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 50th 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 50th 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 Bill 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.
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