On this feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—

Sunday, June 2, formerly known as Corpus Christi—we American Catholics could do worse than to stop and think about the premium our society places on individualism. The effects of individualism are felt wherever unauthorized innovations undermine the true faith. They are manifest when divorce, contraception and abortion ruin family life. We see an over emphasis on individualism when corporate greed creates social crises and pork-barrel politics make them worse.

To find a solution, we must go back 500 years to the golden age of Catholic corporatism. Eamon Duffy's book The Stripping of the Altars gives us a richly detailed portrait of English society in the late Middle Ages, before the Protestant Reformation dissolved the bonds of Christian community.

Corporatism is derived from the Latin word corpus, which means body. The consecrated Host was originally called the corpus mysticum, or mystical body. The Church itself was termed the corpus verum, or true body. Having been entrusted with the mystical body of Christ, the Church represented Christ in the real world.

Over time, these terms were inverted, so that the eucharistic species was seen as the true Body, and the Church became known as the mystical body. As Cardinal Josef Ratzinger has argued in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, this switch in meaning made little difference. The point is that all of civil society formed a body which had a dynamic union with the Body of Christ.

In practical terms, this meant that Christian rulers were responsible to Christ and the Church for their actions. If they behaved unjustly, they could be, and frequently were, cut off from the Body of Christ until they repented.

The Church's role as moral watchdog for the state was one type of corporatism. Another had to do with the guilds which regulated economic activity. Guilds were the first corporations, a term which, not coincidentally, derives from corpus. Like modern corporations, guilds were licensed by communities to perform socially useful functions and received privileges in return.

Unlike today's corporations, guilds were integrated into the life of the Church. Many trades had special patron saints and feast days that the Church observed and defended. By honoring these feasts, the Church guaranteed that laborers would have leisure time and, thus, protected them from exploitation. Through the guilds, the Church also prevented other abuses, such as price gouging, forestalling, engrossing and usury.

In return, the guilds supported the Church by endowing chapels and benefices, paying for church renovations and sponsoring public devotions. Fittingly, these devotions often had a eucharistic emphasis. During the liturgy of Holy Week, for example, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in an “Easter sepulcher” that became the focus of prayer for the community. These sepulchers were built and maintained by the guilds.

Community ravaged by individualism? Enthrone the Body of Christ as lord of the body politic.

Corpus Christi devotions were the epitome of guild piety. The traditional procession on that feast offered a dramatic witness to Catholic corporatism. The Blessed Sacrament was borne through the streets to testify that the body of the community sprang directly from the Body of Christ.

The guilds gave the Church leverage in society. But Duffy argues that they also increased the influence of the laity within the Church. The guilds' financial contributions gave them some say in Church affairs, as did their role in planning liturgical events like Corpus Christi.

To some extent, the various ecclesial movements of lay people, such as Opus Dei and Focolare, have inherited the role played by the guilds. But these movements do not exhaust the possibilities of Catholic corporatism. Within parishes, in humble cooperation with clergy, lay people should form societies to promote worthwhile devotions.

In keeping with the idea of corporatism, eucharistic piety should be the first aim of these modern guilds. Indeed, perpetual and nocturnal adoration societies have begun to flourish again. There is no better way to promote individual devotion while proclaiming the integrity of the community.

Our medieval fathers teach us that the Body of Christ and the body of the community are indissolubly linked. The best way to restore a community ravaged by individualism, then, is to do honor and reverence to the Corpus Christi, to enthrone him as the lord of the body politic.

Such devotion will eventually spill over into society at large. At present, those bodies we call “corporations” bear little resemblance to true Catholic corporations. Modern corporations receive privileges—tax breaks and zoning variances, for example—from the states. Unlike the guilds, however, they generally take little responsibility for the communities they are supposed to serve.

It may never be possible to restore the guild system, which gave the Church a powerful voice in civil society and lay people an honored place in the Church. But if we Catholics adore the true corpus in all our parishes, the fruitful collaboration of clergy and laity, so much desired by the Holy Father, will become a reality.

Scott McDermott writes from Nashville, Tennessee