Solemnity of Corpus Christi: The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ

06-02-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Fred Adamson

Dear Parishioners,

On February 14th – Ash Wednesday, we made a commitment to consecrate our Parish to the Most Holy Eucharist. We did so on Holy Thursday in the Garden of Repose after celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Many of you participated in reading the 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory book as well as the discussion/prayer group. It was a special way to make the Lenten journey and renew ourselves in the great gift of the Holy Eucharist. We extended the hours of Adoration on Wednesdays for all of Lent and Easter – to allow us time to be in His Eucharistic presence.

Today, we join the Church worldwide in celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi. In the United States, the US bishops have been promoting a period of Eucharistic Revival, which to me is a basic revival of the Catholic faith because Jesus in the Eucharist is the center of it all. When we gather as a community, we enter into the Divine Mystery of His suffering, death and resurrection. In an unfathomable way, we are drawn up into the saving action every time we celebrate the Mass. We enter into Eucharistic Glory by our being present to His REAL presence in the Holy Eucharist. It is a timeless and everlasting gift to the Church on Earth – it is bread from heaven that sustains us. It is a sign of the new covenant – His merciful saving love.

It is important that we continue to renew ourselves, our knowledge, our heart and our being in the Eucharist every time we come together as a community. We are Eucharistic people – what we receive we become, and are sent forth then carrying His Divine presence in our lives. We are called to be His love, His forgiveness, His peacemakers, His truth and mercy in the world because of what we have participated in and received – His Most Holy Body and Blood.

In the centerfold of the bulletin is a section of the Catechism that teaches us about the Eucharist. I encourage you to read it, rather pray with it. Take some quiet time, read it over and let a word or phrase touch you. Perhaps it is in a question that calls you to a deeper understanding, maybe an affirmation of what you already believe that gives you strength, or just a sense of wonder in the amazing gift of the Eucharist – the source and summit of the life of the Church.

My prayer as pastor, is that we all grow deeper in love for the Mass and the gift of the Eucharist. Every Sunday, the whole community gathers by the call of God the Father, who created us to unite with the Son, who saves us and to be sent in the name of the Holy Spirit, who empowers us. Sundays and the Eucharist are the great gifts of the Church. May your individual lives, the lives of your family and the life of this parish be renewed, refreshed and strengthened every time we gather, celebrate and receive the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus.

Blessings to everyone on this beautiful Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

United in Him,

Fr. Fred