Sunday, 26 June 2011
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Solemnity
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| Nunraw Retreat House - Families Group |
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
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Chapter Community Sermon by Fr. Hugh
CORPUS CHRISTI
There is always a certain newness about the Christian Mystery. God's love is always new, bright and refreshing; something which gives a certain buoyancy to life which can at times be a little drab and monotonous.lt is perceived by faith, man's new organ of sight. The Holy Eucharist is like that; it exceeds all human comprehension because God's ways can be known truly but never adequately. One of the dominant features of the Eucharist is its giveness. 'This is my body which is given for you'. 'This is my blood which is shed for you' Christ gives himself completely in love to the Father and the Father returns this love which is the third person of the "Blessed Trin,ity, the Holy spirit. To celebrate the Mass worthily is to be caught up in this mutual self-giving.
It is to lead us to the Father that Christ gives us his body and blood as we share in the heavenly sacrifice which is the eternal sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross represented but never repeated. This is Christ’s greatest activity in which we are invited to share, a representation not only of his death on Calvary but of every moment of his life 'I do always the things which are pleasing to my Father.'
Every Mass is a social activity, whether it is offered with one or two people present or when it is presided, over by the Bishop of the diocese, who is the successor of the Apostles. Such a Mass is the fullest expression of the Church. As a social activity it involves both the Pilgrim Church, the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant. It is a family celebration in which the whole of the Mystical Body participate. Here we are united with all its members; for the Church is a Eucharistic society, a family which finds its greatest activity in the celebration of the Holy Mass. It is a family to which we all belong regardless of race or colour, poverty or riches, aged or young. All have their part to play. Here individuals find their completion in both contributing to the good of others and in receiving the help they helve to give us. Everyone in the family of the Church has something to give and something to receive. Here individuals and different races find their completion, racism is 8verC0rne and we -Te made aware of the universality of Christ’s Church.
In the text of the Eucharistic prayers we are made aware of the other members of the extended family who have gone before us, the living dead. The saints are our Christian ancestors from whom we have received the accumulated wisdom of the past who join us in or worship As the Orthodox express it in their Lenten liturgy; 'Now the powers of heaven are present with us and worship unseen.’
A welsh poet who died 1968 has expressede the same thought.
'There is no barier between the two worlds in the Church.
The Church militant on earth
Is one with the Church triumphant in heaven
'There is no barier between the two worlds in the Church.
The Church militant on earth
Is one with the Church triumphant in heaven
And the saints are in this Church which is two in one.
They come to worship with us our little congregation.'
They come to worship with us our little congregation.'
This is expressed in every preface of the Mass in different words such as, 'Therefore with all the choirs of angels and the whole company of heaven.' We 'j oin them in the Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy, The family members who have gone ahead of us are mentioned too when we o.onmemoz-at e the saints.
This worship unseen is symbolised by the use of incense. Its use in worship goes back to Jewish times and it is described in the Catholic Encyclopedia as a 'natural and beautiful symbol of prayer and sacrifice.’
In the Lord's Supper we are guests of Jesus. When we think of the sacred host our minds naturally go to the consecrated small piece of bread and this is right but Christ is the Sacred Host because it is He who presides at every Mass in which he is always the principle celebrant, welcoming us with infinite love .; a love which is expressed in the reserved sacrament waiting to be received in Holy Communion.
'Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone opens to me I will supp with him find he with me.'
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