By Cedric Prakash
Ahmedabad, June 8, 2026: Yesterday June 7, a sizeable section of the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It was a liturgical solemnity honoring the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The origins of this feast went back to St. Thomas Aquinas in 1264, who proposed to Pope Urban IV a celebration focused solely on the Eucharist.
In the context of an authenticated Eucharistic miracle, Pope Urban declared this Solemnity for the entire Church. Traditionally, it was celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, or in most countries on the Sunday after Trinity. The feast was also observed by certain Western Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches.
About nine weeks earlier, the Church had celebrated Maundy Thursday: the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet, the institution of the priesthood, and the agony in Gethsemane.
In this context, one remembered Krishen Khanna, of the Progressive Artists Group, whose “Last Supper” painting captivated many. The work portrayed a battered figure radiating light—Jesus—surrounded by twelve figures representing the poor and excluded.
There was no bread or wine, only Jesus with outstretched hands receiving and giving. Gayatri Sinha, in Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, noted that the absence of the meal and the subaltern figures betrayed anxious concern with survival.
Henri Nouwen, in Life of the Beloved, situated the Eucharist in four words: taken, blessed, broken, given. He explained that these words summarized the Spirit’s movement in our lives. Christians were taken, blessed, broken, and given—like bread. Jesus performed these actions at the Last Supper and invited his disciples to do likewise.
Eucharist thus had four integral dimensions:
• Taken: Who we were and what we had, we gave to the Lord, like the shepherds, the Magi, the boy with loaves and fish, or the widow with her mite. At the Offertory, gifts symbolized ourselves, offered freely to be taken.
• Blessed: We longed for blessings. In Latin, benediction meant “speaking good things.” Blessing affirmed dignity and identity. Each time Jesus blessed bread, he affirmed those present and thanked his Father.
• Broken: Bread broken symbolized our own brokenness and that of the world—poverty, exclusion, exploitation, discrimination. Pope Francis reminded us that the Church was a community of the broken. At the Eucharistic table, we shared brokenness and helped heal others.
• Given: Broken bread was given for fullness of life. Shared love multiplied, as in the miracle of loaves. The Eucharist was the pinnacle of love: God giving himself and inviting us to give ourselves to others.
Scripture recalled Jesus’ words: “He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take, this is my body.’” These words challenged complacency and comfort zones, calling us to be Christ’s body in the world. By standing for truth and justice, we shared in Jesus’ suffering and passion. We became bread broken and shared so others might live.
We were called to be at Khanna’s Last Supper, to see who was present, and to realize the Eucharist was bread taken, blessed, broken, and given. Authentic discipleship meant listening and acting on Jesus’ words: “Do this in memory of me.”
In Madrid, presiding over Corpus Christi celebrations with 1.2 million participants, Pope Leo XIV explained how the feast called us “to be brought out of our selfishness and indifference, of a comfortable, private faith, so as to respond to his invitation to conversion, to change our perspective, and to welcome his presence which transforms us and makes us builders of a new world.”
He added, “He is a God who is close to us, who walks with his people, the Lord of history. He is comfort to the weak, light for families, hope for the sick and peace for those who suffer. The Christ who processes through the streets in the monstrance is the same one who identifies with the poor, the downtrodden, those who are alone and forsaken.”
We were all called to celebrate this day by remembering and living these words from an anonymous author:
Bread broken: One loaf but many pieces, a meal for us
Bread broken: Divided that we might share it
Wholeness destroyed, that we might be found together
Bread broken: A sign of Christ’s body broken for us that we might live!
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash is a human rights, reconciliation & peace activist and writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com.
(Photo from https://pixabay.com)