07/06/2026
Fr Greg's Homily for Corpus Christi.
Corpus Christi 2026 (a)
Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16
Psalm 147:12-15,19-20
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58
“From the Altar to the World”
My homily today seeks to combine the work of two Australian Professors of Theology, Pro Fr Anthony Kelly CSsR and Pro Fr Gregory Manly CP. I was a student of both these men and lived with Fr Gregory CP for a number of years. A fuller and more detailed account (academic if you will) will appear on the Church’s page later today.
SO ……
My dear brothers and sisters,
Each time we gather for the Eucharist, we come to something deeply familiar: bread, wine, words, prayer. It can feel simple, almost ordinary. And yet, what happens here is anything but ordinary.
Because in the Eucharist, we are drawn into the very life of God. We are drawn into a mystery that embraces not only us, but the whole world.
Think for a moment about what is brought to the altar. Bread made from grain grown in the earth. Wine pressed from grapes ripened by sun and rain. These are, as the Church reminds us, the “fruit of the earth and work of human hands.”
That means every Eucharist already carries within it the life of creation: the soil, the seasons, the labour of human hands, the fragile beauty of the world around us. The Eucharist is not something separated from the world, it gathers the world up and offers it to God.
But the Eucharist is not only about creation. At its heart is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
What we celebrate here is not just a memory of the past. It is not simply a symbol. It is a living encounter. In the Eucharist, we participate in the Paschal Mystery, the death and resurrection of Christ made present here and now.
Here, Christ gives himself to us, not as an idea, not as a distant figure, but as a living presence. And that presence changes everything.
It changes the bread and wine.
It changes us.
And, in a deeper sense, it begins to change the whole world.
The Church teaches that the bread and wine are transformed. But the mystery does not stop there. One vision of the Eucharist reminds us that this transformation is like a seed planted in creation itself, a promise that the whole universe is being drawn into God’s glory.
Another reminds us that this transformation must take root in us. In our hearts. In our choices. In our relationships. The Eucharist calls us into a deeper participation in Christ’s self-giving love, a love revealed in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
So, the question is not only: What happens to the bread and wine?
The deeper question is: What is happening to us?
Are we becoming what we receive?
Because the Eucharist is not meant to remain here. It is not something we attend and then leave behind. It is something we live.
When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we are sent out with a mission. We are called to live differently, to love differently.
We are called not only to love our neighbour, but to love our “neighbourhood”, the world itself, our common home, the very creation that becomes part of this sacrament.
We are called to lives of compassion, justice, and care, for one another and for the earth entrusted to us.
And as we gather at this altar, something else happens. The Church becomes visible, not just as a building, but as a living community. In this liturgy, Christ forms us into his Body. The Church becomes, in a real sense, an “event”, a people united by his self-giving love.
And so, we are reminded: we do not come to the Eucharist alone. We come as a community. We are shaped together. We are sent together.
So today, as you come forward to receive the Eucharist, remember what you are receiving.
You are receiving the love that created the world.
You are receiving the sacrifice that redeemed the world.
You are receiving the presence that is transforming all things.
And you are being sent out, to carry that love into your homes, your work, your relationships, and the world around you.
Because the Eucharist does not end at the altar.
It continues, in you.
