June 2020

Corpus Christi Sunday – June 14, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor /

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi complements the liturgy of Holy Thursday when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. That is why it is always celebrated on a Thursday. It arose in the Middle Ages as an expression of the faithful’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. It was celebrated first as a local feast and then Bishop of Rome, Urban IV, suggested it be a universal feast in 1264. It became associated with procession through the towns and villages of Europe during which the monstrance which contained the sacred host was carried under a festive canopy and the crowds knelt as the Blessed Sacrament passed to receive the blessing.

We are reminded in Deuteronomy how Israel in the past escaped from the slavery of Egypt and celebrated this freedom at the Passover meal. But God continued to feed them with manna as they made their hungry way through the desert to the promised land. And then later Jesus himself at Passover celebrated a meal with His disciples at which He gave them His body and blood, which looked forward to His sacrifice on the cross. At each Mass the past is remembered and Jesus’ death is recalled. But at the Eucharist Jesus’ body and blood are really present now under the appearances of bread and wine. It is the crucified and risen Christ who is received in this sacred meal. We receive life from Jesus, the life He shares with His Father. This food is a present reality; it feeds us now.

On this Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi we can reflect on the past, present and future riches of the sacrament and let our lives be filled with Christ’s grace. He left the Eucharist as a way of reminding us of the sacrifice He made. But in the Eucharist that sacrifice is made present for us today and becomes a call for us to share our lives as Jesus did. We go to Mass to show our devotion and to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. And finally this feast can remind us that we are on a journey. We are pilgrims. When we get too settled in our worldly ways and live as though this world is all that concerns us, the Eucharist reminds us of our true destiny. We are called to share in that final heavenly banquet with God and all the saints.

Corpus Christi Sunday – June 14, 2020 Read More »

Holy Trinity Sunday – June 7, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor /

Aristotle famously said that human beings are political animals. By that, he didn’t mean that we all belong to political parties or have certain ideologies. In his terms Aristotle meant that we are designed to live in community. He thought that the basic unit of human society was the family, and several families gathering together made the polis, or basic political unit. We learn by imitating others and being taught by others. We love telling stories, we have a need to create, and we build and trade. As well as this social aspect, we can also have a rich interior life. We can imagine, have daydreams and capture in our minds the essence of things. As somebody once said, we are the only animals who keep diaries to record and reflect on our inner life.

God is eternally one, but also a communion of Persons. The interior life of God, if we may put like that, is the eternal communion of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: one sole God in essence, with three distinct Persons. Here we have to exercise our spiritual muscles to receive the reality of the Trinity, where, in the words of St. Athanasius: “In that Trinity there is no before or after, nothing greater or lesser: because the three Persons are co-eternal and equal among themselves.” So we are social creatures because God is communion. We are rational creatures because the divine Trinity is the fountain of all reason, order and intelligence.

God does more than create us; we are also redeemed. God could have redeemed us with just a word of command. But God wishes to enter into the life of God’s beloved creatures to heal and raise them to participate, by grace, in the divine, eternal life. So great is God’s desire to share communion with us that Jesus Christ, who is both divine and human, was prepared to suffer and die on the cross to communicate that love. Jesus also sent the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to dwell within the Church, and dwell within each one of the baptized. In fact, the whole of the Trinity dwells within us when we live a sacramental life in the Church, when we pray, in our life of good works. We are made for communion, communion with each other and communion with God.

Holy Trinity Sunday – June 7, 2020 Read More »