A Thorny Problem: the Body and Blood of Christ

The Last Supper by Juan de Juanes, 1562

A Thorny Problem

    A thorny problem indeed. It’s so hard for us truly to accept that the Infinite God of the Universe could fully inhabit a human body, and be both True God and True Man.  I was often reminded of just how thorny a problem this is for us when I used to discuss the Christological Heresies with my adolescent religion students.  The Arians, for example, could accept the human Jesus, but not his Divinity. The Docetists, on the other hand, had no problem with Christ the Son of God, but they were sure his Humanity was just a show. Finally, the Monophysites could understand that Jesus was both man and God, but insisted that he had only one, Divine, nature . . . and so on.

Two Natures

     The Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity inevitably presents these and numerous other puzzles to our finite minds.  Indeed, such conundrums have been with us from the earliest days of the Church to the present day.  A series of councils wrestled with these issues until The Council of Chalcedon gave a definitive answer in A.D. 451.  Chalcedon declared that Christ is:

made known in two natures without confusion [i.e. mixture], without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the natures being by no means removed because of the union, but the property of each nature being preserved and coalescing in one prosopon [person] and one hypostasis [subsistence]–not parted or divided into two prosopa [persons], but one and the same Son, only-begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68)

Image: The Tears of St. Peter, El Greco, late 16th century

Hard Sayings

     As hard as it is to accept that Jesus Christ is both fully God and a true man with a human body, however, we are asked to accept an even harder teaching. Our Faith insists that the same body is truly present in the Eucharistic bread and wine offered up at every Mass.  Furthermore, as Christ Himself tells us:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (John 6:55-57)

Nowhere Else To Go

Many of his disciples found this teaching too hard to accept, and went away.  This Sunday’s Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ reminds, however, as Peter points out (John 6:68), that we have nowhere else to go.  In fact, only by eating the Body and Drinking the Blood of the God-Become-Man can we share in his eternal life.

     There’s the wonder.  Christ has a human body, and so the Infinite God shares in our humanity. Not only that, He shares that body with us in the Eucharist. Thereby, He lets us participate in His divinity.  No wonder we call it “Gospel”, that is, “Good News.” Yes, it is hard to believe, but, as today’s feast reminds us, it’s The Truth.

 

Mozart Makes The Gloria Soar

Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds, by Govert Flinck, 1639

The Gloria

     The Gloria starts with “Glory to God in the highest . . .”  If you frequent the Catholic Mass, you know this prayer.  You’ve heard it hundreds of times, maybe thousands.  But how much do you know about it? Or have you ever wondered where it comes from, or how it got into the Mass?

     First of all, it’s not itself in the Bible. At the same time, you’ve probably noticed that it takes much of it’s content from holy Scripture. The first line, for instance, comes directly from the Gospel of Luke: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will!” (Luke 2:14). This is the passage where the angels announce the birth of the Savior to the shepherds of Bethlehem.

Biblical References

     The rest of the prayer draws on scripture in much the same way.  The following list was compiled by Fr. James Chelich (full article here):

 

Lord God (Exodus 20:7; Amos 5:1-3)

Heavenly King (Psalm 24)

Almighty God (Genesis 17:1)

Father (Matthew 6:6-13)

Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:28)

Begotten Son (Hebrews 1:5)

Lord God (John 20:28)

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)

Son of the Father (John 3:16)

Only Son (coming from the Father) (John 1:14, 18)

Seated at the Right Hand of the Father (Mark 14:60-62)

Holy One (John 6:69)

Lord (Acts 2:36)

(Son of the) Most High (Luke 1:32; Luke 8:28)

 

Psalmus Idioticus

     Again, despite its scriptural content, the Gloria is found nowhere in the Bible.  It’s an example of what we call a psalmus idioticus. No, that doesn’t mean what it looks like it means. Idioticus means “private” in Greek. The word “idiot” originally mean someone who went off and did his own thing instead of working for the common good. In any case, a psalmus idioticus is a “private psalm.”  Prayers of this sort in imitation of the biblical psalms were popular in the  first centuries of the Church.  The Te Deum is another example.

     The Gloria itself is Greek in it’s earliest form, a product of the Eastern Church.  Tradition credits St. Hilary of Poitiers with introducing it to the Latin Church.  The Greek Churches today (both Orthodox and Catholic) sing the Gloria as part of the Divine Office during the hour of Matins, instead of during the Mass.

Mozart’s Mass in C

     Many composers over the centuries have put the Gloria to music.  One of the most glorious of these settings is the one Mozart composed for his Mass in C.  I’ve posted Mozart’s Gloria below in its entirety.  Don’t despair if you don’t have time for the entire clip (it’s about 26 minutes long). I recommend listening at least to the “Laudamus Te” (“We praise you”), which starts at the 2:40 mark.  It simply soars.

     The performers, by the way, are local (are least for me): the Concorde Chorale & Phillips Exeter Academy Chamber Orchestra.

The Gloria, in Latin and English

Gloria in excelsis Deo

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te,

benedicimus te,

adoramus te,

glorificamus te,

gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam,

Domine Deus, Rex caelestis,

Deus Pater omnipotens.

Domine Fili unigenite,

Iesu Christe,

Domine Deus, Agnus Dei,

Filius Patris,

qui tollis peccata mundi,

miserere nobis;

qui tollis peccata mundi,

suscipe deprecationem nostram.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,

miserere nobis.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus,

tu solus Dominus,

tu solus Altissimus, Iesu Christe,

cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris.

Amen

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to people of good will.

We praise you,

we bless you,

we adore you,

we glorify you.

We give you thanks for your great glory,

Lord God, heavenly King,

O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ,

only Begotten Son,

Lord God, Lamb of God,

Son of the Father,

You take away the sins of the world

have mercy on us;

You take away the sins of the world,

receive our prayer;

You are seated at the right hand of the Father:

have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One,

You alone are the Lord,

You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,

With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.