabernacle, here or in any Catholic Church, we should be filled with love, reverence, worship, and gratitude.  Because of what that little flame reminds us, about the truth of what is inside the tabernacle, or I should say, who is inside the tabernacle.  Christ is here.  He is in the world.  He is in the Church.  He has not left us alone.  He will let us sit quietly with him; he will let us worship and adore him face to face; he will give us himself as the bread of life and food of our salvation.  And so, we bend the knee before him in worship and thanksgiving, today and every day of our lives.