The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Background – What’s in a name or A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. 

Since at least the 13^th century this feast day was entitled Corpus Christi, simply translated, that would be the Body of Christ.  The present title, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is the wording chosen by the editors of the most recent, 2011, edition of the Roman Missal.  Changes such as this one, for whatever reason, have become the source of conversation,  if not consternation.  As I have mentioned elsewhere, people tend to fall into three groups, they are attracted to the new wording [it would be a mistake in this case to say the new translation], others are repulsed by it, and still others say what’s the big deal, it’s only words.  There maybe other responses too.  How does this change in the title of the Sunday liturgy strike you?

I noticed, for example, that the word “Solemnity” has been added to the previous two feast days.  Thus the Ascension has become the Solemnity of the Ascension and Holy Trinity Sunday has become the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Roman missal has introduced many other “word” changes, the smallest portion being those that the community now says during the liturgy, whereas the dominant changes are those that priest prays during the liturgy or can no longer pray because they have been deleted.

The critical question, though, has little to do with change.  Change in and of itself is inevitable.  What matters is the direction of the change.  There are three basic directions that the concrete and particular personal, social, and cultural changes can take.  The direction can be that of development, progress, building on what is good and making it better; or the direction can be that of decline, disintegration, tearing down what is good and making it worse; and finally the direction can be that of reversal, bringing good out of what is bad, absorbing the bad so to limit its negative impact.

All of this from the fact of a few word changes to the title of this Sunday’s celebration.  Of course, I haven’t given expression to what direction I think the changes are a manifestation of.  The best clue to your own assessment is your emotional reaction.  How do you literally feel about these changes?  Keep in mind though that the most significant changes are not changes to the wording of the community but those that are the responsibility of the priest leader and some of those changes are the deletion of what he previous could pray.  It’s only with a grasp of those changes could a balanced response be given to the direction the changes are heading toward.  Right now let suffice for us to deal with ourselves.  The challenge as always is for you to rise to the level of your times; is there a challenge!

If you need to recall what you used to say and compare  them to what your are now saying / praying, this offers a comparison chart, http://www.strobert.com/PDF/assembly.pdf.  By the way do you have the same emotional reaction to each change, to some of the changes only, to change itself?

The Next Post

There will be more background and some thoughts on celebrating Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ in the next post.