Corpus Christi

DISCLAIMER: I am no theologist. This is not a professional theological article. The contents are mainly my personal opinions. Nevertheless, readers are welcomed to comment on their views, as well as suggest corrections on my article which might be erroneous in some way.


Yesterday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). A celebration of the Holy Eucharist, Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, Bread of Life, the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.

During Mass, Fr. Fab's sermon was, as usual, interesting. Although there are three parts in his sermon, I am not going to elaborate everything here - as some would be common sense to Catholics. In fact, what he is eventually led us to opened my eyes.

He quoted St Augustine's words, or I'd say, a prophecy from Jesus Himself. It sounded: "You would not change Me into yourself as you would food of your flesh, but you will be changed into Me." Amazing? Or not? Think about it... we normally partake food so that the food that is eventually digested becomes part of our body - muscles, bones, fat tissues, and, at some time, for repairing the parts of our bodies that are scarred/loss - for instance, skin, hair, blood. Most of the time, the food is transformed to the very basic need of our body - energy. That is true for all kinds of food, except one, or rather, the One. Which is the Body of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, Flesh of Jesus Himself. St Augustine's prophecy stated, when we partake the Body of Christ, we are instead transformed into the Body, in communion with Christ, through the Grace of God and (of course) our faith! We are called to be holiness after entering the Communion in Christ Jesus! A point that I always overlooked.


During the sermon, something struck me in an intellectual way - the type of blood Jesus carried. I knew that, through the many mysterious manifestation of the phenomenon of Transsubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, it was scientifically examined, confirmed, and announced that Jesus was having AB+ blood type.

I did a little bit of research on blood types and groupings through Wikipedia ([1], [2]), and I found out that people with AB+ is the universal blood receptor. Which means, Jesus in His human form can receive blood from any human alive, and in a way, 'transformed' the received blood to His. However, from St Augustine's prophecy, Jesus did something quite different. He gave us His Life, and poured to us His Precious Blood to us, transforming ours into His! Instead of receiving and transforming, He was giving and transforming!

Also, I also learnt that, there are a total of 29 human blood group systems are now recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Each grouping system highlights certain existence or deficit of certain type of proteins or antigens. The most common blood groupings are the infamous ABO-grouping and the Rhesus (Rh) grouping, which give us the various blood types of O+, O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, and AB-. According to what I found out, AB+ blood type means the blood contains Antigen-A, Antigen-B, and Rhesus antigens. O- means the blood is deficient of the aforementioned antigens. If we take the existence of antigens as dominant (or in a layman term, superior), then AB+ is highly dominant, and O- is highly recessive.

If we take this context into Jesus' Blood, His Blood is highly dominant! I am not saying that all people with AB+ blood group has equal dominance and hence does not need Jesus' Blood for redemption, because:
1. This is merely what medical science has so far confirmed on the scientific aspect of Jesus' Blood.
2. There are 27 other recognized blood grouping methods unverified on Jesus' Blood. Chances are, Jesus' Blood is dominant across all the other 27 blood groupings as well.
3. God created science. Who are we to determine scientifically the dominance of Jesus' Blood? And, who are we to equate blood dominance with redemption through the Blood?


What I am trying to say is, Jesus' Blood is beyond price. That Jesus' Blood is Precious and is a price God paid for our sins. Through faith, we know that He poured out His Blood for the redemption of mankind. We are called to partake the Body and Blood of Christ worthily. Which means, we have to live a holy life in order to be worthy of the Eucharistic Feast - for God is Holy. The more we lead a holy life, the more worthy we are in front of God, and the more we are transformed into His Image through the Eucharist! Amen!


At the end of the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the Monstrance for silent reverence by the congregation. At that time, I did feel the tingling *bzzzzt* feeling all across my body! What an awesome experience! Amen!