Nigerian Catholics: Is it Corpus Christi or Christ the King?

1. The Feast of Corpus Christi is a liturgical solemnity. A solemnity is a high-ranking cum feast day of greatest importance in the Roman Catholic Church. ”Corpus Christi” is Latin word for ”Body of Christ”, and the feast is also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

2. The Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the Eucharist, the centre and summit of the christian faith in the Catholic Church , and more specifically, it celebrates the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

3. Corpus Christi celebration implicitly reminds us Catholics and tells the world how the Eucharist came about at the Last supper, and in obedience to the words of Jesus, “Do this is remembrance of me (Luke 22:19),” that in doing such, after consecration, the bread and wine of the Eucharist actually become the body and blood of Christ.

4. Then Why “Christ the King” and not Corpus Christi?

5. The proper day to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi in the universal Church normally falls within the month of May/June, as a moveable feast. For instance, the 2024 feast of Corpus Christi universally falls on May 30, but it is transferred to Sunday, June 2 in some dioceses.

6. However, the Catholic tradition in the Nigerian Liturgical Calendar celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi in a low tune without the procession due to rainy season weather in June. In Nigeria, this procession is now done on the very day the universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King; Christ as the King of the Universe, who unites all of creation with the Father (1 Cor. 15:25-28).

7. By implication, the Solemnity of the day is Christ the King celebration which is evident during the Holy Mass, but the procession that comes later in the day is that of Corpus Christi of June, shifted to November.

8. Now that you have known/remembered this, do not confuse both celebrations neither in the mass nor in the procession.

Fr. Henry Charles Umelechi, Truth Series.