Solemnity of Corpus Christi

As we gathered today for this great celebration, it's not lost on me where we were at this time last year. I remember communicating to the parish on March 12th of last year, that all public Masses were cancelled. In that same communication I asked us to bear in mind that we were to remain bound to each other through Spiritual Communion, as a consolation to the communion we share when we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. 

I recall celebrating Corpus Christi, one of the annual feasts that I personally find so meaningful, with only seven other people in the church. Most of us went months without receiving communion, and there are many of our fellow parishioners who still have yet to receive it.

I think of how many people told me how much they hungered for it when it was not available to us in the way that we were accustomed. I think of those who told me the feeling they had when they were finally able to receive Holy Communion after so long without it—some were brought to tears and a newfound appreciation for something they admitted to having taken for granted—didn’t we all….and perhaps still do?

Yes, we so easily take this gift for granted, like so many acts of love given to us by those who love us, and yet God still provides, God still comes to us. While it’s a gift that we never entirely deserve or earn for good behavior, it’s also a gift that we must truly aspire to be worthy of, to be cognizant and conscious of, to be thankful for, and to transformed by. In other words: sinners that we are, we must at least desire to allow it to work within us as God intends.

Let each of us take a moment of silence to prayerfully consider what God desires to accomplish within you through the Eucharist we are to receive. Let us then acknowledge a desire to bring that to fulfillment, especially today.