My Dear Friends,
Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers! I pray, through the intercession of St. Joseph, that all our fathers may be as holy, just, and wise as Joseph as they guide their families closer to Jesus.
Today we also celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. We celebrate one of the dogmas that makes us uniquely Catholic: Christ is really present in the Eucharist in body, blood, soul, and divinity. Every time we come to Mass, we have a physical encounter with the Lord who makes himself food for us in Holy Communion for he is truly the Bread of Life come down from heaven who gives us eternal life at this altar (cf. John 6). Our belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is one of the cornerstones of our Catholic faith. We believe that Jesus is really present when we walk into our church and our chapel. We genuflect to acknowledge his presence and do him the same homage that the Magi gave him in Bethlehem. Yet, so many Catholics do not fully comprehend the Real Presence or think it is simply symbolic as some of our Protestant brethren believe. Our Catechism states: “The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 73, 3c.) In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651. ”This presence is called ‘real’ – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present (Paul VI, MF 39).” (CCC 1374)
As a Church, we need to do a better job of catechizing our people when it comes to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This is why the U.S. Bishops are launching a three-year National Eucharistic Revival starting today. If all Catholics truly believed what they profess about the Eucharist, then our churches would be overflowing at all Mass times every Sunday. We must be a Eucharistic people! We must be a people who love the Eucharist and transmit the presence of Christ to all we meet. That is why this Solemnity today is so important. I invite you over the next three years, as the bishops release more catechetical tools, to rediscover the beauty of the Most Holy Eucharist. We will endeavor to fill this bulletin with as much material as we can to foster this spirit of catechesis that comes with this National Eucharistic Revival.
Incidentally, the theme of the revival is: “Behold, I make all things NEW.” Whenever we receive Holy Communion, we are indeed made new. We are new creations. We become like our Lord whom we receive. We share in his glorious divinity as he so fervently desires to become one with us at this Heavenly Banquet.
So I commend our parish to our Eucharistic Lord on this day. We have so many devout parishioners who come daily to adore the Lord in our Adoration Chapel, and even more who come to Daily Mass. It is my prayer this day that as a parish we may grow more in our love for the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the more receive Him, the more we can share his divine presence with the world.
God bless you all,
