The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Corpus Christi, proclaims the faith of why we gather Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to give thanks to the Lord our God. The mystery of the Eucharist is at the centerpiece of our Catholic Christian faith. With the proclamation of our Bishop, Bishop Matano, we have been celebrating the Year of the Eucharist this past year, and we officially conclude the Year of the Eucharist with this Feast Day. Please God and with the Blessing of our Bishop, may we continue to celebrate for the rest of our lives placing the Eucharist at the very center of our prayer lives. May our first prayer be the prayer that Jesus asked us to do when He said: “Do this in memory of me.”
As I celebrate my 50
th anniversary as a priest with much joy and gratitude, I personally go back 66 years to when I was a fifth grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School and I was preparing to becoming an altar boy. A very treasured memory I have was being with my dad in my parent’s bed room, and my dad was teaching me not only to memorize but also to learn the meaning of the prayers at the Foot of the Altar back in the days when Mass was celebrated in Latin. My dad would take the part of the priest (My dad came by the priest’s part quite naturally as his brother and one of his sons and one of his grandsons are priests). My dad said: “Introibo ad altare Dei.” Translation: “I will go to the altar of God.” Then my dad would make sure I had the response spot on: “Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.” To God who gives joy to my youth.
Now as I celebrate my 50
th anniversary as a Priest, what my dad taught me 66 years ago continues to be the center of my faith life: I will go to the altar of God – to God who gives joy to my youth. Thank you dad for sharing your faith with me.
If you permit to be a bit personal for just a moment, I wish to thank Bishop Matano for your presence at this liturgy. Quite simply, it means the world to me and I thank you. I am grateful for my brother John and my sisters Anne and Jean for your love and support over these many, many years. While my brother and my sisters and myself were never fully understand why in the plan of God our older brother Bill and our sister Susie had significant neurological disease that ultimately shortened their lives, we are believers that my brother and sister Sue are present in us in this liturgy. I am also most grateful to my nephews and nieces, my grandnephews and grandnieces, my brother priests, the wonderful, wonderful staff of St Joseph’s and Holy Spirit. I can’t say often enough the joy I experience in your love and affirmation of me. I’m grateful to see my grandnephews Dane and Grant as altar servers and all my nieces and nephews participating in this liturgy.
Lest I go too far down memory lane, I wish to focus on the mystery of the Sunday Eucharist. As we participate in this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we are reflecting on the central prayer of our faith tradition. We are part of a tradition that is nearly 2000 years old. The Sunday Eucharist is our participation in the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus. The Sunday Eucharist satisfies the deepest hungers of the human heart. I remember the words of my ordaining Bishop, Fulton Sheen, who said: “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.”
I suggest our deepest spiritual hungers are for Jesus’ power to love and forgive his enemies rather than embarrass and crush them. What we hunger for is Jesus’ power to be bighearted; to love beyond his own family, and to love poor and rich alike; to live inside of charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, despite everything in life that militates against these virtues.
Left to our own will power and our own desires, we get too easily trapped in self-centeredness. The truth of the life of all of us is that we are deeply flawed by sin. The way we are wired is that for us to satisfy the deepest hunger of our human hearts, we need to be connected to the mystery of God’s love that is within us. It is as a Eucharistic people, we are in to touch with the source of grace that enables us to be our best selves, the person we are called to be.
As a Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude. We gather to give, to give thanks to the Lord our God. We give thanks because we have been fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with a food that enables to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives.
As we approach the altar and receive Communion, it is as if the Church is filling up with Christ. We are not only in union with Christ; we are in communion with all those who receive him. This is the meaning of Church. The Church is a People of God who are in union with Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist. We are also a people in communion with all those who receive Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gathers his disciples with the context of something very old – the Passover meal – to give them something very new -- the Eucharist. He creates for them a new covenant.
The Mass is our greatest prayer; we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God. Yet it is what we do outside the Mass that also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday. By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ. Go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives in all that we say and do this day and every day.
As we transition now into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, it is with considerable joy for me as a priest to preside over this Eucharistic mystery in which we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord. We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.
The words taught to me by dad, whether in Latin or in English, continue to be lifegiving for me and for us: “I will go to the altar of God. To God who gives joy to my youth.” Introibe ad altare Dei…Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.