REFLECTION: Corpus Christi, Enthroning the Lord

The Eucharist is a mystery that is meant to plunge its roots deeply into every area of our lives. It is a gift to be received and lived.

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - This Sunday is the Feast of "Corpus Christi", the "Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord", in the Western Catholic Church.

It is always an important day in my own personal life. It was on this day that I was ordained to the Diaconate in Christ.

There was a popular custom for years in the Western Church of processing the Eucharist through the public Streets. The Priest, accompanied by a deacon or another priest would lead the faithful in the Procession, singing hymns and leading in prayer.

This procession is undergoing a resurgence in many places as adoration of and devotion to the most Holy Eucharist experiences a wonderful renewal.

After having received the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, Catholic Christians come from the Sanctuary and process into the Streets of the world, pausing along the way for solemn worship, singing songs of adoration, and holding the Lord, enthroned.

The procession symbolizes the ongoing redemptive mission of Jesus Christ to the world as it is now lived out through his Church. I have fond memories of this beautiful event which stretch back into my early childhood. Since my ordination, it has also come to signify my call as a Catholic Deacon to go, as I so often say, "from the altar into the world."

As the years have unfolded in my life, the true beauty and profound symbolism of this Catholic custom has captured me, along with a deep appreciation for what it really calls us to become, living witnesses to Jesus Christ in the very real world of our daily lives.

We march with the Body of Jesus Christ, the Eucharistic Host, enthroned in a "monstrance", a sacred vessel made of precious metal where the priest or deacon enthrones the consecrated Eucharist for public worship.

This worship not only occurs in the Church sanctuary but is intended to inform a way of life wherein we spread our faith into the "city streets" of the entire world and allow our faith to inform and transform every area of our lives.

In this act of public procession we are reminded that God still loves the world so much that He still sends His Son through each one of us as members of His Body on earth, the Church.

This procession is a reminder of the baptismal vocation of every Christian, to carry on the mission of Jesus Christ, through His Church, until He returns.

At an interior level, it also symbolizes the universal call to holiness, to continuing conversion in Christ. We who are baptized are called into a very real communion with the Trinitarian God. He comes to dwell within us and we live our lives now in Him.

We are also called to allow Him to reign in every area of our real lives. We do that by living what spiritual writers often call a "unity of life".

The Feast is an invitation to reaffirm our belief in the implications of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is a fundamentally relational reality. It also means that we are to live differently.

We must fight the temptation to compartmentalize our faith into some "religious sphere" where it does not act as a leaven within us, and then through us for the world.

Through our Baptism, through our participation in all of the sacraments and, in particular, through the Holy Eucharist, we now abide in God. We live in Him and He lives in us. We also carry Him into the world as we carry the monstrance into the streets today.

Jesus told his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." We who have been given the bread of angels now have life within us; His Life - the very life of the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a communion of Divine Persons in the Perfect unity of Perfect love.

This is why this Feast of Corpus Christi follows the great Feast of the Holy Trinity in the Western Catholic Church calendar, to show us this profound connection. Through the Holy Eucharist, we are invited into the Trinitarian communion and then sent into the world to carry Jesus to others so that they all may join in the Feast!

The Eucharist is a mystery that is meant to plunge its roots deeply into every area of our lives. It is a gift to be received and lived. We are called into communion with the living and true God.

The implications are meant to unfold into a dynamic, daily encounter with a living God who calls us to continual conversion. This conversion happens in and through the very "stuff" of the struggles and travail of our daily lives; through the mistakes, the wrong choices, the failures, and even through the pain.

Through it all, the love of God purifies and refines us like the refiners' fire purified the gold that was used to make the many Monstrances that are being carried into the Streets of the world on this great and glorious Feast of Corpus Christi.

Often, especially in difficulty, the Lord appears to be hidden, as He does to so many in the Holy Eucharist. But, with the light of faith, He soon reveals Himself. Through the continuing work of grace - and our response to God's loving invitations - we really can become such "living monstrances", living tabernacles, wherein the Lord dwells.

Like Mary, the Mother of the Lord - and the mother of all who follow her Son - we are invited to give our "Fiat", our surrender of love, our "Yes" to the God of love. We are sent into the world in Christ, with redemptive love.

Through living our lives in the "Fiat" of surrendered love, we can carry Jesus Christ everywhere, just as we carry the Monstrance today. We can help to bring Him back into the lives of those who, knowingly or unknowingly, still hunger for Him.

We can enthrone Him in the center of the "City" of this age as we marched the Monstrance into the cities of the world today.

The early Eastern Church Fathers referred to the Church as the "world transfigured" and the "world reconciled." These insights help me to unpack the mystery of this great Feast. That reconciliation and transfiguration continues in our day.

The baptized, no matter what their state in life or vocation, continue this mission of Jesus Christ until He comes again. We do that through living in His Body, His Church, of which we are members. St. Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Philippi, reminded them--and reminds us--that our true "citizenship" is now established "in heaven."

While we live in this current age we participate in bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven. We now live in the Church, which is that communion of the faithful in Christ, and go into the world to bring it back to God in Christ.

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote: "So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation"

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we commemorate the great gift of God to mere mortals, the banquet of immortality.This God of Love, who chose to give Himself fully and completely to you and me, in and through His Son Jesus Christ, now feeds us in the most Holy Eucharist and transforms us into Himself.

He then reaches out through us to embrace a world that He still loves. He gathers that world back to Himself through the ongoing mediation and mission of the Church, which is the new world, renewed in His very Life Giving Spirit.

The same God who fed His chosen people Israel manna in the desert, satisfying their physical hunger, gives the Living Bread, the Eucharist, to satisfy the deepest spiritual hunger of every man, woman and child. In the Eucharist we receive the Lord Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, heavenly provision and eternal food for our earthly journey.

The great Western theologian, Thomas Aquinas wrote:

"Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in Him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues".

Our participation in the Eucharist is a communion in the very inner life of God. It is a call to continuing conversion and transformation. It is a call to participate in the transfiguration of the world.

When we feed on this heavenly food, the Lord comes to dwell within us and makes us like Himself. We then "give thanks" by living our lives differently. That is what the word Eucharist literally means, "thanksgiving."

We have received the Living Bread from heaven. Let us now become what we consume, enthroning the Lord in our daily lives and in the world.

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