Corpus Christi Sunday

Context

Jesus had multiplied bread for the hungry crowd. Sensing that they would forcibly make him King, he escapes to the mountain. His disciples meanwhile get into their boat and cross to Capernaum. Later Jesus walks on the water and catches up with them. The people notice that Jesus and his disciples have disappeared. They follow them to Capernaum and find them there. The gospel passage for this Sunday is taken from the ensuing conversation between Jesus and the people.

Manna and the Living Bread

When Israel wandered in the desert in the days of Moses, God fed them with manna. But the manna was just a figure of the true bread from heaven that God would give to his people. This true bread from Heaven is the flesh of Jesus given for the life of the world.

The Flesh and Blood of Jesus

Not only will Jesus give his flesh to be eaten. He will also give his blood to be drunk. He insists that his flesh is truly food and his blood truly drink. To those who would eat his flesh and drink his blood, he promises: (a) eternal life (b) resurrection on the last day and (c) that Jesus will remain in him and he will remain in Jesus.

To bring home the truth that Jesus is giving himself as food to us he uses the following words: "The one who feeds on me will have life because of me."

The Eucharist

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus. On this Feast of Corpus Christi we celebrate the giving of Jesus of his Body and Blood to us.

The Eucharist is called the Sacrament of the Real Presence. This is meant to emphasize that the Eucharist is not merely a symbolic presence of Jesus. No. In the Eucharist Jesus is really, truly present. When we receive the Eucharist, it is Jesus we receive.

Ordinarily when we receive communion we receive it under the species of bread. We must know that when we do so we do not just receive a part of Jesus (his Body). We receive Jesus himself, that is, the whole Jesus, his humanity and divinity. In the same way when we receive communion under the species of wine, we receive Jesus himself--his humanity and divinity--and not just a part of him.

The Bread That Makes Us Strong

Food is necessary for strength. When a sick person refuses to take food, he will be unable to recover. And when he recovers, he needs food to regain his strength.

We are weak human beings. The expression "sapagkat ako'y tao lamang" is an admission of weakness that leads to failure.

If we are to overcome temptation and sin, we need the strength that comes from the Food that comes down from Heaven, the Eucharist. if we are to grow in faith, then we need the Food that will make that faith strong. We need to feed on Jesus in the Eucharist. No wonder Don Bosco when encouraging his boys to receive the Eucharist did so by assuring them that the Eucharist is the Bread that makes us strong.

We who are weak in the face of temptation, let us approach Jesus in holy communion so that he may make us strong. We whose faith is weak, let us approach Jesus in holy communion so that he make our faith strong. For indeed the Eucharist is the bread that makes us strong.

Inspiration

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing (Lk 12:22-23)

The Church in the Creed. Chapel on the Hill, Don Bosco Batulao - 8

The Church is Apostolic.

That is to say, it is the community that Christ founded with the Apostles as nucleus. We read of the first Christian converts added to the Church at Jerusalem that "the continued steadfast in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and the prayers." (Acts 2:42)

In order to be a Christian, it is not enough to be in the Apostles' teaching. You must also be in the Apostles' fellowship. To be a Christian does not mean simply holding a certain set of beliefs, even if accompanied by appropriate behavior. It means belonging to the Christian community, to the Church. When God sent an angel to the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10), the angel did not instruct him in Christian doctrine and tell him, "Now, if you believe what I have just said, that makes you a Christian." Rather, he told him how to get in touch with the Christian community by sending a messenger to Peter in Joppa. When Saul was on the road to Damascus, Christ spoke to him. But He did not instruct Saul in Christian doctrine. Rather, He told him to go into Damascus and wait for instructions, and then He sent Ananias, a Christian, to receive Saul into the Christian community. And one of the marks of that community is its continuity with the community that Christ founded and upon whom the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.

Trinity Sunday

It is easy to believe that the Holy Spirit is God, that Jesus is God and that the Father is God. But to explain how in the end there is only one God is difficult, if not impossible.

The crest of Benedict XVI has a clam shell. That is because his favorite theologian and Church Father is St Augustine. How did the clam shell get associated with St. Augustine?

The story says that one day St Augustine was walking along the seashore. He was trying to explain how there can be one God and yet the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. He then saw a boy running to the sea with a shell, scooping sea water and going back and filling a hole with the sea water. St. Augustine passed and then asked the boy: What are you doing? And the boy said: I am going to put all the water of the sea into this hole. St. Augustine smiled, shook his head and said: "But that is impossible!" But the boy replied: "It is no more impossible for me to put all the water of the sea into this hole than for you to be able to explain how there can be one God and yet three divine persons."

The Holy Trinity is not a truth to be explained. It is a truth to be believed in.

But above all the Holy Trinity is Someone whom we adore and with whom we can have a relationship that can grow and deepen. A song puts it this way: "Day by day. Day by day. O dear Lord, three things I pray: to see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, to follow thee more nearly day by day."

Inspiration

Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment (Jl 2:13)

The Church in the Creed. Chapel on the Hill, Don Bosco Batulao - 7

The Church is Catholic

Probably the first Christians to use the term were simply distinguishing the entire Church worldwide from particular congregations. If you said something about the Church, they would ask, "Do you mean the Church in Corinth, or the Church Catholic?"

Around AD 175, Irenaeus of Lyons used it in disputing with the Gnostics. In replying to the Gnostics, Irenaeus argued that Christians have never had a secret doctrine in the Gnostic sense. He argues that Christ had no secrets from The Twelve (John 15:15), that the Twelve accepted Paul as one of themselves (2 Peter 3:15), and that both Paul (Acts 20:26f) and the original Twelve (Matthew 28:20) were under strict commandment to pass on to their converts all that they had been taught. The Gospel, the whole Gospel, is to be declared to all men. All are called to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. In this sense, the Church is Catholic, in contrast both with pre-Christian Israel and with the Gnostics.

Pentecost Sunday

As the Father sent me so I am sending you.

To send is apostellein in Greek and emphasizes the elements of commission, authority of and responsibility to the sender. So an apostle is properly one sent on a definite mission, in which he acts with full authority on behalf of the sender and is accountable to him.

Hence, Jesus is truly the apostle of the Father.

The Twelve are truly the Apostles of Jesus. What were they supposed to do? Before ascending to the Father, Jesus said: “Go to the whole world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them everything that I have commanded you.”

Receive the Holy Spirit

How could they possibly carry out such an enormous task? The Holy Spirit who Jesus called Power from on High will give them the capability of carrying out the task. It is interesting to note that power in physics means the capacity to do work.

The Apostles were invested with this power on the evening of Easter Sunday. Yet the first reading says that the Holy Spirit came down 50 days after the Passover. In fact, Pentecost takes it name from those 50 days. So how do we explain this seeming contradiction?

The coming down of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost day marked the birth of the Church. When the Apostles left the upper room in order to preach to the people outside, it was as if the church left the womb for the world outside.

Whose sins you forgive...

The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Spirit were the two gifts of the Risen Lord to his Church on Easter Sunday.

On Maundy Thursday at the last supper the gift of Jesus to his Church were the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood.

It seems that Penance is a fitting gift because with the death of Jesus the debt of sin was repaid and man was reconciled to God.

Jesus is the first born from the dead. His resurrection brings to the fore the renewal and transformation that should take place in the lives of believers. The Holy Spirit who renews the face of the earth is the power that makes that renewal a reality.

The Church in the Creed. Chapel on the Hill, Don Bosco Batulao - 6

The Church is Holy.

Some persons understand this to mean that individual church members are virtuous -- that you can tell which group most truly embodies the church by noting which group has the fewest members who are or ought to be in trouble with the police. This understanding implies that holiness is something that we confer upon the Church -- that by working hard to improve our own personal scores on the Virtue chart we boost the team average.

But the older idea is that Holiness is something that the Church confers upon us -- that Our Lord Jesus Christ is Holy, and that He has called us to holiness in Him, and that He brings us into fellowship with Him through the community of believers, by the Sacraments, by the preaching of the Gospel message, by the mutual love and fellowship of the community, by experience of praying and being prayed for, of learning and teaching, of forgiving and being forgiven.

We ought therefore to ask ourselves:

• Am I opening myself to God's grace as He makes it available to me through the Chrisian community?
  
• Instead of concentrating on my dissatisfaction with those persons in the Church who appear to be unsatisfactory channels of grace, am I looking for, and taking advantage of, whatever spiritual nourishment is available?
  
• Am I, in my turn, being open to being used by God as a channel of grace to others?
  
• Am I making it easier for them to grow in Christian faith and love?
  
• Am I ready to forgive, and ready fo seek forgiveness of others?

Inspiration

Heal me, LORD, that I may be healed; save me, that I may be saved, for it is you whom I praise (Jer 17:14)

Ascension Sunday

The Eleven disciples went to Galilee

The Twelve was reduced to Eleven when Judas hanged himself. Only later would the disciples choose a replacement. "Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles (Act 1:26)".

To the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.

In Scriptures, the mountain was the place where God manifested himself. God gave Moses the Decalog on Mt. Sinai. On Mt. Carmel, God showed himself the true God through the prophet Elijah.

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

A variant is "but some doubted." Another way of translating the verb is "of little faith". Matthew used it to describe the disciples of Jesus whose faith in him is not as deep as it should be.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

The Great Commission. We have to tell the world of the message of Jesus Christ even if it falls on deaf ears.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism makes us belong to the Blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is why Baptism is a fundamental sacrament.

The Church in the Creed. Chapel on the Hill, Batulao - 5

The Church is One, and the bonds of Unity are Faith and
Love. Heresy violates the former, and schism the latter.

Heretics violate the unity of the Church by holding to beliefs or practices
that are incompatible with the Gospel that the Church has been
commissioned to proclaim, so that the Church cannot include them in
her fellowship without compromising, diluting, or denying the Gospel
message.

Schismatics violate the unity of the Church by requiring
from others, as a condition of fellowship, assent to doctrines or
practices that are not an essential part of the Gospel (though they
may be compatible with it).

We ought therefore to ask ourselves:

• "Have I sinned against faith by denying or failing to uphold doctrines essential to the message of the Gospel?
  
• Have I sinned against love by requiring as a condition of Christian fellowshipagreement with me on matters where Christians may differ and still remain Christians?"

Reflections on the Church. Chapel on the Hill, Batulao - 4

So what of all this talk about two Churches--a Church of the North, a Church of the South? A Church of the developed world, the Church of developing world--each with widely divergent needs.

I decided to call someone for whom "two worlds-two churches" is not a theoretical construct but an everyday reality in his life, Monsignor Arturo Banuelas.

"Why does it have to be one or the other?" Msgr. Banuelas asked. "As if we are talking about this whining, selfish, materialistic American Church with no values and no major problems versus the compliant, patient, suffering rest of the world. The issue is to be a prophetic Church throughout the entire world, meeting the needs of each culture and place head on.

"We hear that we need more priests to make this. To me the answer is not to ordain more priests that have a perfect orthodoxy, but to allow all Catholics to be prophetic in addressing whatever it is in their particular circumstances that the gospel can transform--bishops also.

"Where are those prophetic voices today?" Msgr. Banuelas asked. "I am listening, but I do not hear them. Forget about north and south. We as a Church have a big credibility gap: We have to present a God that people not only have to believe in but want to believe in. A God as symbolized not by dogma or doctrine--we have enough dogma and doctrine and it is good; I studied it, I know it--but by making our faith come alive in the lives of people. That is a big job--but for those of us who live on the border, straddling two cultures, that is at the top of the list for the next pope to address."

(excerpt from Paul Wilkes)

Reflections on the Church. Chapel on the Hill, Batulao - 3

THREE CHURCHES?
(Understanding our Church today)

"There is the official Church at one end, and the popular Church at the other," he said. "The official Church or the ideal Church is one of unquestioning doctrine and dogma and with unstinting love for the Holy Father. The popular Church will still have that great love and a deep devotional life, but is puzzled and sometimes overwhelmed with such questions as: How do we stop the spread of AIDS? How do I feed my family? How do I protect them from the war going on around me?

"The third Church is in between, and although not all of its members have the crushing problems of those living in poverty, they still are people who are trying to reconcile the idea with the practical."

(excerpt from Paul Wilkes)