GOSPEL COMMUNION: The Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

June 23 2019 : The Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

Today’s antiphon and psalm re-use those provided for the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Twice Jesus tells us: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

The paraphrase-antiphon, derived from the wording of the alternate version in the 1998 ICEL Antiphonal,

This is my body given for you,
 this is my blood poured out for you;
 do this to remember me.

harks back to 1 Cor 11:24-26 from today’s 2nd Reading. The verses from Psalm 23 are then superimposed on the first half of the antiphon, so that the repeated “Do this and remember me” at the end of every two lines of the psalm becomes a kind of mantra, enfleshing our commemoration of the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The repetition invites those receiving communion to offer up themselves to God and to give themselves to their neighbors.