22 June 2025

22 June 2025 - Feast of Corpus Christi

Transcript

Reflect:   

I suppose you would like to know how my vacation went. It went well with – two exceptions. I forgot one set of pills and I forgot my Mass kit. I was already an hour into my drive when I realized I forgot them. I survived fine without the pills, even though my joints were – and still are – a little more sore. And I did survive without the Mass kit, even though that was the longest time I ever went without saying a Mass in all my years as a priest. I don’t want to do that again! I will come back to that.

But this is the feast of Corpus Christi – the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. I want to tell you a story that I was told many years ago. I knew an Army chaplain, in fact he worked for me in the parish I was in at the time. He had retired from being a chaplain, and as he was doing more reading, he discovered that his choice of being a Protestant pastor was not where God was calling him. He began to study the Catholic faith. He became convinced that he needed to become Catholic. That meant a huge change for him. He was pastoring a church in Iowa at the time.

But as he became more convinced, he had a struggle with his marriage because his wife was not ready to become Catholic. Finally, he convinced her to come with him to a Catholic Mass – at our cathedral no less. Well, while they were sitting during the Mass in the Cathedral, she reached over and grabbed his leg and said, “we need to be here!” Within a year they were both Catholic and my friend had to leave his job as a pastor. What was it that attracted her so rapidly? I never asked her, but, as I recall, my friend said that it was during the Eucharistic Prayer that she became convinced.

It was the presence of Jesus – in the Eucharist!

Now I want to return to my first point. As it turns out, I believe it was the hand of God that made me forget my Mass kit. I have been fasting from the Eucharist since last weekend. It has been a steady growth of desire in me all week long. For those of you who go to Mass every day, you probably understand some of what I’m feeling when you cannot make it to daily Mass. But there is… something… about the Presence of Jesus in the Mass that cannot be diminished.

Another story. A friend of mine came to see me when I was in a rural parish. She came with a friend of her son. She wanted some prayers for herself, but did not want to be there with only me. I appreciated that. But the young man that came with her had never been in a Catholic Church before. I sent my friend over to the church to pray for a while and the young man and I sat in my office and talked. I decided to go over to the church to check on my friend. The young man decided to come as well. We went into the sacristy and then into the sanctuary near the Tabernacle. As soon as he set foot in the sanctuary, he fell to his knees. He had no theology of the Eucharist. He had not been taught what the Presence of Christ is. He just knew he had to be on his knees!

[Pause.]

As I said, I have been fasting from the Eucharist since last weekend. For a priest that… proved to be very hard. But I believe it has prepared me in a new way for this feast day. I have always considered Corpus Christi to be one of the most important feast days in the church year. In many parts of the world, it is a Holy Day of Obligation that falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Here in the United States, we celebrate it a few days later. But thank God we do celebrate it!

I do not know how well I have ever communicated my love for the Eucharist in the way I celebrate Mass. I am not sure what my life would be like if I could not ever again celebrate Mass.

Can you even imagine what it would be like to have all our churches permanently locked? Can you even imagine what it would be like to not have Jesus available to us? There are those in the world around us that would not see it as… too great of a loss. But there is nothing – NOTHING – more important to the holiness of the world than what we do here, now! Some people, like my friend’s wife, gain an intimate understanding of the importance of the Eucharist with just one visit. Or like the young man in my story above who fell to his knees the first time he was in the Presence of the Eucharist.

There are so many stories in many people’s lives that are similar. Has Jesus touched your life in a powerful way by his Presence in the Eucharist? How often do you relive those moments? They are precious moments that God in his Great Mercies has handed to us.

At the end of Mass, we are going to delay saying the Saint Michael prayer. I’m going to take the Monstrance with Himself outside the front door and give a Corpus Christi blessing in the four directions. Since the Saint Michael prayer is a prayer for protection, we will pray that after the blessing. Please join me outside, after Mass. May our prayers there help to reclaim Midtown Catholic, our city, state, country – even our world for Christ.

Now I get to do the most important part of being a priest!

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