Year of Saint Joseph
Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"
In other years: Saint Norbert (1080-1134); Saint Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840); Saint Jarlath (-540/550)
Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:55
Mass: Ex 24:3-8; Resp Ps 116; Heb 9:11-15; Sequence Laud, O Zion; Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
Laud, O Zion, your salvation.
HEART OF JESUS, TABERNACLE OF THE MOST HIGH,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
There are so many things to consider about today's solemnity that, sadly, I don't know what to write! Memories go to at least two years, one when I had the privilege of being in Orvieto, Italy, on this great feast. Orvieto with it's magnificent cathedral and great Eucharistic procession with participants dressed in period costume. And there was one year in Rome, when I remember preparation for the Eucharistic procession through the neighborhood with the local parish. I see still one of the sisters where I lived sweeping the sidewalk and carefully clearing the area surrounding the convent for the procession. I also remember the name of a textbook I had in early theological studies entitled Between Memory and Hope by Maxwell E. Johnson. I thought of it especially last night when I listened to the reading proclaimed at Vigils. It was an excerpt from a reflection or homily given in 2014 by Bishop Robert F. Morneau, quoted in the publication Give Us This Day (June 2014). Perhaps I also got some comfort in knowing that I am not alone in putting into words the meaning of this great feast.
Thousands of books have been written on the theology of the Eucharist. Theologians have struggled for centuries to put into words the overwhelming mystery of God's self-giving in the sacrament of Jesus' body and blood. That struggle continues ...
One of the great doctors of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, maintained that the Eucharist has three major components: memory of the past, a present grace, and hope of eternal life. We experience all of these; we remember what Jesus did at the Last Supper in giving his body and blood and then dying on the cross; we celebrate at the altar God's love and life (grace) that nourish us to go forth in compassion and service; and we look forward to the day when, with the communion of saints, we will participate in the heavenly banquet.
On this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ we cry out our "Amen!" So be it! In affirming our faith in the Eucharist we are also committing ourselves to serving the poor, showing compassion to the suffering, forgiving those who have injured us, and expressing our gratitude for all God's gifts.
After all, as we know from the Lumen Gentium Light of the Nations, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the whole Christian life (LG 11). Amen.
Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
SAINT NORBERT,
SAINT MARCELLIN CHAMPAGNAT,
SAINT JARLATH,
SAINT JOSEPH,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Yesterday, early evening. Laud with hymns of exaltation, Christ, your king and true shepherd.
© Gertrude Feick 2021
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