We have recently celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi. Funny how the Latin for the feast has survived the vernacular, although in England it is now celebrated on a Sunday.

 It is the time of the year when many of us ‘made’ our first Communion, with girls in white dresses and the boys in white shirts with red ties. But there lies the rub. I have placed the word ‘made’ in inverted commas for we have objectified the occasion that in many ways takes us away from Eucharist as an action, on-going within community.

 The sharing of the Eucharist in the early Church involved the gathering of the people for the eating of a meal. It was essentially an occasion of food and drink, nourishment for the journey. It was a small occasion for a few people together in somebody’s house, an action in which all took part. The loss of this experience, the detachment of Eucharist from the place of the meal within the community, has in so many ways diminished our experience and understanding of what we are about.

 In our troubled world, images of refugees waiting in line for food have become all too familiar. They have a shared need, their hunger, and a shared satisfaction in receiving food, sustenance. We do not stop to ask too many questions, the need is perceived and that over-rides everything.

 The sharing of the Eucharist that involves Community in this sense, of a meal, has moved towards a more ritual based pattern that has lost something in the transition. It is significant that the nature of Eucharist and its form of celebration, rather than uniting the various Christian Churches, has become the stone over which we have tripped in our disagreements. An excellent book, just published in UK by Professor Tom O’Loughlin in the University of Nottingham, examines the Eucharist and its celebration in some depth. It is well worth reading.  The Eucharist-Thomas O’Loughlin - Bloomsbury - available on Amazon. Tom’s Chair at Nottingham is in Historical Theology. His examination of the Eucharistic celebration in the Early Church draws on his significant experience in this field.

 Mass on Sunday – or on other days – can so easily become process, a repetition of words, spoken without the warmth of meaning, lacking a relationship between celebrant and those celebrating with him. The dismissal at the end can often come as a relief rather than an urgency to proclaim the Good News. With the falling numbers of priests in the West and the consequent amalgamation of parishes seen as the solution, the remoteness is increased and the vitality of food for the journey is diminished.

 Those of us who experienced house masses in the aftermath of the Council remember the familiarity they engendered which didn’t stop with the Dismissal but continued over coffee and biscuits and friendly conversation. The extension of meal was both natural and welcome. Tom O’Loughlin concludes his book with these words.

 “I shall be happy with the result of my labour if you, gentle reader, when you next sit down to eat a snack or have a cup of coffee with a friend are struck by the human significance of what you are doing, how this activity is so closely entwined on our anamnesis of the actions of Jesus, and that for that food, drink and company one should be thankful.

 END

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