"O Sacred Banquet": St. Thomas Aquinas and the Office of Corpus Christi

By Father Nicholas L. Gregoris

Let me share with you the story of two priests. The first priest was a well-known German professor of Sacred Scripture and Augustinian canon, heavily influenced by the culture of his day, who was led to such great doubt and confusion that as he celebrated his first Mass, he stumbled over the words of consecration. That event, among others, unsettled him for the rest of his priestly life, eventually leading him to reject the authority of the Pope, to form his own Church and to reshape the face of Europe. That priest’s name was Martin Luther.

A few centuries earlier, a little-known Italian priest had also experienced great doubts about the doctrine of the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. As the priest was celebrating Mass and pronouncing the words of consecration, his doubts intensified until the host that he held between his consecrated fingers miraculously began to drip blood. The miracle was eventually approved by the Pope and, to celebrate its occurrence, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi was instituted.

The Pope, Urban IV, likewise commissioned the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas to produce the proper Mass prayers, as well as several beautiful hymns, to commemorate the Miracle of Orvieto and to enhance the beauty of the feast of Corpus Christi. It is said that St. Thomas was so devout in his Eucharistic adoration that he composed those prayers and hymns while kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament.

The Office of Corpus Christi is indeed the masterpiece of St. Thomas Aquinas. We are all familiar with the Eucharistic hymns that he composed: the Pange Lingua, which we sing during the transfer of the Holy Eucharist to the altar of repose on Holy Thursday; the Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo, which we customarily sing during Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; the Lauda Sion, which graces today’s Liturgy; and the Panis Angelicus, renditions of which are a favorite at weddings.

Today the Church finds herself at another Eucharistic crossroads. Polls tell us that two-thirds of Catholics who receive Holy Communion each Sunday either do not know or do not fully understand and accept the Church’s teachings on the Most Holy Eucharist. No wonder, then, that sometimes we find consecrated hosts being sold on E-bay and used in so-called “satanic” or “black” masses.

Let me summarize the teaching briefly, quoting directly from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council (Sacrosanctum Concilium):

At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, Our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood, with which to perpetuate throughout the centuries until His return, the sacrifice of the Cross, and to entrust to His beloved Spouse, the Church, the memorial of His Death and Resurrection: sacrament of piety, sign of unity, bond of charity, a Paschal Banquet, “in which Christ is consumed, the memory of His Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.”

The sacred texts composed by St. Thomas Aquinas shed revealing light upon the mystery of the Eucharist to illumine every aspect. When this liturgical day reaches its finale at Second Vespers, the whole ensemble of the Office of Corpus Christi is given incomparably beautiful synthesis in the Magnificat antiphon. That antiphon is a most venerable prayer, cited by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, and commonly known as the O Sacrum Convivium. Permit me to share it with you:

O Sacred Banquet, in which Christ is consumed, the memory of His Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace and a pledge of future glory is given us.

Let’s take a closer look at the profound Eucharistic theology contained in this marvelous prayer the better to appreciate the beauty and significance of this great solemnity of Our Lord. I will conclude by providing ten practical suggestions for implementing this Eucharistic theology in our daily lives. [Ed.: Click here to read Fr. Gregoris’s “Ten Practical Suggestions: Implementing Eucharistic Theology in Our Daily Lives”]

“O sacred banquet in which Christ is consumed.” The Fathers of the Church say that as the Lord God went about to select a food for the soul, all creation passed in review before Him as well as all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Nothing was satisfactory, and therefore He decided upon His own Body and Blood. Indeed, it is Christ Himself who is the food at this sacred banquet.

The Lauda Sion reflects in great length on the mystery of how Christ is broken and consumed in the Eucharistic Banquet. It reads: “When the sacrament is broken, Doubt not, but believe tis’ spoken. That each sever’d outward token doth the very whole contain. Nought the precious gift divides, Breaking but the sign betides Jesus still the same abides, still the unbroken does remain.” And again, “Whoso ever of this food partakes, Does not rend the Lord not breaks; Christ is whole to all that taste; Eats of Him Who cannot waste.”

A German proverb declares: “A man is what he eats.” As Catholics, we are called to become more and more like Christ Jesus, whose own Body and Blood are given to us as perfect spiritual food and drink. A popular symbol of the Eucharistic Christ in the Middle Ages was a pelican which, according to legend, picks at her breast to feed her young with her own flesh and blood.

In the Byzantine Liturgy, as the priest divides the Lamb (or Host, as we call it in the Western rites), he says: “Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God, broken and yet never divided, ever eaten and yet never consumed, but sanctifying those who partake of it.” In a similar way, each one of us, according to our particular state of life, is called to be a broken victim of sacrificial love offered for the sanctification of the whole Church, for the members of our local church (diocese), as well as for those of our various parish communities.

Our Lord reminds us that if a grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and dies, it remains but a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was fond of saying that the altar cannot be the only place where we—especially we priests—offer sacrifice. If you do not let yourselves be broken and consumed by others, then you are not allowing the Lord to sanctify you fully with His Body and Blood. St. John Chrysostom, a fifth-century Father of the Church, warned that one could not reap the full spiritual benefits of the Eucharist who went about ignoring the visible needs (e.g., poverty) of members belonging to the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

“The memory of His passion is renewed.” The Opening Prayer of today’s Liturgy reads: “Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist as the memorial of your suffering and death.” The Lauda Sion captures the essence of what it means to recall Our Lord’s Passion in the celebration of the Eucharist when it says that: “What He did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, His memorial ne’er to cease.” The opening line of the O Sacrum Convivium implied peace and plenty—with a hint of sacrifice. But now our thoughts, like those of the disciples at the Last Supper, are focused squarely on Calvary and suffering.

In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Our Lord re-presents His death, Resurrection, Ascension, and the whole work of redemption. We should be mindful of these acts of our redemption not merely as historical data but as actualities mystically real and effective in the here and now. This is why immediately after the words of consecration the priest proclaims: Mysterium Fidei (“The Mystery of Faith”), to which we respond by affirming our belief in the Lord’s Paschal Mystery now present on our altar.

The priest continues by praying the anamnesis (or “memorial”) prayer, calling to mind those same saving events as they are relived through the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. We receive this notion from the Jewish people with their concept of remembrance (in Hebrew: zikkaron), whereby they relive each year the saving events of the Exodus experience through their celebration of the Passover feast.

The memory of the Lord’s Passion renewed daily on our altars, however, far surpasses the commemoration of the Exodus renewed in the annual celebration of the Passover feast. Why does St. Thomas say that now more than ever, Sion should rejoice and give praise to God, hence the words: Lauda Sion? Precisely because in the celebration of the Eucharist, the Church as the New Sion commemorates a greater salvific event than that of the Exodus, indeed the greatest event of salvation history, the death and Resurrection of her Lord and Messiah.

Furthermore, the People of God no longer just call to mind a salvific experience, but for the first time encounter the author of their salvation face to face in an intimate and personal way. They recognize in Jesus the Christ, their only King and Good Shepherd, their Great and Eternal High Priest, author of the New and Everlasting Covenant, who generously cares for His people by feeding them with His very self. The grateful response of the People of God both collectively proclaimed at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer and individually pronounced upon reception of Holy Communion is “Amen,” from the Hebrew word aman meaning not merely “So be it!” but moreover a word that conveys the notion of steadfast faith in the daily mystery and miracle of the Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lord’s abiding presence in our midst.

This brings us to the third effect of the Eucharist: “The soul is filled with grace.” Let us go back to the cradle of humanity. Man is in paradise. God most lovingly provides for him in all respects. He places in paradise two trees, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. The latter could preserve man’s earthly life, for he was to be immortal by eating the fruit of this tree. But when Adam sinned, God drove our first parents out of paradise, and through their sin came physical death, the sign and symbol of eternal death. Yet God promised to send a redeemer, who willed to take sin away and restore life to man. It is through the waters of Baptism that we are born unto eternal life. Just as our first parents needed the tree of life to preserve their preternatural gifts, we too need the New Covenant’s tree of life to remain spiritually alive, to grow and be healthy.

Does someone ask where this tree is located? The answer is given emphatically today: The tree of the Cross is our tree of life, and its branches hang heavily laden with ripened fruit. This all-delicious fruit is Holy Communion, the perfect means to retain the divine life received in Baptism. Not only to retain that life but to make it grow and develop all the more abundantly, to preserve it from the disease of sin and from everlasting death—such is the purpose of the tree of the Cross and the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

Lastly, Thomas refers to the Eucharist as “a pledge of future glory which is given to us.” We have considered the Holy Eucharist from various vantage points. Is there still another? St. Thomas directs our gaze toward the endless horizon of the future. Will there be a Eucharist, a Bread of Angels, a Bread from heaven in eternity? No, the Holy Eucharist is only for earthly pilgrims, hence we speak of Viaticum as the gift of the Eucharist that accompanies our soul as it makes its journey into God departing from our body at the moment of death.

St. Paul teaches the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until He comes.” Therefore, with the Lord’s Second Advent or Coming the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist will cease. Nevertheless, it has a most direct bearing upon Heaven because the Holy Eucharist typifies the heavenly banquet; it is the seal and pledge of future glory. The Old Covenant contained many types for the New. The Lauda Sion refers to the sacrifice of Isaac, the manna in the wilderness, and the Passover lamb. In an extended sense the Church also bears the character of a type as she foreshadows the Kingdom of God perfected in Heaven.

The Church on earth is a type of the heavenly Jerusalem. In Heaven, there is already being celebrated a magnificent liturgy (described in detail in the Book of Revelation), to which our liturgy bears but a faint resemblance. And the Eucharist, too, is a faint foretaste and type of the coming heavenly banquet. How this can be or will be is still, of course, a mystery. But today’s post-Communion prayer clearly says: “Lord Jesus Christ, you give us your Body and Blood in the Eucharist as a sign that even now we share your life. May we come to possess it completely in the kingdom where you live for ever and ever.”

As we saw with the stories of the two priests, doubt and confusion concerning the true nature of the Eucharist can produce different effects. In the first instance, doubt and confusion led Martin Luther to separate from the Body of Christ, which is the Church, the faithful guardian of the Eucharistic Mystery throughout the ages. In the second instance, doubt and confusion—transformed by divine grace—led another priest and his people to a deeper faith and greater devotion to the Sacrament of Sacraments.

Father Nicholas L. Gregoris, a member of the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum in Rome and serves as the managing editor of The Catholic Response. He is the author of The Daughter of Eve Unfallen: Mary in the Theology and Spirituality of John Henry Newman, published by Newman House Press. He is likewise the translator and editor of Father Giovanni Velocci’s book Prayer in Newman, just released by Newman House Press.

Also by Fr. Gregoris:

The Sacrament of Charity: Homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Ten Practical Suggestions: Implementing Eucharistic Theology in Our Daily Lives

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