Corpus Christi

Every year on the Feast of Corpus Christi a procession is held. What is Tradition and what is tradition in this event? What is the difference between the two? Would it affect your faith if the tradition part was discontinued?

To the best of my knowledge, the celebration of the Eucharist and the celebration of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi constitutes the Tradition of the Church, while the Eucharistic procession is entirely traditional.

I have hunted – the internet, and the convent library here at Springfield – for information about exactly what is supposed to happen on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and I have not found any single source that clearly delineates the rubrics in this regard. As such, I base my understanding on what I have read in a variety of sources, and what I have observed in the parish of Corpus Christi in Wynberg, Cape Town (where the church is situated in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood).

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is definitely Tradition. It is a solemn ceremony that involves:

1. the exposition of the sacrament;
2. an opening prayer;
3. adoration of the sacrament;
4. censing of the exposed host (while the faithful sing St Thomas Aquinas’ Tantum Ergo);
5. the benediction proper (where the priest holds the monstrance wearing a humeral veil covering his shoulders, arms and hands, and then blesses the faithful with the Blessed Sacrament by tracing the sign of the cross with the monstrance held steadily upright before him); and
6. recitation of the Divine Praises; and
7. the singing of Psalm 117 with the antiphon "Let us adore forever the most holy sacrament" while the priest returns the Blessed Sacrament to the tabernacle.

The small-t tradition, as I understand it, starts with the procession – where the priest carries the monstrance in procession out of the church and around the neighbourhood. Where I have seen this done, the procession is quite elaborate and intricately organised: there is a cross-bearer who walks at the front, followed by altar boys and girls carrying candles, then there are small children carrying baskets of rose petals that they strew on the ground in the path of the blessed sacrament; then there are some members of the choir to keep the hymns going, followed by a burly man with a loudhailer who leads the rosary; behind him are the extraordinary ministers of holy communion, the deacons, the assistant and visiting priests, then the ceremonial canopy that is carried by at least four Knights of Da Gama in full regalia: these cover the priest carrying the monstrance; behind the canopy are more altar servers; more members of the choir; members of the Legion of Mary; members of the CWL; catechists and members of the parish pastoral council; followed by the youth and the rest of the congregation. The procession moves slowly through the neighbourhood and stops twice: each time at a private house belonging to a parishioner, where a special place has been prepared for the monstrance and the priest leads particular prayers before continuing with the procession.

The Tradition of celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi was decreed by Pope Urban IV who published the Bull in 1264 (also granting indulgences for the attendance at Mass and at the Office). Pope Clement V published a new decree in 1311 again ordering the adoption of the feast. Pope John XXII also urged the feast’s observance. The decrees did not mention a procession as a feature of the celebration, and indulgences related to the procession were endowed by Pope Martin V and Pope Eugene IV (in the early-to-mid 1400’s).

At first, I thought that the scrapping of the small-t tradition part would affect my faith by making me a much happier worshipper! But on reflection, I think that what I dislike about the traditional procession is perhaps not even small-t tradition, but the local interpretation of the small-t tradition. So, I’m fine with keeping the procession – but what I would like to see changed is the sentiment or feeling that is expressed during the procession. In my parish, it feels like we are making an almighty show of being proud of our catholicity when we are not being at all universal but quite exclusive. It feels like we are publicly demanding our right to practise our religion, and the loudhailer prayers and voluble singing of hymns is our way of saying “Look at us!! We’re here, we’re Catholic, get used to it”. The militant ranks of worshippers seem to be declaring “I am Catholic, hear me roar!” And so we proceed around the neighbourhood making the sign of the cross in a manner that suggests we are waging a war against the evil that resides in our streets – when most of us have not engaged in dialogue with our neighbours, to find out who they are and what they believe, or to recognise ways in which they embody Christ. I find this uninformed triumphalism quite disconcerting.

Our honouring of the Body and Blood of Christ should always be deeply reverent and respectful. This mystery doesn’t magically make us better or more powerful than any non-Catholics who have the misfortune of living in our neighbourhood.

If keeping the small-t tradition of the procession means that we’re too tempted to hurry through the big-t Tradition of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and don’t really listen to the words of the Tantum Ergo because we can’t wait to get out into the street to throw a tantrum ego, then maybe the procession would be better discontinued. But perhaps I should remember the traditional plea and invoke it on behalf of my fellow parishioners as well as myself: Deus tantum me damnabit. Maybe I do need those indulgences after all!

Pope Benedict XVI in his Angelus address at St Peter’s Square on Sunday 18 June 2006 said, in part:

“Indeed, the Eucharist is the ‘treasure’ of the Church, the precious heritage that her Lord has left to her. And the Church preserves it with the greatest care, celebrating it daily in Holy Mass, adoring it in churches and chapels, administering it to the sick, and as viaticum to those who are on their last journey.

However, this treasure that is destined for the baptized, does not exhaust its radius of action in the context of the Church: the Eucharist is the Lord Jesus who gives himself ‘for the life of the world’ (Jn 6:51). In every time and in every place, he wants to meet human beings and bring them the life of God. And this is not all. The Eucharist also has a cosmic property: the transformation of the bread and the wine into Christ's Body and Blood is in fact the principle of the divinization of creation itself.

For this reason, the Feast of Corpus Christi is characterized particularly by the tradition of carrying the Most Holy Sacrament in procession, an act full of meaning. By carrying the Eucharist through the streets and squares, we desire to immerse the Bread come down from Heaven in our daily lives. We want Jesus to walk where we walk, to live where we live. Our world, our existence, must become his temple.”

I am inspired by this excerpt, and I will strive to be open to the desire to immerse Jesus in my existence, in my relationships, and in the way in which I challenge misunderstandings about Christ and the injustices that arise out of that confusion.

An Interesting Snippet

The Eucharistic procession depicted in Roland Joffé’s 1986 film The Mission has to be one of the most moving scenes that I have seen in cinema. Towards the end of the film, Father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons) leads the singing Guarani people through the Mission territory while they are under attack from the Portuguese colonists. Father Gabriel carries the Blessed Sacrament on high in an ornate monstrance as he walks through the place that his sacrifices and theirs have turned into a sanctuary and a place of learning but which is now being destroyed, declaring by this action faith in God who embodies love and non-violence. Only a few women and children escape the massacre that ensues, and they flee into the jungle, taking with them only Father Gabriel’s memory and teaching.

Fun Fact: Fr Daniel Berrigan SJ, the American poet and peace activist appeared briefly in the film, as an incidental character called Sebastian. Go, Jesuits!!