Today, the Church celebrates the Corpus Domini or Corpus Christi, a feast whose origins date back to the thirteenth century and which, since the 14th century, has been observed all over the world, including the Holy Land.
In the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem, the Feast of the Body of Christ was celebrated, like every year, on the Thursday following the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity. The liturgy was presided by the Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Mons. Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Among the participants: friars, religious and local Christians, who prayed with devotion during the celebration.
In the homily, Bishop Pizzaballa said that God loved the world through His body … He explained that Jesus loved the people he met, that He approached them, looked at them, felt compassion for them, touched them and let them touch Him, He was anointed with perfume … he laid his hands on them, caressed them, listened to them, spoke to them. He was hungry and thirsty. He felt tired and He was scared. He shared His path and sat at the table with them, felt tenderness and anger. He addressed his prayers to the Father. And in the places He visited, His Body healed and saved.
And in the Last Supper with his friends, Jesus’ Body was the sign of his final presence among us in the Eucharist.
The Archbishop recalled the Word in which Jesus says:
As of tradition, mass ended with the procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the Holy Sepulcher.