Franciscan at Home

The Feast of Corpus Christi last month was a momentous event in the life of the Church in the United States. The celebration of this liturgy begins a Eucharistic revival, a period of historic importance that will culminate in a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in the summer of 2024.

Click here to register for this bi-lingual training in the Come, Follow Me method of catechesis.

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Each year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Corpus Christi: “the Body of Christ” in Latin. Of course, every Mass is a special celebration of the Body of Christ because every Mass is centered on the Eucharist. But for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Church, in a particular way, invites us to be especially mindful of this mystery of faith, to embrace more fully the sublime magnificence of that which is the centerpiece of our religion, the very heart of Catholicism.

When we come forward to receive Holy Communion, we bow our heads in reverence to the gift that we are about to receive. Some people genuflect before receiving. Some people even fall to their knees in order to receive in the holy posture of kneeling. And if we receive Holy Communion on the tongue, then we open our mouths like helpless infants seeking to be fed; if we receive on the hand, then we hold our hands up like helpless beggars hoping for some charity, presenting the open hands like holy thrones upon which Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will be seated when we receive him. “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” These words we say together, and they are the final words we speak before coming forward to receive the Lord. Because indeed, we are not worthy to receive Him. But he permits himself nonetheless to be received by us because it is only by his grace—and our words and actions done in faith in our response to his grace—that we are made worthy.

And this is pure gift, pure grace. We can do nothing to earn this, nothing to merit this, nothing to make ourselves worthy, only that we receive this precious gift in a state of grace and with proper disposition of heart and soul—humbly, worthily, and well.

Behold, the pierced One. Behold, the Lamb who was slain. Behold, the Suffering Servant, and the risen and glorified, majestic, and triumphant Lord. Behold, the Body of Christ.

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It’s strange to say it, but I love how we Catholics celebrate funerals. Even atheists walk away from our Masses of Christian Burial in awe. If only they (and likewise our own faithful people) could appreciate with greater fullness the rich spiritual heritage that surrounds Christian death!

Beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is the place where tradition tells us the Angel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary. An altar stands in this grotto, inscribed with these words: “verbum caro hic factum est” (the Word became flesh here).

At the Last Supper, Jesus celebrated his farewell meal with his disciples, the celebration of his approaching death and resurrection. It was the culmination of the entire saving mission of the Lord, as well as the assurance of the power of that very same event being ever present in time and space.

The bread, the Lord tells us, represented his body given for us, the wine his blood poured out for us. In celebrating this sacred meal with his disciples, Christ was giving to them, and to all mankind, what he had already offered to his heavenly Father, namely, his own self as a redeeming victim. All of this was accomplished through sacred signs, which continually made present this saving sacrifice so that all humankind could forever unite and share in it. Consequently, after the Ascension, when the glorified, risen Christ took his rightful place at the right hand of the Father, he did not leave us orphans but continued to act and to dispense grace through the Eucharist and the other six sacraments he had instituted during his earthly ministry. These would be sources of living grace that would flow into the hearts of all those who through faith would participate in them.

All of this is accomplished through humanly perceptible signs and symbols that not only signify grace but effect it through the power of the Holy Spirit. Initially, this saving event of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection took place in time and in history, once and for all, while simultaneously and in reality, transcending all time through the action of the Holy Spirit, the great catalyst who is always active in the liturgical life of the Church. “Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations." (Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (December 4, 1963), no. 7) Having come to us from the Father, Jesus now leads us back to the Father.

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This is a paid advertisement in the January-March 2021 issue. Advertisements should not be viewed as endorsements from the publisher.