O Sacrament Most Holy!

 

The Solemnity of

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

(Corpus Christi) 18 June 2022, St. Lambert

Gn 14:18-20

1 Cor 11:23-26

Lk 9:11b-17

Praised be Jesus Christ!

        Corpus Christi: The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

        This week, in the runup to our celebration of Corpus Christi, I have had to take another look at what has been described as a crisis of faith among Catholics in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I am doing so in the light of statements I have come across made by relatively younger men (young for me would be not yet 50 years of age). I have been confronted by statements by various younger men, all of them seemingly faithful Catholics, who express their understanding for the results of that recent Pew Research survey and other surveys which peg faith among Catholics in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist at 27% or less. It would seem that over 70% of Catholics polled in these surveys, do not believe that the Blessed Sacrament is really and truly Christ; they refer to the symbolic value of the consecrated bread and wine, but no more, and some even less.

I was sort of taken aback to discover that this story of the last year, which has a lot of people expressing their shock over the lack of faith in one of the central teachings of the Church doesn’t seem to shock these younger men. They are not happy about it, but they claim they can understand it, where it is coming from and how something as tragic as this could happen. For two generations now children have not been taught the faith either at home or in their Catholic schools; they have no idea what the Church believes and teaches. Let me give you two examples of such men and their observations which recently came to my attention!

In the one case, I just listened to a podcast by Fr. Mike Schmitz (a priest of the diocese of Duluth and quite popular on Catholic media). Fr. Mike comes from a good Catholic family but does not seem to have avoided in his own life as a child a major crisis of faith, and this already in elementary school. In the video in point, he recounts his own personal conversion at age 15, his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ really and truly present in the Eucharist. The other man, an Irishman who discerned out of a religious community in favor of marriage and family, expresses himself in his video as quite convinced that practically no one in Ireland born after Vatican II has actually been formed in Catholic faith. For him it is obvious that people without any formation in the faith cannot be expected to believe in Christ present in the Sacrament. Remember, this man says this of himself, having been a professed religious, who should have been better formed in the faith.

        Until I took time for these men’s opinions, I was shocked by the lack of faith pointed out by the surveys and which I had encountered in the lives of Catholics, let us say, around the world. I had my own theories about remedies for the situation, but which I fear fell short of the real problem of the countless number of people in the Catholic Church who simply do not know Who Jesus is.

Let me say that this is not a new crisis in the history of the Church and that in some ways it takes us back to the origins of the Feast of Corpus Christi, which was historically intended to reaffirm the faith in the transubstantiation, in Christ really and truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, under the forms of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist. The beautiful office composed for this feast by St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us what we must needs believe, what the Lord Jesus Himself taught and which we find recorded in the Bread of Life Discourse in Chapter 6 of the Gospel of St. John (cf. vv. 47-51). “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

        There are people who claim that the Feast of Corpus Christi is no more than a duplicate of Holy Thursday. Some approved authors argue in favor of this duplication simply for the fact that as Holy Thursday is situated right in the middle of our reflection on the Lord’s Passion that it is good to have another feast so that we can focus on all that is contained in this great mystery. Which mystery? That of the real Presence in the Eucharist of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man! With all of its beautiful old hymns and customs, Corpus Christ is intended as an aid to our faith, to help us embrace the great truth that Our Savior has not abandoned us, but at Holy Mass in the memorial of His Passion, He comes to us really and fully in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. In the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar the Son of God feeds us with His very Self and strengthens us with heavenly nourishment for life’s journey to the Kingdom.

        Our first reading this year is taken from Genesis and speaks about Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, bringing out bread and wine to Abraham, a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. From this Old Testament passage Abraham’s reverence for the priest-king Melchizedek and for the sacred gifts he bears is all too evident. And to think that the Eucharist is so very much more!

        In today’s Gospel passage from St. Luke, we read about the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and the fishes, Jesus feeding over five thousand, feeding their bodies and by His teaching feeding their souls as well. “They all ate and were satisfied.” … “Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God.”

        Traditionally, a big part of Corpus Christi were always the beautiful outdoor processions with the Blessed Sacrament, Christ carried out of church and through the streets to encounter and bless His people. One of the most hopeful signs in the Church of our times has been the rise in the practice of Perpetual Adoration. Here at St. Lambert’s, we have public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament here in church from after Thursday morning Mass nonstop for just short of 24 hours until just before Friday morning Mass. Other places, like the Adoration Sisters chapel across from the Cathedral are open for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament all day, every day, with one of the sisters in turn keeping watch and praying the whole time.

        Some of the youth retreat movements and other Church events and celebrations incorporate times of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and we have lots of testimony to vocations inspired or confirmed in the hearts of young people who spend time with Christ adoring Him in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

        My duty today is obviously to confirm you in your practice of coming to adore Christ here exposed on the Altar at special times, or at any time here reserved in the Tabernacle. If you are not in the habit of taking even a little bit of time on a regular basis to keep our Eucharistic Lord company, then I am here to challenge you as well to come and give Him His due. Christ must rule in our hearts and moving our bodies to come and kneel before Him is the best evidence that we are doing our part to seek His Holy Face. “Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God.” … “They all ate and were satisfied.”

        O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI