Institution
of the EucharistCorpus Christi Sunday,
Year A
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A
In most countries this
solemnity, formerly celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, is now observed on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, this year replacing the Tenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel John 6:51-58 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)
Jesus
said to the crowd:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among
themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is
true drink. Whoever
feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me,
and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will
live because of me. This
is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers
ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.”
John and Pam are a couple who live in the parish of the Assumption, Howth, in the
Archdiocese of Dublin whom I have come to know very well since I came back to
Ireland from the Philippines six years ago. John was seriously ill in hospital
recently and shared some reflections with me in emails which I thought would be
good to share on Sunday Reflections for the feast of Corpus Christi.
From a small swelling below my left knee I developed sepsis and suffered septic shock late at night in which my vital signs: heartbeat, pulse, disappeared. My guardian angel must have been watching over me because Pam, my beloved of 53 years, was sitting beside me and her nursing training acquired 60 years ago, sprang into action as she gave me the kiss of life and applied CPR.
Fortunately, Pam’s action was successful. I came to and the ambulance brought me to Beaumont Hospital where I received extraordinary care from a dedicated team for 3½ weeks as they worked to bring the infection under control, which has been a slow business. Thankfully I have now been discharged and continue to recover at home under Pam’s dedicated care.
It has been a time for reflection. Our wonderful parish community - the Body of Christ - has been praying for me as has our faithful Marriage Encounter family.
53 years ago, Pam and I vowed to live as one body as Jesus called us in Matrimony to do. Now Pam, who is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion in our parish, has been bringing me the Body of Christ, broken for us on the Cross and risen to Easter glory, to receive in my hospital bed and now at home. It has been extraordinarily profound for both of us. St Paul links the various meanings of ‘body’ together.
I have to assume that the Lord still has some task for me that I may neither know nor understand at this moment.
I was pretty poorly in hospital and had some dark
nights of the soul, unable to sleep and wondering if I would ever really
recover. However there were always others more ill than me in the ward.
As expected, we’ve had extraordinary love and prayers from our Marriage Encounter Family. One couple, Mike and Rose, have kindly been keeping everyone up-to-date on my faltering progress.
However what has been perhaps less expected has been the outpouring of love and prayers from our daily 10:00 Mass community in our parish church in Howth that I join every day via the webcam. I have had a real tangible experience of belonging to a community who truly love me and Pam. It has been an alive experience that St Luke describes so vividly in Acts referring to the early Christian communities. Both Pam and I feel humbled by it all and this outpouring of love prayer and support has so buoyed me up especially through the darker moments.
The idea of Body is a strong theme running through St Paul’s letters. There is Jesus offering his Body broken on the Cross to be gloriously raised on Easter Day. Jesus himself tells us [in today’s gospel] that unless we eat his Body and drink his Blood we shall not have his life in us. He it was who raised marriage to be a Sacrament by calling Pam and me and countless others to live as One Body.
Paul develops this by identifying the Christian Community as Christ’s Body with the members looking out for other members. We have experienced this in huge and tangible measure pressed down and over-flowing.
Pam and I are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy
Communion and if asked, we stand in the middle of the church and it has often
occurred to me that we as a married couple called to be one body by
Jesus, are serving his Body to the Body of Christ in our parish. This became a
deep thought in my present illness, watching Pam receive the pyx with the
Blessed Sacrament in it at the end of Mass to bring the Lord to me on my sick
bed.
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything.
"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here":
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.
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Supper
at Emmaus (1606)Traditional Latin Mass
Second Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-11-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 John 3:13-18. Gospel: Luke 14:16-24.
1 comment:
This comment is from an email I received and is used with the permission of ‘a faithful, grateful Filipino friend’.
‘Thank you for sharing John’s moving reflections. As you can imagine, I can relate with much of them as we continue with Anton’s marathon of baby steps to recovery. My prayers for John’s full healing and recovery as he and Pam are ever more deeply sanctified, ONE-d with, in, for Corpus Christi!’
Anton is a married son of my Filipino friend. Last July he had a ruptured brain aneurysm. His recovery has been very slow but is moving in the right direction. Please keep him, his family, parents and siblings in your prayers.
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