Corpus Christi

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Corpus Christi, Eucharist, incarnate, real presence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Velveteen Rabbit

“Corpus Christi” is a Latin term for “Body of Christ.” It speaks of a mystery and as such is impossible to explain in the world of physical reality. The actual feast was promulgated in the Church in the thirteenth century by Pope Urban IV at the urging of Saint Thomas Aquinas to celebrate the real presence (“body and blood, soul and divinity”) of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The roots of the feast, however, go back all the way to the meal that Jesus celebrated with his closest associates before his death. We call it “the Last Supper.” Today’s lectionary readings include the testimony of St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians where he writes:

I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night before he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in in remembrance of me.”

From this testimony has come the doctrine of “the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.” Not just a symbol, Catholic teaching says, but real presence. How are we to interpret such a mystery?

It may seem irreverent to speak of the great mystery of this feast with reference to the story of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams but somehow it seems to make sense to me today. “What is real?” said the Rabbit to the Skin Horse one day? “Real isn’t how you are made ,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

At the Last Supper, it seems that Jesus was trying to make his friends understand how much he loved them and had tried to teach them the love that God had for them. He wanted to incarnate that love by giving them his whole self. We cannot understand that gift in a brief encounter. It takes a very long time to experience the depth of a love like that – for it to become real. When it does, it can never be taken away and then we realize that we, too, have become a real presence for the world.

The Whole Person

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Catholic school, education, Eucharist, job-training, saints, self-worth, St. John Bosco, teacher, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trade schools

When I was young, there were saints that held a special place in the hearts of Catholic school children, especially those holy people who were dedicated to education or who were young themselves when their “saintliness” was already evident. Most often, their influence was obvious at the end of the school year when final exam time rolled around. Today is the feast of St. John Bosco (1815-1888), one of the influential inspirations to whom we prayed for help with the answers on our tests!

St. John Bosco was dedicated to teaching children, first preparing them for receiving the sacrament of Eucharist and then gathering young apprentices and teaching them catechism lessons as well. Realizing the importance of a well-rounded education, he sought to connect the spiritual life of students with work, study and play. A novel idea was the addition to the curriculum of two workshops in shoemaking and tailoring; later he added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. Fr. Don Miller, OFM reflects on John Bosco’s interest in vocational education saying, “Because John realized the importance of job-training and the self-worth and pride that come with talent and ability, he trained his students in the trade crafts too.”  (http://www.franciscanmedia.org)

As we consider the value of institutes of higher learning, we also ought to be thankful for those graduates of trade schools who influence our lives in so many positive and sometimes essential ways: plumbers and electricians, skilled carpenters and roofers – and, in this modern world especially, those technicians who can fix the computers that have become such an omnipresent component of our lives. May we honor the diversity of the streams of education and celebrate the talents that animate gifted crafts persons who bring excellence to their work for the benefit of us all.

The Body of Christ

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call to service, Christ's body, Corpus Christi, Eucharist, loaves and fishes, miracle, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In the Roman Catholic Church, we celebrate today the feast that I grew up knowing as Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ). I had a strange moment as I navigated to the US Catholic Bishops’ website this morning. I must not have been fully awake because when I read the designation of the feast as The  Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ it sounded unfamiliar, full of pomp and ceremony – something I could not identify…until in the next moment I said to myself, “Oh, of course, it’s Corpus Christi Sunday!” and it became something familiar as in my mind’s eye I saw a procession to the Eucharist table, heard the congregation singing, Precious Body, precious Blood, here in bread and wine…punctuated by the repetition of the ministers of the Eucharist repeating to every communicant, “The body of Christ” in the most familiar and profound ritual of our faith.

Next I read the gospel, Luke’s rendition of the feeding of the five thousand (LK 9:11-17) where all sorts of random thoughts – maybe somewhat connected – followed from the text flowing in and out of my mind. Here are some that stuck. First, when the disciples told Jesus to dismiss the crowds after a day of preaching and healing so they  could go somewhere to find food, Jesus said, “Give them something to eat yourselves.” We know the story: they protest because of the huge crowd and the fact that all they have is 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and the cost to feed them all – even if they found food in or around this deserted place – would be prohibitive. Then follows the miracle where the food is distributed and everyone is fed. Imagine the surprise of the disciples who were doing the distribution! So next I try to think about that moment. It says Jesus looked up to heaven, said the blessing over the bread and fish, broke them, then handed them to the disciples to give out. So did the multiplication happen in the blessing? in the breaking? or did each of the disciples get a basket (where did those come from?) with some tiny morsel of food inside that then became a fullness as they walked among the crowds? Does any of this matter? The point is, it seems, that people were fed. But maybe just as important as that is the fact that the disciples were agents of the feeding even though Jesus had engineered the miracle. Can you imagine Jesus doing the distribution by himself? They would have been there all night or longer!

So what is the message here? Jesus left many signs in an attempt to teach his disciples (and us) how to be in the world. “Give them something to eat yourselves” was a clear directive – and it couldn’t have been easy to manage that in such a crowd – so the call to service is not always easy and never (if truly understood) prestigious but the “endgame” is worth the effort. My last random thought was “You are what you eat.” What we take into our bodies becomes part of us – for better or for worse. What the crowd – including the disciples, I presume – were eating in today’s reading as well as at the Last Supper and what we eat during the Eucharistic liturgy has been transacted into the body of Christ. Thus, we ourselves become Christ’s body as we eat and as we serve in Christ’s name. Just as the disciples could not understand the reality that they were witnessing in the midst of that crowd, our ordinary minds cannot perceive what truly happens each time we eat at Eucharist and go out to act as Christ’s body in the world. But as we wake up to the possibility contained in our actions, as we give ourselves more and more to a generous “becoming” for God in the world, the transformation becomes more evident, more luminous, and the effort is more than worth the gift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diving Deep

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article of faith, Christianity, Ephesians, Eucharist, Jesus, John, one, Paul, Proverbs, psalm 34, remain, Taste and See, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the will of God, wisdom, wisdom of knowing

Having just seen the ocean from a distance and longing to dive right in – one of my favorite metaphors for going deeper into mystery – I was drawn by the first line of the first reading to the topic of Wisdom this morning. Staying on the surface, taking things literally, does not allow us to understand the depths of things, perhaps especially when we are speaking of faith.

When Proverbs (9:1-6) tells us that Wisdom has built herself a house, we know that it would be impossible for a concept, an abstract characteristic, to accomplish such an architectural feat. So the author reminds us to forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding, and in this case that is easily done. Not so easy with the psalm refrain that sings (for the second time recently): Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. (PS 34) Paul is right there with advice about how to deal with that one as he says to the Ephesians (5:15-20) Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise…Do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of God.

All of that is preamble to the crux of the message in this morning’s Scripture readings. It is John’s gospel that contains more of the “hard sayings” than the others, and the hardest of all is perhaps what we hear this morning (JN 6:51-58). Jesus says that whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. Theologians have wrestled with this “article of faith” throughout the history of Christianity and belief in interpretation varies, but I’m thinking this morning of how shocking it must have been for those crowds of people who were listening to those words spoken for the first time by Jesus – probably most of them having no concept of metaphor or any way to understand what is obviously a deeper truth than the surface meaning.

It is the word remain that is the touchstone for me as I participate in Eucharistic liturgies and trust that something of Christ’s life remains in my spirit as the Eucharistic species are assimilated into my body. The more conscious I become about that truth, the more I will understand what Jesus was talking about on that shocking, long ago day. Then, and only then, will I be transformed, forsaking the foolishness that says I am separated from others and coming to trust the wisdom of knowing that we are all one, as Jesus knew and lived, and lives still in us.

Taste and See

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blessed, Christian, Eucharist, goodness, hymns, James Moore, look to God, Lord, praise, psalm 34, psalms, refuge, Taste and See, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It seems that in many of the Christian denominations the most often referenced source for hymns is the psalms. That seems logical because the psalms are always to be sung when they appear in worship services, at least in Roman Catholic liturgy. I have been sitting here for nearly a half hour now, surfing the internet for a good rendition of the song Taste and See by James Moore, based on Psalm 34. I have not been satisfied with anything I have heard although the tune and words are quite adequately represented by each example. I have come to the conclusion that it our heart-filled prayer in the singing of the hymn (myself with a congregation) that moves me so much every time – especially if it is sung during the procession to receive. I would still recommend a visit to YouTube but, since it all began with my reading of the psalm this morning, I will post those words that are, in themselves, a prayer full of trust.

Refrain [R]: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad. [R] Glorify the Lord with me. Let us together extol God’s name. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. [R] Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush with shame. When the afflicted ones cried out, the Lord heard, and from all their distress God saved them. [R] The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed is the one who takes refuge in God. [R]

Heritage

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Corinthians, Eucharist, Exodus, Hebrews, Holy Thursday, Jesus, John, Last Supper, love, love one another, memorial feast, Passover, Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, washing feet

This morning’s readings remind us that Eucharistic services only happen in the evening of this day as we read in the Hebrew Scriptures the story of the Passover from slavery in Egypt to freedom (EX 12) and in the Christian Scriptures the institution of the Eucharist during what we term the Last Supper. This year’s eight day celebration of Passover for our Jewish brothers and sisters begins tomorrow, coinciding with our remembrance of  the events of the Paschal Mystery as Jesus passes through death to new life.

Today’s first reading, the detailed instruction of how the Hebrews are to celebrate Passover, ends saying: “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate…as a perpetual institution.” I will always be grateful for the understanding I received about the way that happens in the Jewish Seder. When the stories of liberation are read, rather than seeing those chronicled events as past history, the Jewish people experience them as present. The stories are entered into as if they are happening as they are being read. After that realization came to me, I viewed the words of the institution of the Eucharist (which we hear from Paul tonight in 1COR 11) in a different and more vibrant way. And it is now when I hear those words that I can see myself in that upper room listening to the conversation about the new covenant that Jesus is instituting at the supper. Even more visual as the example of what that means for us is the action of Jesus in tonight’s gospel (JN 13:1-15) when he rises from the table and begins to wash the feet of his disciples. Having had just such an experience at a supper table on retreat in 2010, washing the feet of a friend and having my own feet washed in turn, I understand that these events are not past history or only meaningful stories, but are commands of Jesus for now as we live into our faith and come to understand ever more deeply what Jesus meant when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Discipleship, Anyone?

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Christmas, disciples, distribution, Eucharist, feed the hungry, give thanks, Jesus, link, loaves and fishes, Matthew, miracle, The Last Supper, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning we have Matthew’s version of the “loaves and fishes” story (MT 15: 29-37). He says there were seven loaves and “a few fishes”. Something struck me about the miracle that I hadn’t felt in the same way before this morning. The process for the distribution was as follows: Jesus took the loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all were satisfied.

The point of the process is that the disciples were a necessary link in the miracle’s chain. Jesus gave the job of distribution to them. That could be seen as simply efficient because of the number of people but what if their participation was essential to the multiplication? It is also true that this verse is strikingly similar to the words of Jesus at the Last Supper when he commissions his disciples to remember him each time they celebrate what has come to be known as Eucharist. So it sounds this morning that as we prepare to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas, we ought to be thinking about our willingness to assent to the role of feeding those who are hungry for bread or for the presence of God in their midst. We may be, as the saying goes, “the only gospel they ever read.”