Blessed Sacrament Procession, Lourdes, France, 2013.

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I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”          1 Corinthians 23-25.

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Central to the Catholic understanding of the sacred is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For any priest, his greatest privilege is to celebrate the Mass. For any bishop the greatest privilege is to celebrate the Mass. For any pope, the greatest privilege is to celebrate the Mass. The priest is simply following Christ’s command, or mandate, “Do this in memory of me”. Catholics become that rarest of creatures, a fundamentalist, when it comes to the words of institution, “this is my body; this is my blood”. Catholics accept those words as literally true; the simple bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ (the Anointed) of God. That is why the consecrated bread and wine are treated with the utmost respect, why they are venerated, why they are kneeled to, and so on. Baptists, Pentecostals and other non-denominational churches do not accept this understanding. For them the bread and wine are symbolic of Christ, not Christ himself in those traditions. Yes, symbols can be very powerful: look at national flags, for example. They are powerful enough for people to die for them! But are they that which they represent? Is the flag of the United states actually the United States? Clearly no. But is the consecrated Body and Blood of Christ really the Body and Blood of Christ? Yes, answer Catholics and Orthodox. That is the manner in which Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time! So Catholics are fundamentalist concerning this most important commemoration of Jesus, and the so-called fundamentalists are not! And all this when Scripture clearly states that Jesus said, “This is my body”, and “This is my blood”, and for us to “Do this in memory of me”. And today is the great feast commemorating that Last Supper event when Jesus becomes present to us even today, as he promised. And the picture above shows a priest carrying the consecrated bread in a monstrance past the many sick people at Lourdes, which typically is the time, rare but not unknown, when a curing miracle might well happen. (The monstrance is a special vessel built just to house the consecrated bread; the much more common word “demonstrate” comes from the same root, to show or make known). And if you would like to know about the latest miracle claimed as such in Lourdes, look here, or if you prefer, take a look at my favorite miracle from Lourdes, dating from the 1920s, but only just now, 100 years later, declared to be such. It concerned John Traynor, a Catholic from Liverpool. He had been so grievously wounded in the First World War that he was granted a 100% pension by the government (a very rare privilege) as, in the  opinion of his doctors, he was incurable. But he was an honest man and declared that he had indeed been cured while in Lourdes. The government disbelieved him, as no-one had ever recovered from such wounds; he received his pension right up to his death in 1943!

So today’s feast celebrates the most intimate union of each one of us and God. We actually take the Lord into ourselves with the full intention of being as far as we can, Christ to the world. In all we do, in all we speak and in all we think, we are Christ to the world. It is what we are called to and it is the Lord’s expectation of each of us. With his help, each one of us can do this, for we are not alone: the Lord stands with us.

Gothic French Monstrance, Abbott Church Supplies.

There is a prayer called “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” which in a way reflects today’s feast. It makes it real as we respond to the presence within us of Christ’s goodness and strength. It reflects our openness to God, and the strength we get, each of us, from that conviction. Here is a beautiful visual/audio version, or, if you prefer, the prayer itself below. It sings to our trust, our hope and our deepest belief in God, the blessed consequence of today’s celebration:

I bind unto my­self to­day
The strong name of the Tri­ni­ty,
By in­vo­ca­tion of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this, today, to me for­ev­er
By pow­er of faith, Christ’s in­car­na­tion;
His bap­tism in Jor­dan riv­er,
His death on cross for my sal­va­tion;
His burst­ing from the spic­èd tomb,
His riding up the heav­en­ly way,
His com­ing at the day of doom
I bind un­to my­self to­day.

I bind un­to myself the pow­er
Of the great love of cher­ub­im;
The sweet “Well Done” in judg­ment hour,
The serv­ice of the se­ra­phim,
Confessors’ faith, apos­tles’ word,
The pa­tri­archs’ pray­ers, the pro­phets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done un­to the Lord
And pu­ri­ty of virg­in souls.

I bind un­to my­self to­day
The vir­tues of the star-lit heav­en,
The glo­ri­ous sun’s life-giv­ing ray,
The white­ness of the moon at ev­en,
The flash­ing of the lightn­ing free,
The whir­ling wind’s tem­pes­tu­ous shocks,
The sta­ble earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eter­nal rocks.

Christ be with me, Christ with­in me,
Christ be­hind me, Christ be­fore me,
Christ be­side me, Christ to win me,
Christ to com­fort and re­store me.
Christ be­neath me, Christ above me,
Christ in qui­et, Christ in dan­ger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and strang­er.

I bind un­to my­self the name,
The strong name of the Tri­ni­ty,
By in­vo­ca­tion of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By whom all na­ture hath cre­ation,
Eternal Fa­ther, Spir­it, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my sal­va­tion,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord. 

Corpus Christi Procession, Nigeria 2015, Oluchi’s World.

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