Feast of Corpus Christi - June 2

Corpus Christi: This is Fr. Jeff’s Homily, which begins like this.  I am the bread of life. In the year 2009, I was distributing communion to the faithful when a young woman approached and extended her hands to receive the Eucharist. Almost as soon as I had placed the Host in her hands, she began moving away and in the process she dropped the host. Standing over the fallen Host lying on the ground, a slight giggle, shrug of the shoulders, and re-extended hands, her body language said to me, ‘Ooops, I dropped it. Can you give me another one?

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”.

August 15, 1996 an elderly Eucharistic minister was distributing the Precious Body of Christ to the faithful in a parish in Buenos Aires, Argentina when a similar accident occurred. Not wanting to consume the Host because it was dirty after falling to the ground, he asked the priest to pick it up. Reverently the priest placed the Host in a receptacle of water and put it into the Tabernacle where it would dissolve with time. Six days later when the priest examined the Host that should have been dissolved by now, he was perplexed by what he saw. The Eucharist seemed to have grown in size and was covered with red splotches. 

Leave it for a few more days, he thought; it’s just a matter of time. But then with each passing day the Sacred Species took on the appearance of coagulated blood, until eventually the Host looked like a piece of flesh. The bread that I will give is my flesh. A miracle! Perhaps, but first this had to be investigated. A lab in Buenos Aires examined a sample from the Host. The scientist discovered red blood cells, white blood cells, and hemoglobin, but what perplexed him the most was that the cells were moving and beating. 

Three years later Dr. Ricardo Gomez was called in to perform a more thorough examination. He sent a sample from the Host to a lab in New York but didn’t tell them what it is; he wanted them to tell him what it is. They did. It’s a living muscle from a human heart.

Now the year is 2004, Dr. Gomez had located a unique doctor named Frederick Zugibe whose expertise in examining the heart of a dead person allows him to know the nature of the person’s death. He too was given an opportunity to examine the Host without knowing that this heart was formerly a round wafer of wheat bread. His findings? 

The heart belonged to a person who had been severely tortured. So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. 

After his examination, Dr. Zugibe passionately said to Dr. Gomez, You have to explain one thing to me, if this sample came from a person who was dead, then how could it be that as I was examining it the cells of the sample were moving and beating? If this heart comes from someone who died in 1996, how can it still be alive? When Dr. Gomez explained to Dr. Zugibe that it was the Eucharist, he nearly pulled his hair out of his head in shock. 

Backtrack to the 8th Century in Lanciano, a town in southern Italy where a priest was celebrating the Mass doubting that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. As he raised the Host, it instantly transformed into a piece of flesh in his hands. In the 1970′s this piece of flesh, which remains available for veneration to this day, was tested by a leading Italian doctor. His findings? It is living muscle from a human heart. Dr. Gomez decided to cross examine the Host from Buenos Aires with this Host from Lanciano.

Amazingly, both hearts were found to have come from the same person. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. My brothers and sisters, our faith proclaims to us the wondrous mystery that Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. It’s no mere symbol, no mere reenactment. It is the Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ! What I place in your hand or upon your tongue is not a ritual piece of bread. I place God in your hand! I place God on your tongue! 

I know that even after telling you the story of the Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires, I haven’t proven this. I can never prove this truth, because it’s a matter of faith. However, all I’m asking my brothers and sisters is that you ponder the story I shared with you today. 

Perhaps, the skeptic in you calls it all a bunch of lies. Perhaps, the unimpressed call it a coincidence.  

Perhaps you’re a person of faith and you’re in awe at what I’ve shared with you. All I ask, Fr. Jeff continues, is that if there’s the slightest inkling in your hearts that what you receive in the Eucharist is the flesh of God, then please my brothers and sisters, never let the lance that pierced my heart in 2009 when that young woman stood carelessly over God’s fallen Body pierce my heart again. Please treat this mystery which you receive with the reverence God deserves. 

Conclusion: The tone of those words, almost became a tone of pleading on Jesus’ part, “This is my body,” “please believe me; this IS my body and I want all of you to believe and to receive my Heart of Love!” We are so blessed to have the Eucharist!!! Anyways, I’d be happy if you should share this homily with others; these are the miraculous stories that God wants us to share so that our faith can be strengthened. As it says in the Scriptures, “Encourage one another while it is still day.” It’s sort of like the Transfiguration which was revealed to Peter, James, and John so that they could persevere through the Passion and death of Jesus.

Introduction: Corpus Christi

Message: Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, offers bread and wine as a blessing upon Abram.  Jesus fulfills this offering, giving us his own Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine.  Thus is our hunger satisfied in abundance as we make our pilgrim way to the heavenly banquet feast.

Saints and Events in this Week:  3-Monday-Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs; 5-Wednesday-Saint Boniface, bishop, martyr; 6-Thursday-Saint Norbert, bishop; 7-Friday-The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; 8-Jun-Immaculate Heart of Mary;

IX Sunday-OT: Corpus Christi: Jun-2: Gen14:18-20; 1Cor-11:23-26; Lk9:11-17

IX Sunday-OT: Corpus Christi: Jun-2: Gen14:18-20; 1Cor-11:23-26; Lk9:11-17

Augustinian nun Juliana of Liège had a vision in which a glistening full moon appeared to her. The moon was perfect but for some hollow dark spots which she was told represented the absence of a feast of the Eucharist. This led to the celebration of the feast of the Body of Christ, Corpus Christi, which was introduced into the church calendar in 1264.

The most precious gift that Jesus gave to his church is that which we celebrate today, the gift of his own body and blood in the form of bread and wine.  "Eucharist (Gr., eucharistia, thanksgiving), the Sacrament and sacrifice of the New Law in which Christ the Lord is Himself present, offered, and received under the species of bread and wine. The name is from the account of the last Supper."

The will of Jesus does not say a word about what Jesus taught. Its focus is on what Jesus did. He gave his body to his followers as food and his blood as drink. Remember, this was taking place in the context of the Passover meal. So Jesus was presenting himself as their Passover lamb. The Israelites in Egypt had to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb to identify themselves as God’s own people. They marked their doorposts with its blood as a sign to keep away the angel of death. Every Israelite was supposed to participate in this ritual every year to renew their identity as God’s people who enjoy God’s special blessings and protection. Seen in this light, the Eucharist becomes for us the place where we come to renew ourselves as God’s new people in Christ.

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.  Food becomes Life-giving, relief, comfort, love, relationship, and occasion of socialization.  For Christ it is sacrament and also a sacrifice.

Practical applications:  Jesus invites us to the banquet. “Do this in remembrance of me … Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (verses 24-25). Folks, this is the last thing Jesus asked us to do before he died. He asked to keep doing it as often as possible until his return in glory (verse 26). Why then is it that many of us take the Eucharist so lightly? We seem to be so ready to skip attending Mass at the slightest excuse: “I just didn’t feel like going … We were on vacation … I don’t like Pastor John’s preaching, I seem to get more from the TV service.” But no amount of television programming can take the place of Holy Communion. Let us today ask our Lord Jesus to increase our faith in the sacrament of his body and blood which he gives us in the form of bread and wine.

Introduction: Corpus Christi

Message: Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, offers bread and wine as a blessing upon Abram.  Jesus fulfills this offering, giving us his own Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine.  Thus is our hunger satisfied in abundance as we make our pilgrim way to the heavenly banquet feast.

Saints and Events in this Week:  3-Monday-Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs; 5-Wednesday-Saint Boniface, bishop, martyr; 6-Thursday-Saint Norbert, bishop; 7-Friday-The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; 8-Jun-Immaculate Heart of Mary;

The Most Holy Trinity Sunday: [c]Prv 8:22-31;Rom5:1-5;Jn16:12-15

The Most Holy Trinity Sunday: [c]Prv 8:22-31;Rom5:1-5;Jn16:12-15

Introduction: The Easter season is over. It was concluded last Sunday with the Pentecost. Today we return to Sundays in Ordinary Time. If there is one theme that marks the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, it is the theme of growth in Christian living. The liturgical color green symbolizes life and growth, as we know from nature. Ordinary Time will take us to the end of the liturgical year. If the theme of the Ordinary Time is growth, why then does the church choose to come back to it with the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity? Growth is a practical, everyday concern but the Trinity seems to be high up there, a matter of theological and philosophical profundity.

Exegesis: When we are personally caught up in the mystery of the love of God, then we shall find the rationale and the motivation to work for our personal growth in Christian living.  The easiest place to understand trinity is to begin with love.  The First Person of the Trinity is the Father.  Jesus taught us to call His Father, Our Father.  Actually, more than the formal “father” we are to call Him “Abba” or “Daddy”.  This is not the view that many of us have of the First Person.  We tend to see the Father only as the all powerful Creator with a view similar to the way Michelangelo presented Him on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But the Father is Love.  He created us out of love.  He sent His Son to deliver us from the death that selfishness and hatred brought upon the world, to restore us to His Love.  The Abba loves us.

We can certainly understand the Love of God in the Second Person, the Son.   Jesus Christ is Love Incarnate, Divine Love taken on human flesh.  There are many ways that He pours His Love on us; certainly the central way was through the sacrificial love of the Cross.

Our ability to respond to the Creative Love of the Father and the Compassionate Love of the Son is infinitely more powerful than any love the human soul can produce.  We have been given the Spirit of Love, the Power of Love, the Holy Spirit.

Event: There is a very old and much-repeated story about St. Augustine, one of the intellectual giants of the Church.  He was walking by the seashore one day, attempting to arrive at an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.  As he walked along, he saw a small boy on the beach, pouring seawater from a shell into a small hole in the sand.  "What are you doing, my child?" asked Augustine.  "I am emptying the sea into this hole," the boy answered with an innocent smile.  "But that is impossible, my dear child,” said Augustine.  The boy stood up, looked straight into the eyes of Augustine and replied, “What you are trying to do - comprehend the immensity of God with your small head - is even more impossible.”  Then he vanished.  The child was an angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson.  Later, Augustine wrote: "You see the Trinity if you see love."  According to him the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Loved One and the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of Loving. This means that we can understand something of the mystery of the Holy Trinity more readily with the heart than with our feeble mind. Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek monk of the 4th century who came from what is now Turkey in Asia and later lived out his vocation in Egypt, said: "God cannot be grasped by the mind. If God could be grasped, God would not be God."

Joke:   One parishioner said, “Our pastor is a lot like the Trinitarian God because he is invisible in the rectory during week days and incomprehensible on Sundays because I don’t understand his sermons.”

Practical Applications:  1) Let us respect ourselves and others because everyone is the temple of the Holy Spirit where all the three Persons of the Holy Trinity abide.

2) Let us have the firm conviction that the Trinitarian God abides in us and that He is the source of our hope, courage and strength and is our final destination.

3) Let us practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children, because by baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family.

 4) Let us practice the I–God–my neighbor vertical and horizontal Trinitarian relationship in society by loving God living in others. 

Introduction: The Most Holy Trinity

Message: We are at peace with God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.  God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  This Spirit, who is Wisdom itself, will lead us into all truth.  How wonderful the name of our God in all the earth.

Saints and Events in this week: 27-Monday-St.Augustine of Canterbury, bishop; the Memorial Day;  31-Friday-The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 1-May-Saturday-Saint Justin , martyr.