Corpus Christi, June 6, 2010

Jack and Thommy
Good Morning

June 6, 0013,
Feast of Corpus Christi [now named the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ]
A new beginning? Beginning anew?

A feast of wonders and high ceremony. High Mass. Incense. Procession. Knights. Double genuflections. Used to be its own day [Thursday after Trinity Sunday]; now it’s a Sunday - we’ve given up on personal ‘obligations’ for community worship; don’t want to expect too much; the everyone gets a trophy generation insidiously seeps into our Church’s expectation [I.e., our expectations of ourselves. Yes, I was going to Mass just about daily; then burrowed into a mole hole; now I’m peeking out again. Videbimus.]


Catholic Encyclopedia plus comments….

St. Juliana of Liège. The feast of Corpus Christi, one of our most magnificent celebrations of faith, devotion, and community, is also a story of people, relationships, and how things get done in our least perfect of institutions, our Church. The back story of this feast is the biography of a little girl born at Retinnes, near Liege, Belgium in 1193. At the age of five, she lost her parents. Tragic! Crushing! She must have had family and villagers who wondered why God does/allows such horrific things to happen to bright little girls: thus, creating burden on “it takes a village”. If we stopped the clock at this moment in 1198, we might commiserate with our own “woe is me”, remember what happened to me at five! Gawd awful! [read: God was awful. But that’s an oxymoron.] One of the oft repeated ‘clichés’ on ESPN is, it doesn’t matter what negative thing happens to you, something bad will happen to you, you have to know that. What’s important is how you respond to it. In St Juliana’s case, it’s how she and the village responded.

Juliana, at five years old, was placed in the Augustinian convent of Mont-Cornillon. At the turn of the thirteenth, this girl, in the convent, read the writings of St Augustine and St Bernard! Go figure! At home with her parents, she might not have learned to read at all. Imagine what a bright, educated woman meant to thirteenth century Belgium; our Church as it waded into the dark ages.

Juliana cultivated an ardent love of the Blessed Virgin [not atypical for nuns], the Sacred Passion [if we did hindsight pabulum psychology we might say we’d expect that from a girl who lost her parents at age five], and, especially, the Blessed Sacrament. Juliana, as a young sister, exerted every energy to introduce the feast of Corpus Christi. [note, not the Body and Blood. Juliana was a Blessed Sacrament devotee.] We each should have our own devotions. Mary should be on the list - Mary, Virgin; Mary, Joseph’s Wife; Mary, Mother; Mary, our Mother, Mother of the Church, quintessential Mother and Wife; Mary, first taken body and soul into heaven. What other devotions? Persons. Faith. Mysteries. Start with some that are common in our family, in the parish, in the Church. Devote yourself to whom/whatever bring you closer to God.

In 1206 Juliana made her vows. Juliana had her first vision of Christ’s instructing her to initiate a Feast devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. These visions persisted for the next twenty years. She did not tell anyone until she later told her confessor who told their bishop, Robert De Thorate. The bishop ordered the celebration of this feast in his diocese in 1246 - a practice permitted at that time. She also made known her ideas to the learned Dominican Hugh, later cardinal legate in the Netherlands, and to Jacques Pantaléon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, afterwards Bishop of Verdun, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and finally Pope Urban IV.

In 1230, she was chosen superioress by unanimous vote of the convent community. Juliana had a rigid definition of virtue and her own unimpeachable character created tensions within her community. [Still a common occurrence today.] Remember the role of the convent in the community, in the local church; and the place of the local church and diocese in our Catholic Church world wide in the thirteenth century. The rise within the convent of a pious, smart, and educated woman was a blockbuster event for the community…. And remember the humanity of it all!

In 1233, Roger, a vicious and scandalous man, secured, by intrigues and bribery, the position of general superior over Juliana’s convent. Can you say misogynist? How do you think Juliana took to good ole Roger? The community knew both people for whom they were. Juliana, in her virtuous, pious, and righteous way, reproached Roger. Telling your boss off is not the way to win favor; but not entreating and reproaching one’s sinful superior, especially religious superior, is your own sin of omission. Soul first; job second. Roger incited the local populace against her. We are known by our enemies as well as our friends.

Juliana fled to the cell of St Eve of Liege, who became a close and life long associate. John, a canon of Lausanne, gave Juliana a house to live in, which act also renewed Juliana’s standing in the greater community. Robert de Thorate, Bishop of Liege, Juliana’s confessor, ensured Juliana was vindicated in the courts and restored to her position in the community. Roger was ousted. But the world turns. If you think you’re on top, on solid ground, remember Juliana and Roger. Watch your back. There’s a reason why monarchs killed their enemies, and their children, when they ousted them.

In 1247, Roger returned to power and drove out Juliana again. Juliana spent the next eleven years on the move: Namur then Fosses where she lived out her life as a recluse. Were we to stop Juliana’s life at any one spot, we would make very different judgments, take very different lessons. We are given an entire life to live: with God’s purpose; and it all matters per se as well as a uniform whole in service to God.

After her death, miracles occurred at her intercession. In 1869, Pius IX beatified her. Her feast is April 6th.

Jacques Pantaléon became pope 29 August, 1261. The recluse Eve, with whom Juliana had spent some time, and who was also a fervent adorer of the Holy Eucharist, now urged Henry of Guelders, Bishop of Liège, to request the pope to extend the celebration to the entire world. Urban IV, always an admirer of the feast, ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi in the Thursday next after Trinity Sunday. This Office, composed at the request of the pope by St. Thomas Aquinas, is one of the most beautiful in the Roman Breviary.

The papal decrees which established the Feast did not speak of the theophoric procession as a feature of the celebration. This procession, already held in some places, was endowed with indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. This is a feast which we’ve hidden from ourselves. Go to the processions; rock with faithful!



Andrew Greeley.

The gospel today is of course Eucharistic in its intent. While the story happened before the last supper, it became part of the Gospel after the last supper and for the early Christians it was an allusion to the last supper. It connected the ordinary food that God serves us at our regular meals, the extraordinary food Jesus served at the multiplication of the loaves, and the supernatural food of the Eucharist. The point is that there is a continuity between a family supper and the Eucharist. Both refer to one another. Both tell us something about each other. The Eucharist invades our home and sanctifies our regular meals. And our regular meals illumine the Eucharist as a family and community feast.

Remember to say grace before and after meals, even the meals on the run, in the car, gobbled down in the midst of study. … Let the Eucharist inform your daily bread. It is the only way to bring your ordinary meals, your daily life, with you to the Eucharist.

Story:
Remember the two little kids who (as they would later tell the story) “almost drowned” in the storm on the lake? After their father had brought them ashore, what did he do? Well, of course, he gave them something to eat. Now their father was not much of a cook and their mother had gone shopping with their big sister. So he didn’t know quite what to give them to eat. What would you like to eat, he asked them. Ice cream, said the little boy. Chocolate ice cream said the little girl. With chocolate sauce, the little boy insisted. And whipped cream the little girl added. And raspberries, the little boy finished their litany of wants. Well, the father wasn’t even very good at making chocolate ice cream sundaes with raspberries and chocolate sauce and whipped cream. But his little kids wanted it and they had just recovered from at terrible scare so he did his best. And do you know what else he did? WELL, he cut a banana down the middle for each of them and emptied the whipped cream can and called it all a banana split. And the kids love every bite of it. And you know why the daddy made the banana splits for them (and they didn’t even know what a banana split was!)? Sure you know why! He was their daddy and he loved them.







June 6, 2010
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Reading 1
Gn 14:18-20
In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram with these words: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

This could be grace before meals: Blessed be you by God, the creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who delivers this food into your hands.

Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4 Responsorial Psalm
R. (4b) You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.”
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
"Rule in the midst of your enemies."
"Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you."
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
"You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."

It wasn’t until the last line that I figured out the relevance of this psalm for today’s feast. I got nuthin’ else.


1 Cor 11:23-26 Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I was listening to this at Mass Saturday evening. Sitting down. I thought I was hearing the gospel. But no, this is Paul passing on what was given to him; and what we are expected to pass on to our family, friends, community, Church. St Francis of Assisi, I think it was he, said ‘preach to the world, use words if necessary.’ He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, handed it over saying Do this in memory of me. It was the sign on the road to Emmaus from which the despondent disciples recognized Jesus in their midst. How more perfectly to show to others Jesus in you life, in their life, than to break bread, bless it, share it, and ask them to pass it on [do this in memory of me].!?

As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Do so daily. At Mass. At home. Wherever you are.



Lk 9:11b-17 Gospel
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.

This is the Jesus of whom we speak, in whom we believe, through whom we go to the Father. He is the Work who heals us of that which we need to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."

Jesus led them to a deserted place. By Chapter nine in Luke, Jesus knows who He is. He’s aware of the circumstances around Him. And the Apostles just don’t get it quite yet. They’re in a pickle. Before the crowd gets hungry, raucous, starts blaming Jesus for taking them to the middle of no where, the Apostles’ plan is to have Jesus send them all away, to fend for themselves. The Apostles do not have any idea for what they might do themselves. Jesus has led them there, too. They might have considered going to Jesus with ‘what can we do, Lord, to serve these soon to be very hungry and cranky people?’

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people." Now the men there numbered about five thousand.

Pray as if everything depends on God. Act as if everything depends on you. Jesus turned it around. Give them some food yourselves. Still they did not get it. They went to Jesus to get him to solve the problem. Jesus gives them a solution. And yet of insufficient faith in who He is, they rebuff Jesus’ plan. Of course, Jesus’ plan will not always, or often, sound like our plan. The question is, are we praying for us to do God’s will or for God to do our will?

Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty." They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

Jesus persisted: probably gently but firmly. Please do as I ask. Work with me here. From me, because of me, with me, you can and will feed those who need the blessed food which I have to offer you and them. I will pour out my Love through you. And, after you’ve given all that you have received from me, there’ll be untold amounts left over. For I am a loving God, a bounteous God, a giving God beyond your imagination.

They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.


Deo Gratias!


I love you.
Dad