Letter from the Pastor
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June 11, 2023Today the Church celebrates the very important Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist, Blessed Sacrament and all the other titles regarding the greatest treasure the Church possesses.
Why is there a specific celebration for Corpus Christi? Don’t we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass? The history of the feast begins with Saint Juliana of Liege (1193-1258), who had a great reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. She, after having mystical visions, began the cause for the feast day of Corpus Christi. She thought that the Eucharist deserved its own exclusive day of reverence and recognition. This day would be apart from Holy Thursday, when the Church fo
cuses on not only the Eucharist but also the washing of the feet, the ordained priesthood, and Jesus in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Saint Juliana was motivated by a recurring mystical vision of the Church as a full moon with one empty, dark spot, which she interpreted as the absence of a specific feast day to the Holy Eucharist. She worked more than 40 years for the cause until her death. In her later years, she gained the support of Jacques Pantaléon, at the time Archdeacon of Liège, and other Church leaders. Pantaléon was later elected Pope Urban IV and went on to establish the Feast of Corpus Christi. He asked St. Thomas Aquinas to write the prayers and hymns for the Mass and the Official Prayer of the Church (the Office in the Breviary).
Today’s feast helps us in celebrating and expressing our gratitude to the Lord who gave us Himself to nourish us on our earthly journey. Christ’s abiding presence is always with us in the Blessed Sacrament. We can come and visit the Lord anytime we want. We can receive our Lord every day if we wish.
The Eucharist is the center of the Catholic Church because Jesus Christ is the center of Catholic life and worship. The Church still professes, as it has for two millennia, that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ Himself. The Eucharist is the source, the center and the summit of the Christian life.
Our Lord is here on earth again in the Eucharist, just as He was two thousand years ago. He is not just present in a memory of the mind; He is not just spiritually present. He is on earth, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. The Doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is an absolute necessity. Why? Because the Church could not continue in its work without the bodily presence of Christ on earth today. The Real Presence is at the heart of every Mass, through the miracle of transubstantiation. That is, that while the bread and wine continue to have all the appearances of bread and wine (color, shape, taste, calories, gluten etc.) at the Consecration the substance (what a thing is) is changed, through the words and power of the priest to actually be Christ’s real and true Body and Blood.
So after we receive Holy Communion, you return to your pew and kneel down and thank God for giving us Christ, thanking Jesus for giving us Himself in the Eucharist who is now in physical and spiritual union with us. What a wondrous gift!
Beware
Please beware of the people who stand on the sidewalks or in the parking lot “begging” for money because they are “homeless or without food.” Sadly, they are frauds; do not give them money. I have offered them food cards to Shop Rite and they refused, I have offered them food items that you so generously give each month, and they don’t want that either. After they take your money, they fold up their sign, and file into a nice 2020 Dodge van and drive away to the next Church. Other pastors have complained about them as well. If you keep giving them money they will return. I know you want to be charitable, but one must be prudent first.
