The celebration of Corpus Christi is always a special time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. It should be, because we celebrate the enduring self-gift of Jesus Christ by which he fulfills his promise to remain with us always until the end of time.
It seems even more important when we recall the feast was directly asked for by the Lord himself through his apparitions to the Belgian mystic St. Juliana of Liege in the early 13th century in anticipation of the Eucharistic miracle of Orvieto-Bolsena. In response to Jesus’ wondrous self-gift, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that we ought to “dare to do all we can” to express our faith, love, and gratitude.
But this year’s celebration of Corpus Christi should be more special still, as it is taking place within the three-year-plus Eucharistic Revival in the Church in the United States. Hopefully you have been keeping up with all of the events in our parish, our Archdiocese and Country. Did you know the national pilgrimage and procession with the Eucharist has begun and one of the stops will be right here at our parish on June 27?
We’ve invited everyone to return to or grow in their participation of the Eucharist this past month, and to begin this weekend as we celebrate our individual parish’s 42nd anniversary. The celebration of the Eucharist is the most important emphasis of every parish, and it is there that we celebrate God and the community of the Church more than any other event. I invite everyone to upgrade from occasional and committed attendance; from looking at Sunday Mass as an obligation to viewing it with eager love for God; from showing up to Mass to really praying the Mass; from going on Sunday to going also during the week. Did you know we celebrate Mass every Wednesday night at 5:30? A nice mid-week treat!
Today’s Solemnity celebrates the great gift of the Eucharist that Jesus gives the disciples at the Last Supper – and gives each of us when we gather for Mass. Not everyone is able to receive the grace of the Eucharist because they are not Catholic, or they feel unwelcome for assorted reasons such as divorce or choosing to marry outside of the Church, those struggling with addictions, or who are disenchanted with the Church. WE need to remember that Judas, too, shared the meal as well as Peter, who Jesus knew would betray him. This meal is not a prize for the perfect, but as Pope Francis reminds us, it is medicine for the weak. Are we not all weak? We should dare not to ever think we are more or less worthy than anyone else to receive God’s mercy for as we say before communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Let us celebrate the opportunity we have to live up to the name of our parish, by receiving THE Corpus Christi, so that WE may be His body and blood to the world.
God Bless,
