2002-06-02 "Corpus Christ" The Body of Christ - is what the priest says

June 2, 2002

"Corpus Christ" The Body of Christ - is what the priest says when he communicates the Host to the faithful. It is the most valuable gift in the world, and it is the priest's great joy to bestow it. Yet, for many in our culture Corpus Christi is only a city in Texas. So we have out work cut out: to remind ourselves, and explain to others, the present of Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Saint John Vianney said, "If we really understood what happens in the Mass, we would die: not out of fear, but out of love."

In 1263 various heretics had sown seeds of doubt about the Real Presence of Christ, as Protestants would do centuries later. A German priest, perplexed by doubt, stopped on a pilgrimage in the Umbrian church of Santa Cristina in Bolsena. At the consecration, blood flowed from the Host and marked the corporal (the cloth placed under the chalice and paten). Pope Urban IV, while in nearby Orvieto where he had taken refuge from the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II, was shown the corporal. Though he does not mention it in the document proclaiming the Feast of Corpus Christi the following year, it was surely vivid in his mind.

He had the good fortune of having a theologian whose greatness is evident in the way he prayed and praised as part of his scholarship. He ordered Thomas Aquinas to write hymns for the feast. That it how we got "Pange Lingua" familiar to us on Holy Thursday. It originally was for Vespers of the Feast of Corpus Christi. Part of it is know o as the "Tantum Ergo" which is in our new hymnal both in Lain and as "Therefore we before Him bending." (#278-279). The English translation is by the Anglican clergyman John Mason Neale who was very close to Catholic thought, and Edward Caswall another Anglican clergyman whom Cardinal Newman converted. The popular melody "Saint Thomas" was composed by the English Catholic John Francis Wade who also wrote the music for "Adeste Fideles."

This is the first Feast of Corpus Christi celebrated in our parish with the new Tabernacle. We should pray that our own bodies and souls may be living Tabernacles, worthy of the gift Christ died to give the Church. The more worthy communions we make, the more our parish may become a Eucharistic beacon and, pray God, we may look forward to more hours during the week of Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We can be inspired by the story told of Saint Thomas Aquinas praying before a crucifix in Salerno. A sacristan who was somewhat nosey (and we are glad for it) heard a voice from the direction of the cross say to the saint: "You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you have? The Dominican friar replied, "Nothing but yourself, Lord."

Fr. George W. Rutler