The Feast of
Corpus Christi
at St. Mary’s
in Salem
5-6 June 2021
For whatever reason, certain events over the course of my
lifetime stand out vividly in my memory. You could say they are visually
imbedded in my brain and with little or no effort I can conjure those images up
at will. One of those memories is of today’s feast and my experience as a
seminarian studying in Rome (way back in the 1970’s) of the Corpus Christi
Procession in Orvieto, Italy.
There
are many colorful processions on Corpus Christi not only in Italy but around
the world. Typically, the streets where the Blessed Sacrament passes are
decorated with beautiful carpets of flower petals, but there are other customs
as well. Just a couple years back, I presided at the Corpus Christi Procession
in the Swiss village of Domat-Ems, where the whole route of the procession through
town is lined on both sides with fresh saplings six or more feet tall, cut from
nearby forests, and the whole track around town from one outdoor altar to
another was strewn with fresh hay. The images in my brain from that day are not
so vivid as Orvieto, but I recall that it all looked very pretty and smelled
nice too!
The
Orvieto procession is more though, in a sense because it marks the historical
origins of the feast of Corpus Christi. On the morning of the feast, each year after
Mass, the procession departs from the big church in the center of town and
makes the rounds of the streets. A group of men carrying on their shoulders the
huge monstrance in the shape of the façade of that great shrine, with the
lunette containing the Sacred Host in the place where the rose window should be
and below it, behind the church facade’s wide-open front doors, all can see the
blood-stained corporal and altar-stone, which are relics of the ancient miracle
which confounded a doubting German priest’s reservations concerning the
doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the
Blessed Sacrament. A set of large
tapestries depicting various aspects of the miracle and illustrating our faith
in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist are also carried through town as
part of this very public display in Orvieto. I am thankful for such vivid
memories.
The history of today’s feast gives me pause to think about
the results of recent popular opinion polls, which indicate the high percentage
of people claiming to be Catholic, but who do not believe that Christ is truly present
in the Eucharist. Orvieto and the Feast of Corpus Christi reminds me that
doubting the doctrine of the transubstantiation is not just a thing of our day.
It is a recurring drama in the life of the Church and an ongoing challenge to
the proclamation of the Faith. As St. John’s Gospel recounts, the Lord Jesus
Himself was rejected by many followers because of His teaching and invitation
to them to eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood so as to have life in Him.
Be assured that I have no illusions about a beautiful liturgy
and a great procession being sufficient to settle people’s doubts about this
most Catholic of doctrines, which takes us to where God the Father would have
us, namely safely within the Sacred Heart of His Beloved Son, Jesus, our Savior
and our Lord. Beauty converts, it changes hearts, but not always. Beauty can
confirm us in faith, it can help sustain us amidst the vicissitudes of life,
but not necessarily and inevitably with absolute success.
What to do? I suppose there is lots that we can and should do
to stir up the faith in our own hearts and within the Catholic community. We do
so first and foremost not relying on an annual procession but starting with
ourselves and in our own homes. An ongoing thought or meditation of mine this
year during our Easter Season just completed had me reflecting on the call for
us to love Christ. St. John the Evangelist pushes love of God in Christ Jesus
as primary. He teaches it clearly as rooted in obedience to God’s commands. To
hear and obey Christ’s word is the only credible evidence of our love for Him. Negatively
expressed, snubbing someone is evidence that we do not love that person. So too
with God, we are not really bound closely enough to the Lord Jesus if we fail
to hold to His Law, that is, if we refuse to obey His commands.
We were once part of a culture which lauded prompt obedience.
That is no longer true. Regardless of the merit of the cause, it is the
dissident today who is admired and even venerated above all, I guess, for
having the grit to stand up to the establishment. Obedience to God, however, is
something greater, as discrete as it might be.
The
evangelical counsel of obedience is an attribute linked to that gift of the Holy
Spirit, namely, the fear of the Lord. Sadly, woke folks and “snowflakes” have
no time for fear, except when they can wield it as a political weapon. I am
grateful to have never had any problem making sense out of the Holy Spirit’s
gift of the fear of the Lord and seeing it as a terribly positive thing. You
see, I learned it from my father in his expression of his deep love for my
mother. Dad absolutely feared to do anything which would offend Mom. His fear
was not so much anxious but rather chivalrous and therefore all the more felt. It
was the underpinning of his love for his bride. So, it is in our relationship
to God; my love of the Lord is and must be grounded in a zeal called fear,
which can inspire and sustain my unswerving obedience.
On a
day like today we should presume reverential fear as the soul of our obedience
out of love, just like Christ’s obedience to the will of the Father even unto
death, death on a Cross, for the glory of God and the sanctification of man.
Presuming the virtues of faith, hope and love, let us allow our own little
spectacle here in Salem at Sunday Mass, maybe not as memorable as Orvieto’s or
that of Domat-Ems, let us allow it to fill our eyes and hearts and leave us
with something to conjure up on dark days so as to confirm us in the faith that
Our Loving Lord is here present and active, not just in spirit, but in the
flesh!
Praised
be Jesus Christ!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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