TEXT: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 7, 2026
June 7, 2026 Father De Celles Homily
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
June 7, 2026
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
What strange words the Master spoke to that crowd
gathered in the synagogue in Capernaum:
“My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
How much stranger still the words He spoke months later
on the night He was betrayed:
“This is my body…this is my blood.”
How could anyone believe these words?
But as we see clearly in Scripture and in the life of the Church,
this is exactly what His apostles did believe.
And they believed these words not because they were reasonable,
but rather because it was Jesus Christ Himself who said them.
It was through absolute faith in Jesus that they believed
what was once ordinary bread is no longer bread at all,
but completely and substantially, the actual and real Body of Christ.
This is the faith of the Church from the earliest times until now.
So, we read in today’s second reading
from St. Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, written twenty years later:
“The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
We see this carry over to the writings of the early Fathers.
St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in the year 107,
“There is one Eucharist, which is the body of Christ.”
And Tertullian, around the year 200, wrote,
“The bread which he took and gave to his disciples,
he turned into his body with the words, ‘This is my body’…
Christ [did not just] preten[d] to make the bread his body…”
Over and over again,
we hear this from so many of the great fathers of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries.
And then we come to the great St. Augustine of Hippo,
who summarizes them all in the 4th century:
“It was in His flesh that Christ walked among us
and it is His flesh that He has given us to eat for our salvation.”
____
Now, the gift of the Eucharist is at its heart a union or communion
between Christ and the Christian.
So, the receiving of Holy Communion
implies some things related to communion with Christ.
First, it implies communion, or unity, with Christ and His Church,
the Catholic Church,
and with the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist as truly
the body, blood soul and divinity of Christ.
Because of this only Catholics may receive Communion at Catholic Mass.
Also, it implies unity with the life and love of Christ—
the way Jesus lived and taught His disciples to live and love–
the Christian moral life.
So, a Catholic aware that he has gravely departed from that moral life,
that he has committed mortal sin,
must always go to sacramental Confession
before receiving Holy Communion.
The only exception to this rule is if it’s truly impossible to go to Confession,
and by that the Church means it is physically impossible
to go to Confession for at least a month or so
because there are absolutely no priests around
—not, because one forgot or didn’t have time to go.
Some people say, “But Father,
it’s embarrassing not to go to Communion,
or it hurts not to go to Communion.”
But the thing is, we should be embarrassed by our sins,
and mortal sins are not only hurtful, but truly deadly to our souls.
And they are our free choices.
If we choose to commit mortal sin,
then we freely choose the consequences,
including the painful and embarrassing consequence
of excluding ourselves from Communion.
But at the same time,
we should never judge others for not going to Communion.
Assume they have some other reason:
maybe they didn’t keep the fast;
maybe they’ve received at earlier Masses;
or maybe they’re just over-scrupulous and too hard on themselves.
But if you do feel tempted to start judging, turn that judgment around
and instead praise that person for his great humility,
and ask yourself if you shouldn’t be imitating him yourself.
Now, all that takes into account
what we believe in our minds and hold in our hearts,
and the proper internal disposition of the soul
for receiving Communion.
But Communion is not just about the mind and soul,
especially since it’s something brought about through the body–
our bodies receive the Body of Christ!
And our bodily sharing in the Eucharist isn’t limited to just eating the host,
but it also includes the way our bodies express
what our hearts and minds believe about what we eat.
Our actions should express what’s in our minds;
and our actions also help our minds to understand and accept
what we believe.
So, after twenty centuries we have a set of customs that we use
both to physically express and remember our belief in Christ’s
true presence in the Eucharist.
First, when it comes to bodily expressions,
a very simple but fundamental way we express that faith
is by what we wear to Mass.
Think about it. If you were going on a job interview,
you would dress the part.
Every time I go to Mass I dress up
—what would you think if I showed up today dressed to play golf?
Now, I know sometimes you might have
a very good reason for dressing down,
so, no one here should ever judge you for how you dress.
Even so, if a father dresses in a business suit to go to work,
but in shorts and a tee-shirt when he comes to Mass,
what message is he sending, especially to his kids,
about the relative importance of each?
Another even more important expression of our faith in the Real Presence is
the custom of kneeling in the presence of the Eucharist.
We kneel and genuflect during Mass, but also outside of Mass,
whenever we visit Christ present in the tabernacle,
always genuflecting to Him whenever
we enter or leave, or pass in front of, His presence.
Now, for centuries the Church required us
to kneel to receive Holy Communion.
Today, the usual sign of reverence in most American parishes
is a bow of the head.
Don’t believe the lie that that is “the norm,” or the law.
In fact, the norm specifically says you can kneel if you choose to.
So, at St. Raymond’s we provide you with an altar rail to kneel.
You are still free to stand for Communion.
Some of you physically need to stand
because you may fall when you try to get up.
Otherwise, as your pastor, who has care for your soul, and who loves you,
I recommend you kneel if you can.
As St. Augustine taught in the 4th century,
“No one, however, eats of this flesh without having first adored it…”
And Pope Benedict XVI once wrote:
“The practice of kneeling for Holy Communion…
is a particularly expressive sign of adoration,
completely appropriate in light of
the true, real and substantial presence
of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.”
And Cardinal Robert Sarah once noted about Pope St. John Paul II:
“Recall that at the end of his life of service,
a man in a body wracked with sickness, John Paul II
could never sit in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
He forced his broken body to kneel.
He needed the help of others to bend his knees, and again to stand.
…right up until his very last days.”
But as I said, you may stand and simply bow your head, if you choose.
___
Another way we express this reverence
is in the way we receive Holy Communion
—on the hand or on the tongue.
It seems that for the first few centuries of the Church
receiving Communion in the hand was not unusual.
But as the Church grew in her understanding of the Eucharist,
to help us remember that this is no ordinary food,
it became the practice to receive communion directly on the tongue.
Like kneeling for Communion,
this was the law of the Church for almost fourteen centuries.
In fact, it is still the law, or the normal way of receiving, today.
In 1969 Pope St. Paul VI discovered that many Catholics
were receiving Holy Communion in the hand
—something that was absolutely prohibited.
He was aghast.
He wrote a letter to the whole Church that was very clear, stating,
“[Receiving in the hand] carries certain dangers with it…
the danger of a loss of reverence for the august sacrament of the altar,
of profanation, of adulterating the true doctrine.”
On the other hand, he argued,
“[Communion on the tongue] expresses
the faithful’s reverence for the Eucharist…
It is part of that preparation that is needed
for the most fruitful reception of the Body of the Lord.”
He added,
“This reverence shows that it is not a sharing
in ‘ordinary bread and wine’ that is involved,
but in the Body and Blood of the Lord…”
“Further, the practice…ensures, more effectively, that Holy Communion
is distributed with the proper respect, decorum and dignity…”
“It removes the danger of profanation of the sacred species…”
“It ensures that diligent carefulness
about the fragments of consecrated bread,”
And then he quoted St. Cyril of Jerusalem:
“What you have allowed to drop, think of it
as though you had lost one of your own members.”
Sadly, because many priests were already flagrantly disobeying this law
and defiantly encouraging laity to receive Communion in the hand,
Paul VI very reluctantly allowed
individual bishops to give permission to their people
to receive communion in the hand under “special circumstances.”
As is the wont of disobedient souls, priests and “liturgical experts”
morphed this practice from a dangerous narrow exception
into the beneficial and salubrious required norm,
so much so that one arrogant bishop recently ordered his priests,
“…not to teach that some other manner
is better, preferred, more efficacious.”
He said this as if Pope St. Paul VI, who was the pope during Vatican II
and the pope who actually reformed the whole Mass,
was wrong for saying the exact opposite:
“[Communion on the tongue] is needed
for the most fruitful reception of the Body of the Lord,”
and “more effectively [ensures] that holy communion
is distributed with the proper respect, decorum and dignity”
So, like Pope St. Paul VI, and every pope for a thousand years before him,
I always encourage people to receive on the tongue.
It is no ordinary food, so it’s important that it not be received as if it were.
Moreover, I share St. Cyril’s fear of dropping particles of the host
—each of which are also truly the Body of Christ.
I clean the patens at the end of Mass—I know there are particles.
And if you notice, during the Mass after the consecration
I either hold the two fingers that touch the Host together
or I’m constantly cleaning them over the paten.
On the other hand, so to speak, if you choose to receive in the hand
you have permission of the pope and bishop to do so.
And in charity and humility, neither I nor anyone else in this church
may judge you badly for doing so.
But…if you do take communion in the hand, ask yourself:
Do I do it in a way that expresses and reminds me of my belief,
that expresses adoration and profound reverence?
If you receive in the hand, remember the instruction
of St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century about the practice:
Receive by placing your left hand on top of your right hand
as if you were creating a throne to receive your God,
keeping your eyes on Christ;
and then, carefully take the host in your right hand
and place it in your mouth,
being careful to consume any crumbs.
And don’t do this while rushing away from the altar rail
—stay there, either standing or kneeling,
as you prayerfully, reverently, place the host in your mouth
But remember that if the priest perceives even a danger of irreverence,
he must give you communion on the tongue.
For example, let’s say you come up with a baby in your arms.
The Bishop requires us to give you communion on the tongue
because your body is busy with the baby,
and there is greater danger of dropping Our Lord.
___
I hope none of you feel that I have scolded you or condemned you.
Please believe me, that is the last thing I have intended.
I am your Spiritual father, and I love you.
But I love Jesus also, particularly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
So as your father, who wants you to grow
in your love for Jesus in the Eucharist,
I take seriously St. Paul’s teaching:
“Whether it is convenient or inconvenient,
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.”
It’s so easy for us to lose sight of the ineffably magnificent wonder
of Christ’s real and living presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
To take for granted that this is no ordinary piece of food
but the very Body of Our Saviour
which is to be worshiped and adored even as it is to be eaten.
It looks like a piece of bread
—but in our hearts, we believe in the word of Jesus when He says,
“This is my body…this is my blood.”
“My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
Let us then show this belief in His Body by the actions of our bodies.