Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, established in the universal Roman calendar by Pope Urban IV in 1264. The Pope asked the greatest theologian of the time (and our School’s patron), St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose a Mass for the new feast. He composed five hymns, among them the beloved Adoro te devote, the Pange lingua, and the Lauda Sion. Of the five sequences in the Roman Missal, today’s is the longest and perhaps the most lyrical. In its dogmatic precision, it provides an admirable catechesis on the Holy Eucharist in 24 stanzas. It seems almost effusive, but St. Thomas leads us to wonder rather than definition. How can the Church sufficiently describe the Corpus Domini made real at every Mass, and quietly present in every tabernacle? We simply cannot say enough about the Holy Eucharist, the Inaestimabile Donum of our Provident Father. Some excerpts from our Sequence today:
Lauda Sion Salvatórem, Lauda ducem et pastórem, In hymnis et cánticis.
Praise O Zion your Savior, praise your leader and your shepherd, in hymns and canticles.
Dogma datur Christiánis, Quod in carnem transit panis, Et vinum in sánguinem.
To Christians is given this dogma, that bread becomes flesh, and wine blood.
A suménte non concísus, Non confráctus, non divísus: Integer accípitur.
Neither cut nor broken nor divided: the receiver receives Him whole.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille:Quantum isti, tantum ille: Nec sumptus consúmitur.
One receives him, a thousand receive him: as much as one receives, so much do a thousand receive: He is never exhausted.
Ecce panis Angelórum, Factus cibus viatórum: Vere panis filiórum.
Behold the bread of angels, made into bread of pilgrims: truly bread of sons and daughters.
Bone pastor, panis vere, Jesu, nostri miserére: Tu nos pasce, nos tuére, Tu nos bona fac vidére, in terra vivéntium.
Good pastor, true bread, Jesus our mercy: you keep us, you protect us, you will make us to see good things in the land of the living.
In today’s Gospel Jesus feeds five thousand, as he feeds five billion mouths every week throughout the world in the Holy Mass. It is growing late, and the Apostles see five thousand hungry and (potentially angry) men before them. “Dismiss this crowd!” they urge Jesus. Our Lord contests: “No. They are hungry. Feed them.” Jesus commands his first pastors to feed the world, but not with earthly bread. But the apostles reply, “feed them with what? We have only five loaves and two fish.” Jesus instructs them: “Then give them what you have. Give them all you have.” The disciples, thankfully, give everything they have to Jesus. He blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples, who give it to the people. All ate and were satisfied.
The priest must give what he has to Jesus before he can give it to the people. He cannot offer the Church anything of value without first surrendering it to Christ. It is Christ who consecrates and multiplies what we give, so that it may be sufficient. What have we to offer that will satisfy anyone? Very little, and certainly not enough. Do you ever feel inadequate in trying to meet the needs of your spouse, your children, your friends, or your parishioners? The trick is to offer what we do have to Jesus. Mother Teresa would say, “To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite...”
In the Incarnation, God took what little Our Lady had to offer—her finite human will, her small and imperfect body—and he made it infinite. In Sacred Eucharist, God repeats that miracle. He takes what little we have to offer—a bit of bread and a few drops of wine—an hour of our time, a few dollars thrown into the basket, the little bit of energy we spend in getting to Mass. He takes our little tithe and feeds the world with it. The eternal salvation of every man, woman, and child on earth depends on the Mass, and the Mass depends on us. If we don’t offer the Eucharist, it won’t happen—Jesus entrusted this duty to men, after all. We have to offer what we have, as Abraham offered his little tithe in the first reading. He offered just a tenth of his wealth to the priest-king Melchizidek, who brought out offerings of bread and wine. And the blessing our father Abraham received is sufficient even unto this day.
After Mass we will process behind the Blessed Sacrament. In the words of Blessed John Paul II, the Church “solemnly bears it in procession, publicly proclaiming the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the whole world.” The parishes that carry Christ in procession, and enthrone Him in the Blessed Sacrament, are transformed. My last parish had more people at daily Mass, fed more poor people every week, received more money in the Sunday offertory, and sent more men into the seminary than any other parish in the diocese. Asked by our local newspaper why this was so, one of our elderly parishioners replied immediately: it is because we have a perpetual adoration chapel.
Our Procession and Holy Hour
In our Corpus Christi procession today, we will consecrate the entire student body and academic year by bringing the Blessed Sacrament into the residence halls and throughout the campus. Pope Francis himself processed with the Sacrament through the city of Rome on Thursday, and today has just completed a Eucharistic Holy Hour (5-6pm Rome time, or 8-9am Santa Paula time). We join him in our Mass this morning, as we join him in a holy hour after our procession, with benediction at 11:30, just before a nice lunch at the Commons.
In a small work on Corpus Christi Sunday, St. Thomas articulates our own wonder in the Holy Eucharist: “O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value?...In the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this Sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source….it was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of his miracles, and for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, a unique and abiding consolation.” The Eucharist, the Holy Mass, is our unique and abiding consolation, a divine foretaste of what awaits us in heaven.