Homily for Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
14 June 2009
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
JMJ + AMDG

Well, I couldn't find a Holy Thursday homily from the past that could be recycled or rehabilitated for this year's Solemnity of Corpus Christi, so I'll try preaching on something new. Usually, Holy Thursday, the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, when we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist, is far enough away from today's Solemnity of Corpus Christi that you can get away with using some of the same themes, without any objections from people who may have been present at both homilies, but I couldn't really find anything from the past that I have done that was good enough that I wanted to bring forward to today. So let's talk about Eucharistic processions.

Today is a solemnity set apart not only for a deeper reflection on and celebration of the mystery of the Eucharist. Today is a day when we focus even more precisely on this sacrament of sacraments, the source and summit of the life of the Church, the instrument of our salvation, the body and blood of Jesus. But it is also a day when we as Catholics are encouraged to make the Eucharist more present in the world around us, and to propose to the world that Jesus has gifted Himself in a most perfect way, and has fulfilled His promise to remain with us until He comes again at the end of all time, through this Holy Sacrament. Today is a day when the Church is especially encouraged to take the miracle of the Eucharist out of the Church and to propose to the world that Jesus is truly present to us through the appearance of ordinary bread and wine. He is present to us fully and really and perfectly, body and blood, soul and divinity, and that whoever eats the body of Christ and drinks His blood, will never die, but has eternal life! Today is a day for Eucharistic processions around the world, and the practice of taking Jesus out of the Church, is a practice that is slowly coming back into Catholic piety. Today at 2pm there will be a Eucharistic procession co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph from St. Agnes Church in Roeland Park to Bishop Miege High School. Many people my age, and even some older than me, have never been in a Eucharistic procession, when the Eucharist, the most precious possession of the Church, is taken out as a way of proclaiming that Jesus Christ remains fully and really and perfectly with his people, not only spiritually, but through the gift of His body and blood. Even though He must be seen with eyes of faith until He comes again in glory, through the Eucharist, Jesus remains physically present to us, so that we can not only think of Him, but also be near Him physically, and what is more, we can prepare our bodies to be one with Him as He humbles Himself to be the food that sustains us to eternal life.

Whether or not we will take part in today's Eucharistic procession in Kansas City, we should all look for an opportunity to be a part of a Eucharistic procession when we can. Our faith changes dramatically when we take Jesus out of the Church. When you are part of a Eucharistic procession, you get a real sense of how private our faith in the Eucharist really is. You get a sense that this faith has become overly private perhaps, so that the Eucharist has become more of a private gnostic possession of the Church rather than something we greatly desire to share with the world. Until you get used to it, to be quite honest, it can be quite embarrassing to be doing something so absurd as praying in public while following a gold monstrance holding what appears to be only a piece of bread. Taking Jesus outside reminds us of how easily we take our faith in the Eucharist for granted when we are going to Mass, and how quickly we can shut that faith off when we go into the world, even if we don't mean to. What is more, taking the Eucharist outside reminds us that the Eucharist is not only the source of our unity as Catholics, not only the guarantee that we will remain one around the table of the Lord despite all the things that continue to try to tear the Church apart - the Eucharist is not only the source of our unity. It is also a great motive for evangelization, for when we try to take the Eucharist outside, either in Eucharistic procession or simply in trying to witness to our Catholic faith, we see how many people do not believe that Jesus could possibly be present in this sacrament, and we see that faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a most precious gift that we must not keep to ourselves. And we realize that we cannot cheapen the gift in order to share it, but we must bring people to real faith in the abiding presence of Jesus through the Eucharist. I am a firm believer that once someone has the gift of believing that Jesus is fully present to them in the Eucharist, their Catholic faith is unshakeable!! It is one thing for us as Catholics to wish others well. It is one thing to pray for their salvation. It is quite another to find a way to bring others to faith in the Eucharist, which is for us the surest path of salvation, for in eating the body and blood of Jesus, we have confidence that we are inseparably united with Him who once was dead but now lives forever. Through the Eucharist, we the Church are united with Jesus not only soul to soul, but body to body. For us Catholics, salvation means not only professing faith in Jesus with our lips, but accepting this gift of this sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice that fulfills our own desire to give our lives back perfectly to God, and being one flesh with Him as a bride is one flesh with Her husband. By taking Jesus out of the Church, we profess to the world that our faith in the Eucharist, the source and summit of the life of the Church, is worthless if we do not find a way to share it with those who do not yet believe that God loves them and wants to be with them forever in a most perfect way! +m