What Corpus Christi means to me (and you too!)

“Since the Spirit is in the Word, it is evident that the Spirit is in God through the Word. So if the Spirit comes into us, the Son and the Father will also come and make their home in us. For the Trinity is indivisible and the divinity is one.”

(St. Athanasius)

Jesus took on all of humanity’s offenses against God past, present and future, and atoned for us by His horrendous crucifixion. By His resurrection and ascension, He was enthroned as King over all of creation and brought our humanity, wounds and all, into the Trinitarian mystery. “Jesus ascends into Heaven, mankind ascends with Him. For now, the human nature of the Son is part of God.“ (Fr. Horgan) And now He wants to personally perfect each of us individually so as to join in union with God, which has always been our destiny.

“Christ fully reveals man to himself” (John Paul II, 1979, n.8)

Beautifully explained by Sr. Teresa Benedicta Block, O.P:

“…the Eucharist is alive. Jesus doesn’t give us a dead piece of flesh, he gives us his very self in all its entirety. When I go to Mass, and receive the Eucharist, it is not merely a symbol of God’s love, or a gesture of my own belief. No, I am face to face with the living God. Receiving the Eucharist is the most intimate encounter a person will ever experience. The living God sees our hearts perfectly. The person who is closest to you in the entire world, doesn’t know or love you as much as God does. I know that when I receive the Eucharist, God looks at me and wants me—he wants me because that is what the Eucharist is: God giving his life for me. The Eucharist is God proclaiming my worth and coming to spend personal time with me.”

As we celebrate this Feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrate our family heritage in the Body of Christ. What does Corpus Christi Sunday mean to us?

• It means Jesus is more than just a brother who’s got my back and a shoulder to cry on.
• It means I don’t have to go through life a victim to my brokenness.
• It means that every time I receive the Eucharist with desire for Him to recreate me, He does, little by little.
• It means that, through the Eucharist, the entire Trinity resides in me.
• It means that I physically take His presence into the world around me as Christbearer.
• It means that walking around the neighborhood with the monstrance isn’t a symbolic ritual. It is sanctifying the creation before my eyes.

Parishes across the country will hold a Corpus Christi procession is this Sunday. What are the purposes to this procession?

“1) that the Catholic doctrine receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife;

2) that the faithful who love and seek truth and piety may be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue;

3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be extirpated and repaired;

4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.”

Now that may sound like it speaks of 21^st century America, but it actually is the Lord speaking to St. Juliana in the 13^th century!

Our country is returning to mass. Let us do so with pure hearts and prayer. Some final words of wisdom from Servant of God John Hardon SJ:

“that person in the state of grace has A CLAIM on God’s love and the promise of His extraordinary care in their regard”.

“nothing has so great a power to obtain grace for us as prayer, and rightly made. Hidden in the mystery of prayer is a supernatural providence by which God had predetermined from eternity to bestow the graces he foresaw we would pray for”

In that light, recall that every few moments, at an alter somewhere in the world, Jesus is offering His body and blood to God. Continue to consecrate Pope Francis, our clergy and religious, and your intentions to the sacrifice of the mass at this moment in time.

0 Holy Mother of God, pray for the priests your Son has chosen to serve the Church. Help them, by your intercession, to be holy, zealous, and chaste. Make them models of virtue in the service of God’s people. Help them be pious in meditation, efficacious in preaching, and zealous in the daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Help them administer the Sacraments with love and joy. Amen. (St. Charles Borromeo)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

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John Paul II. (1979, March 4) Redemptor Hominis. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor-hominis.html

Cover Photo by Jacob Bentzinger via Unsplash

Image of field procession by Deutsche Fotothek‎, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE  via Wikimedia Commons

Image of priest & monstrance by Grant Whitty on Unsplash