June 6, 1999 |
This weekend we celebrate another Memorial Day - the feast of Corpus Christi - wherein members of Christ's Body - the Church - are called to remember the origin and purpose of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Sacraments are sacred signs & rituals that are designed to effect (bring about) what they signify. The Eucharist is the third of three sacraments of Christian initiation - or Christian identity. Baptism initiates this identity, Confirmation is designed to strengthen this identity and its practice in life, and the Eucharist is supposed to nourish and enable the disciple to grow in becoming another Christ. In this tradition we are called to gather with other members on Sunday to renew our covenant with Jesus Christ's call to Do This In Memory of Me. In an analogous way we are called to become what we sing (people who praise God), to become what we hear - God's Word, to become what we see and eat - the Body of Christ. This is expressed well by St. Augustine and other contemporary commentators on the Eucharist. The paradox entailed in our reception of the Eucharist has been boldly expressed by St. Augustine. In his Confessions, he represents Jesus as saying to him: I am the food of full grown people. Grow and you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead, you shall be changed into me. In other words, in the Eucharistic encounter, it is the food that absorbs the one who eats it and not vice versa. One could almost say that in receiving Christ, Christ receives us.
The Word of God, the covenant word that gave Israel life, has now become flesh to nourish the people of the renewed covenant. The living bread is the bread of the eucharist, the body and blood of the Lord who feeds his people with his very life. Dueteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 begins like Paul recording of the words for the eucharist (1 Cor 11:24), with a call to remember what god has done for the people. The Gospel is the conclusion of the bread-of-life discourse... The whole discourse plays on the fact that living bread has many meanings...This living bread is identified with Jesus, word of God. The word of God, the covenant word that gave Israel life, has now become flesh to nourish the people of renewed covenant. The living bread is the bread of the eucharist, the body and blood of the Lord who feeds his people with his very life. Those nourished by this living bread are nourished by Jesus' and thus by God's life, which sustains Jesus. This living bread is nourishment for eternal life. (Homily Service June 1999).
Vatican II Council stated that the Eucharist was to be the summit and substance of our Catholic life, calling for full and active participation in the Eucharistic celebration. Ideal conditions for such full participation would include appropriate preparation before coming to the Eucharist and minimal distractions during Mass - admittedly these conditions are difficult to realize in our times.
Our Church has in recent times encouraged the practice of Eucharistic devotion outside Mass-visits to chapels or Churches where the Blessed Sacrament is present on the altar or in a tabernacle. This devotion is intended to extend and deepen our Lord's invitation Do This in Memory of Me. Believing in this real presence, we are invited to spend some quiet time there and thereby submit to be led, shaped, and molded by our Lord's real presence. In a chapter entitled Exposed to Christ the author offers the following verses. A 'power' went forth from Jesus and healed those he encountered. The same power radiates out and heals us in our depths, when we 'expose' ourselves to the Christ who is exposed to us in the eucharist. (The Master is Here, by Brian McNeil, CRV).
Today's feast originated in the twelfth century. It was a time in the Middle Ages when few of the Catholic faithful received communion because they felt unworthy. They preferred to gaze in adoration upon The Host displayed in a monstrance (from the Latin monstrare, "to show"). This led to the introduction of an elevation of the cup and host in the Mass. The service of Benediction also began during this time.
In many countries a procession is a large part of celebration of this feast. A festive parade follows the priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament displayed in the monstrance. Outdoor altars are set up as stations where people gather and the parade stops for songs, prayers and a blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. The purpose of the procession was to publicly display the devotion of the people to the Real Presence.
Since this procession is an exercise of devotion and not a liturgical ritual it falls under the jurisdiction of the local bishop. In some places it has been replaced by a large outdoor Mass. Since Vatican II and the restoration of the understanding that the Mass is a meal as well as a sacrifice, most Catholics now receive communion at Mass.
Since the publication of the very Ūrst document of my pontificate, I have spoken explicitly of the Great Jubilee, suggesting that the time leading up to it be lived as "a new Advent". In fact, preparing for the Year 2000 has become as it were a hermeneutical key of my Pontificate. It is certainly not a matter of indulging in millenarianism, as occurred in some quarters at the end of the first millennium; rather, it is aimed at an increased sensitivity to all that the Spirit is saying to the Church and to the Churches, as well as to individuals through charisms meant to serve the whole community.
-Pope John Paul II
FROM THE WORLD'S MOST TRAVELED POPE comes an invitation to join him on a new kind of pilgrimage. Through his new compact disk, "Abba Pater" John Paul II offers a musical and spiritual experience aimed at helping the listener mediate on the real meaning of the forthcoming Jubilee Year. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's Jubilee Committee, notes that the pope's voice is that of a pastor who seeks "to render visible to men, women and youth the inner pilgrimate" that the Jubilee invites. -- The 11-track CD, featuring the voice of the pope against a musical background, offers prayers, chants and homilies in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, English. Recorded by Vatican Radio throughout the Holy Father's pontificate over the past 20 years, the selections include a Gregorian chant version of the Our Father, meditations on Scripture, a homily on forgiveness delivered to youth. The title track, "Abba Pater," (combining the Aramaic and Latin words for "father"), was originally spoken and sung by the Holy Father at a 1995 celebration at St. Peter's Basilica. -- "Abba Pater" is being released by Son Classical. Royalties go to Vatican Radio and an Italian order of priests which produced the CD.
The Eucharist is not only a particularly intense expression of the reality of the Church's life, but also in a sense its fountainhead. The Eucharist feeds and forms the Church: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor 10:17). Because of this vital link with the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the mystery of the Church is savored, proclaimed, and lived supremely in the Eucharist.
This ecclesial dimension intrinsic to the Eucharist is realized in every Eucharistic celebration. But it is expressed most especially on the day when the whole community comes together to commemorate the Lord's resurrection.
Significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life.
Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini, 32
Today is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (In English, the Body and Blood of Christ). The origins of this day certainly find their roots in Sacred Scripture, and the constant belief in this has gotten quite shaky, with many people (including priests and religious) doubting and denying this belief. At about that time, an Augustian sister in Belgium (Sister Juliana of Retiennes) had a vision that Christ wanted a feast established in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. Her spiritual advisor later was elected Pope, and so decided to establish this feast. At the same time, a priest in Orvieto, Italy (north of Rome) was having grave doubts about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, when it is said, that the Eucharistic Bread turned to flesh. To honor these two events, Pope Urban established the solemnity of Corpus Christi. At this same time, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote his great Eucharistic hymns Tantum Ergo and Lauda Sion. It is from this time that we have the Corpus Christi processions which are held on this day. Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament (such as we have here on Saturdays and at St. Mary's Hospital, and many places around the world) IS NOT PRE-VATICAN at all! In fact, it is enjoying a spontaneous world wide revival. Rather it helps us to reflect on this great mystery of Faith, and prepares us in fact, for fuller participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharistic celebration. I would quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love which he loved us to the end, even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease.
Celebrate 2000...
Reflections on Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and the Father
by Pope John Paul II
The Trials of Marriage Can Be Redemptive We must remember that, since the love of Christ, the Bridegroom, for the Church is a redemptive love, the love of Christian spouses becomes an active participation in Redemption.
Redemption is tied to the Cross: and this helps us to understand and appreciate the meaning of the trials that the couple's life is certainly not spared, but which in God's plan are meant to reinforce their love and bring greater fruitfulness to their married life. Far from promising his married followers an earthly paradise, Jesus Christ offers them the opportunity and the vocation to make a journey with Him which, through difficulties and suffering, will strengthen their union and lead them to a greater joy, as proven by the experience of so many Christian couples, in our day as well. [TPS 40/1, 1995, 28-29]
Copyright 1991, Archdiocese of Chicago Liturgy Training Publications.
What do the words Ordinary Time mean? Dorothy Day observed, The words 'Ordinary Time' in our prayer books put me in a state of confusion and irritation. To me, no time is ordinary. She was right. The Ordinary in Ordinary Time refers to ordinal counted time, not to a lack of something to celebrate. Here is what the Roman document, General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, has to say: Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character [Advent, Chrismastime, Lent, Triduum and Eastertime], 33 or 34 weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects.
How do we celebrate the mystery of Christ in all its aspects? We gather every Sunday. Sunday is the original feast day in our tradition. Christians have gathered every Sunday the day of Christ's resurrection, the first day of the week ever since there were Christians.
Each year there are two blocks of Ordinary Time, one in the winter between Christmastime and Lent, and the other stretching through summer and fall, from Pentecost through Christ the King. When we gather on Sundays in Ordinary Time, as always, we hear the scriptures proclaimed. This summer and fall we hear the gospel according to Mark on most Sundays. For five Sundays in July and August, we hear from the sixth chapter of John's gospel. (Last year during Ordinary Time we heard Matthew's gospel every week, next year it will be Luke's). The first readings, from the Hebrew Scriptures, were chosen for their relationship with the gospel passages this summer and fall we will read from 15 different books. For the second readings, we listen to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Ephesians; we also hear from the letter of James and the letter to the Hebrews. The mystery of Christ in all its aspects unfolds.
What is the heart of our Sunday celebrations? We do our eucharist; that is, we do our thanksgiving. We praise and thank God for all creation; we pray for the whole world, as we remember Christ's life, death and resurrection. We share the bread and wine, the body and blood. We are sent forth to be the body and blood of Christ in our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities, our country; our world.
What happens in our churches every Sunday is the fruit of our week. What happens as the fruit of the week past is the beginning of the week to come. Sunday is simultaneously a point of arrival and departure for Christians on their way to the fullness of the kingdom. This is not ordinary at all. This is the fabric of Christian living. (Saint Andrew Bible Missal, [Brooklyn: William J. Hirten, Co., 1982]
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi - the Body and Blood of Christ. This is a feast that celebrates the mystery of the Lord's enduring presence in our midst through the gift of His body and blood given in the Eucharist.
"We cannot live without the Eucharist!" This was the conviction of the early Christian Community. It was a conviction that came from a deep awareness of their own spiritual hunger to be nourished by the Lord's Eucharist and the vital importance of gathering as a community of faith around the table of Word and Eucharist
The Eucharist is indeed a gift. This gift of living, life-giving bread is the unifying motif of the lectionary readings for today's feast. God is pictured feeding His people, graciously and powerfully, across the ages of salvation history. The gift of manna sustained the Israelites in the wilderness.
Like them, we too need to be sustained and nourished on our journey of life with the "living bread come down from heaven." The gift of the Eucharist bonds the Christian assembly in community. The community gathered around the table of the Lord has always been diverse. But it is the Lord Himself who unites this diverse gathering into oneness with Him and each other. St. Paul in the second reading makes it clear that he saw in the Eucharistic elements the sign and source of what we are called to be. Jesus, the living bread, figured in the manna and present in the Eucharist, establishes us in an everlasting life that begins here and comes to fulfillment hereafter.
As we celebrate this feast in our Pillar community, it is a good time to reflect on the Eucharist and its importance for us. Eucharist really means thanksgiving. What are we thankful for? Count the blessings and bring them to the table of the Lord. We give thanks especially for the gift of Jesus to us. We unite our lives with His in the Eucharist and together with Him, offer our lives (as they are) with Jesus to the Father. We are nourished with the bread of life, remaining in Jesus and He in us. Our lives then become Eucharist for one another. We grow strong on this Bread of Life so that we can feed one another. Life bread broken, we feed one another in loving service. This is Eucharist. This the Bread of Life embodied in our lives.
Father James Tobin, S.M.
Pastor
1. A five-year-old said grace at family dinner one night. Dear God, thank you for these pancakes... When he concluded, his parents asked him why he thanked God for pancakes when they were having chicken. He smiled and said, I thought I'd see if He was paying attention tonight.
2. A little boy's prayer: Dear God, please take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and me. Oh, please take care of yourself, God. If anything happens to you, we're gonna be in a big mess.
3. One Sunday in a Midwest city a young child was acting up during the morning worship hour. The parents did their best to maintain some sense of order in the pew but were losing the battle. Finally the father picked the little fellow up and walked sternly up the aisle on his way out. Just before reaching the safety of the foyer the little one called loudly to the congregation, Pray for me! Pray for me!
