Corpus Christy
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
If you wonder, what is the most precious gift that Jesus Christ gave to his church? The most precious gift that Jesus gave to his church is that which we celebrate today, the gift of his own body and blood in the form of bread and wine.
Flannery O’Connor, the noted writer of the mid-twentieth century, tells a story. She took a Protestant Lady friend with her to Mass a few times and after a short time the Protestant decided to become a Roman Catholic. She asked why she reached this decision. The Lady answered, “Well, the Priest is horrible and the sermon is so terrible, I knew there must be something else there to make all these people want to come.”
For us believers, this power of the Eucharist to attract people is justification enough to believe in the Real Presence.
Most of you may remember that in 1985 every television in the country showed footage of a woman who got pinned beneath a falling crane in New York City.
The TV cameras showed a team of paramedics fighting to keep her alive until a large crane could be brought in to lift the fallen crane from her.
The medical people gave her fluids, blood transfusions, and massive doses of painkiller. Then came the dramatic moment. The woman had a request of her own. She asked for the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. This too, the television cameras caught in all of its moving drama. It was a beautiful witness to the woman’s faith in the Eucharist.
Eventually, the woman was freed and rushed to a hospital, where a team of medical people saved her life.
Because we usually receive the Eucharist each time we go to Mass, we can tend to fall into the habit of receiving it routinely. As a result, we can tend to lose our appreciation of it.
Let me make this suggestion today. As you walk down the aisle to receive the Eucharist later on in Mass, focus your thoughts in a special way on who it is that you are to receive into your body.
A man who had had a few too many drinks stumbled across a Baptism service on a Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeded to stumble down into the water and stand next to the Minister. The Minister turned, noticed the man and said, "Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?" The man looked back and said, "Yes sir, I am."
The Minister then dunked the fellow under the water and pulled him back up. "Have you found Jesus?" the Minister asked. "No, I didn't!" said the man.
The Minister then dunked him under again, brought him up and said; "Now brother, have you found Jesus?"
"No, I did not!" said the man again. Disgusted, the Minister repeated the dunking, brought him up and demanded, "For the love of God, have you found Jesus yet?" The man wiped his eyes and said, "No sir I have not, but are you sure this is where he fell in?"
Many of us, when we hear the name of the feast that we celebrate today, the Body & Blood of Christ, think of the consecrated bread and wine. And, on one level, our thinking is true. If, however, our experience stops with this understanding and goes no further, then we miss something that is most significant. It is true, as I said, that the consecrated bread and wine are the Body & Blood of Jesus, but equally important, so are we. This is what happens when we celebrate the Body & Blood of Christ, that we are the Body & Blood of Christ.
St Thomas who composed Lauda Sion (Laud, o Zion) teaches us “The purpose of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to achieve unity among the members of the Body of Christ.
In other words that Body on the Altar is for the sake of this Body in the pews. All of us, rich, poor, black, white, whatever our ethnic background, whatever language we speak, are united in Christ because we are caught up into his Body and Blood when we receive him in Holy Communion and he receives us.
Pope Leo I, who lived back in the fifth century says, "The effect of our communion in the Body and Blood of Christ is that we are transformed into what we consume." Do we realize this? My dear brothers and sisters!
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, our Pope Benedict XVI, who we might call "the theologian of the Church," says, "The Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the Church; they do not simply stand side by side; they are one and the same; it is from there that everything else radiates."
Yes dear brothers and sisters, this great feast invites us to ask ourselves, what does Holy Communion mean to us? If we do not appreciate it as much as we did the first time we received Jesus, then something is not right! Today when we come to receive Jesus, try to receive Jesus as if we were doing so for the first time- or for the last time- in our lives. Only a loving God could have given us such an unimaginable gift. The greatest gift ever we can receive when we are alive.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
If you wonder, what is the most precious gift that Jesus Christ gave to his church? The most precious gift that Jesus gave to his church is that which we celebrate today, the gift of his own body and blood in the form of bread and wine.
Flannery O’Connor, the noted writer of the mid-twentieth century, tells a story. She took a Protestant Lady friend with her to Mass a few times and after a short time the Protestant decided to become a Roman Catholic. She asked why she reached this decision. The Lady answered, “Well, the Priest is horrible and the sermon is so terrible, I knew there must be something else there to make all these people want to come.”
For us believers, this power of the Eucharist to attract people is justification enough to believe in the Real Presence.
Most of you may remember that in 1985 every television in the country showed footage of a woman who got pinned beneath a falling crane in New York City.
The TV cameras showed a team of paramedics fighting to keep her alive until a large crane could be brought in to lift the fallen crane from her.
The medical people gave her fluids, blood transfusions, and massive doses of painkiller. Then came the dramatic moment. The woman had a request of her own. She asked for the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. This too, the television cameras caught in all of its moving drama. It was a beautiful witness to the woman’s faith in the Eucharist.
Eventually, the woman was freed and rushed to a hospital, where a team of medical people saved her life.
Because we usually receive the Eucharist each time we go to Mass, we can tend to fall into the habit of receiving it routinely. As a result, we can tend to lose our appreciation of it.
Let me make this suggestion today. As you walk down the aisle to receive the Eucharist later on in Mass, focus your thoughts in a special way on who it is that you are to receive into your body.
A man who had had a few too many drinks stumbled across a Baptism service on a Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeded to stumble down into the water and stand next to the Minister. The Minister turned, noticed the man and said, "Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?" The man looked back and said, "Yes sir, I am."
The Minister then dunked the fellow under the water and pulled him back up. "Have you found Jesus?" the Minister asked. "No, I didn't!" said the man.
The Minister then dunked him under again, brought him up and said; "Now brother, have you found Jesus?"
"No, I did not!" said the man again. Disgusted, the Minister repeated the dunking, brought him up and demanded, "For the love of God, have you found Jesus yet?" The man wiped his eyes and said, "No sir I have not, but are you sure this is where he fell in?"
Many of us, when we hear the name of the feast that we celebrate today, the Body & Blood of Christ, think of the consecrated bread and wine. And, on one level, our thinking is true. If, however, our experience stops with this understanding and goes no further, then we miss something that is most significant. It is true, as I said, that the consecrated bread and wine are the Body & Blood of Jesus, but equally important, so are we. This is what happens when we celebrate the Body & Blood of Christ, that we are the Body & Blood of Christ.
St Thomas who composed Lauda Sion (Laud, o Zion) teaches us “The purpose of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to achieve unity among the members of the Body of Christ.
In other words that Body on the Altar is for the sake of this Body in the pews. All of us, rich, poor, black, white, whatever our ethnic background, whatever language we speak, are united in Christ because we are caught up into his Body and Blood when we receive him in Holy Communion and he receives us.
Pope Leo I, who lived back in the fifth century says, "The effect of our communion in the Body and Blood of Christ is that we are transformed into what we consume." Do we realize this? My dear brothers and sisters!
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, our Pope Benedict XVI, who we might call "the theologian of the Church," says, "The Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the Church; they do not simply stand side by side; they are one and the same; it is from there that everything else radiates."
Yes dear brothers and sisters, this great feast invites us to ask ourselves, what does Holy Communion mean to us? If we do not appreciate it as much as we did the first time we received Jesus, then something is not right! Today when we come to receive Jesus, try to receive Jesus as if we were doing so for the first time- or for the last time- in our lives. Only a loving God could have given us such an unimaginable gift. The greatest gift ever we can receive when we are alive.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment