Newsletter (13th Sunday O.T.)

The weekly newsletter for the Catholic parishes of the Hurunui District and the Chatham Islands for Sunday 1 July (Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time) is now uploaded at this link.

If you are just looking for the reflection for this Sunday, follow this link instead.

just have faith

Later this year (October 11) the Church will mark fifty years since the opening session of the Second Vatican Council.

Many of us were taught to see this gathering of the bishops of the world as a ‘turning point’ in the direction of the Church. Contrasts are often made between life before the Council, and post-Conciliar life in the Church. 

Such contrasts are at best an over-simplification of the reality, and a missing-out on the clarity and depth of the Council’s renewed presentation of the life of faith.

I suspect that the generalisation I am about to make is correct: most New Zealand Catholics think that the main work of the Council was to reform the liturgy by turning the priest to face the people and in allowing the Mass (and other sacraments) to be celebrated in English. 

If my generalisation is on target (let me know if it is not!), then it is sadly significant that Council’s policy and encouragements on matters such as the nature of the Church, religious freedom, social communication, the apostolate of the laity, and religious education (to name just a few of the 16 documents) remain completely unknown to most NZ Catholics.

Pope John Paul II was aware that many Catholics either did not know, or had mis-heard and therefore wrongly understood the teaching of the Council.  To address this he published the Catechism of the Catholic Church to mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Council. In this volume that we see the work of the Council presented in a concise, coherent, attractive and relevant way.

I am fortunate in these weeks to be studying at the Liturgical Institute of Mundelein University in Chicago.  Even after many earlier years of study, and over 25 years of ministry as a priest, I am discovering anew the beauty and depth of the faith of the Church.

It is encouraging to see again that the documents of the Second Vatican Council are a re-communication of all that is at the heart of the life of faith. It is true that in this process we are encouraged to let go of some attitudes and practices that had wrongly taken central place in the faith lives of Catholics. Once again the Council reminds us that our faith is not primarily about doctrines and practices, but about the person of Jesus Christ who is the source and summit of all human life.

This is not to say that the doctrine and practices of the Church are not important. In fact that life of the Church (with all the teaching and practice) is essential for our lives of faith. Without these gifts our ‘faith’ is reduced to a ‘wishful thinking’, or continual attempts to ‘look on the bright side’ of difficult situations.  If this is what we understand by ‘faith’, then it is no wonder that we are afraid!

In 1968, Pope Paul VI invited the people of the Church to “make “an authentic and sincere profession of the same faith”.  Rather than  going along with the crowd (and being Catholic simply because my parents and grandparents were Catholic), Pope Paul wanted people to make an “individual and collective, free and conscious, inward and outward, humble and frank” profession of faith. The pope’s purpose was for the whole Church to “re-appropriate exact knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess (i.e. proclaim) it”. (Paul VI, June 30 1968, Credo of the People of God)

Forty-four years later we find ourselves in a similar situation. In fact comparisons can be made between life in 2012 and life in Judea and Samaria at the time of the earthly ministry of Jesus. The fundamental human needs don’t change that much, and human attempts to satisfy human desires are remarkably uncreative.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus responds to the fear of the people. Their fear is caused by the same concerns that worry us most: sickness and death, insecurity about the future, guilt and anxiety about the past. Jesus’ response is both immediate and transforming. The sick are healed and the dead are returned to life.  Jesus then says to them: “do not be afraid; just have faith.”

This gospel even gives the detail that the afflicted woman had “spent all she had” on therapies, healers and other treatments.  Nothing had worked for her.  But her encounter with Jesus did much more than enable her to ‘look on the bright side.’  She is healed!  She received what we all need.

Earlier this year Pope Benedict announced that the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Council will be marked by a Year of Faith.  This announcement was made in his letter entiled: “The Door of Faith” (Porta Fidei)”

In one of my classes this week, the teacher gave the example of taking his children to Mass and making them enter the Church through the main front doors. The children are not always happy about this, but Chris insists. Entering a Church for worship is not like slipping into my house, or a concert venue. 


When I enter a Church, I am intentionally (and ritually) articulating my deep desire for life with God in the Kingdom of God.  The casual conversations of the street are fine in the foyer, but in this sacred space my desire is simply for God.

Each Sunday we enter the Church for Mass aware that there is much that makes us  afraid. But the God whom I seek has given me faith. This faith is not the ‘power of positive thinking’, but the ultimate relationship with Jesus, which HE initiates (in baptism) and that HE nurtures and sustains in the sacraments. Even the fact that you have read to the end of this little reflection is proof that faith is alive in you.

Do not be afraid. Just have faith!  

Msgr. Tom Power

Of your charity please pray for the happy repose of the soul of Monsignor Tom Power of our Christchurch diocese who died this morning.

"Hear with favour our prayers,

which we humbly offer, O Lord

for the salvation of the soul of Thomas, 

your servant and Priest.

that he, who devoted a faithful ministry to your name,

may rejoice in the perpetual company of your Saints.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever

Amen

Collect, Funeral Mass for a Priest

now this is radical!

If you are ready to be shaken a little, challenged, inspired, all in five minutes, take a moment to watch the video clip at this link.

change - for the better

It is Sunday evening and I am still thinking about John the Baptist.  Sunday morning Masses are over in New Zealand, but here in Chicago it is only 8 on Saturday evening. I should be reading some Sacramental Theology for class next week, but I am looking for distractions. Jotting down these 'John the Baptist and change' thoughts is the only distraction I can find before I meet others for a drink in an hour. 


So if you are looking for a distraction too, take a moment to consider these ponderings.


Human beings cannot help but change. The only way to avoid change is to stop living.  The one who is living is changing.  And the one who is really really living, is changing often.

It is often said that some people find change easy and others prefer no change. I'm not sure that is accurate. 


If you think you don't like change, consider this: If life is difficult for you at the moment, aren't you longing for a change for the better?  


If you think you really like change: I don't know of anyone who would not try to avoid a change for the worse.

We know the unavoidable pattern of change in all living things from the natural world. The garden changes daily, even if I do not touch or notice it. The weeds still grow. The winter branch blooms with the new buds of spring and the blooms of summer.

People often make the mistake of thinking of Catholicism as a religion that does not involve change. Many think of Church doctrine and law as being preserved in dusty tomes. Most tragically a common perception is that if one says yes fully to the Catholic faith, that person will be saying 'no' to growth and change, and therefore 'no' to fun and freedom.

Tragically, Catholic faith is too often misunderstood as being primarily about doctrines and laws that, if followed, will limit freedom and restrict life. Such a misunderstanding reduces the beauty of the life of Catholic faith, to a dry and  deadly doses of moralism and legalism.

In this feast of John the Baptist we are reminded of the kind of change that is at the heart of Catholic faith. Two of John the Baptist's disciples were Andrew (his name is given in the scripture), and John (tradition tells us this). 

One day John the Baptist notices his cousin Jesus, whom he knows to be the Christ.  At this moment John becomes the first witness to Jesus. He changes direction and points to Jesus proclaiming to Andrew and John: "behold, there is the Lamb of God."   John and Andrew are real searchers.  Like us, they are not totally satisfied with every aspect of their present life. They move towards Jesus who asks what they are looking for. They ask him: "where do you live?".   Jesus responds: "come and see."

From that moment their lives are changed forever. We know that Andrew was married. That night he probably returned to his wife and family, and John too might have headed back to his home.

I have no doubt that their families would have immediately noticed that something dramatic, life-changing had happened to John and Andrew.  I'm imagining Andrew's wife meeting him when he enters the house. Even before Andrew speaks, Mrs Andrew would have noticed..."what on earth has happened to you?"  "You are different."   "What is it?"

This moment is the heart of the Catholic life of faith.  You see, Catholic faith is not primarily about following a moral code of laws (at worst 'moralism' and 'legalism'). Catholic Faith is focussed on a personal encounter with the person of Jesus Christ who is God. 

For John and Andrew, from this moment of encounter with the person of Jesus, their lives changed in every way. Beforehand, keeping the Ten Commandments would have been a struggle for them. Now, in the same way as with the one who falls in love, nothing is a bother. The keeping of the commandments is the the fruit of a relationship, no longer a legal requirement.

The person who knows love, does not have to settle for keeping the letter of the law (which is always a struggle).  Instead the change effected by love activates the life of the heart fully. How the spirit of the law is embraced. Adherence to the letter follows immediately and automatically.

This is the reality of faith for Andrew and John, the first disciples of Jesus. Life is changed, not ended.

Fifty years ago this year, the Second Vatican Council met for its first session. Pope Benedict has announced a "Year of Faith" beginning in October of this year, on the date of the opening of the Council.

In many ways the Second Vatican Council was a John the Baptist moment for the Church. Like John, the Council pointed Catholics back to the person of Jesus.  

In the years prior to the Council, some lesser aspects of faith had taken a central position. Other, more essential, beliefs and practices had been set aside.  Unfortunately people were often recognised as Catholics more because they did not eat meat on Friday rather than because they loved their neighbour and forgave their enemies. The sixteen documents that are the fruit of the Council clearly shift our focus back to the person of Jesus Christ.

The Catholic Faith is primarily about living in relationship with the person of Jesus Christ who is 'God with us'.   Just as Andrew and John were changed forever in this divine relationship, so too our lives truly become lives lived rather than existences endured, only when in relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you need to know if God is with you, there is a way.  Many of you have heard me give this example before.  


Take a moment to find your pulse.  Either on your wrist or your neck.   Feel that beat...   

The beat you feel, you are doing nothing to create.  This is the direct action of God, choosing (with every beat) to keep you in existence and to hold you in His loving embrace.

Therefore, like the first disciples of Jesus, we have nothing to fear.  Never forget....God is with you.

+++

• an image

• tap here to read yesterday's "John the Baptist" reflection.

the pointer: John the Baptist

My paternal grandfather knew his way around the night sky. In New Zealand, the Southern Cross is the most sought-after constellation.  I remember my grandfather showing me this cross, and also pointing out the "Pointers", the two stars that indicate the Southern Cross.

Many artistic representations of John the Baptist show him as a 'pointer'. He is pointing away from himself and towards Jesus. This popular image (as in this section of Matthias Grunewald’s painting ca. 1480-1528), points us to the heart of the purpose of the life of John the Baptist.

John the Baptiser is the patron of our Catholic diocese of Christchurch. It is a happy coincidence that we can, with all Catholics around the world, today celebrate this feast of his birth.

We encounter the adult John the Baptist, preaching and baptizing in the region of Galilee. Andrew and John were two of his followers. One day, the Baptist sees and recognises his cousin Jesus. He turns to John and Andrew and announces. “Behold: there is the Lamb of God.”  

The image of the artist captures this moment with the pointing finger.  ‘No, not me! I am not the one to follow’ (indicates John). ‘All my preaching has been about this man, the Messiah. There he is. Go and follow him’.

They do as John indicates and go to Jesus. “What do you want?” Jesus asks them. “Where do you live?” they ask. “Come and see!” he replies. At this moment they went with him and they found everything they had been looking for.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when John and Andrew got home that night. 

We know that they were changed dramatically. This is clear since when Andrew got back home he announced to his brother Simon Peter: “We have found the Messiah.” The next day they take Simon Peter to meet Jesus, and Jesus greets him with a remarkable proclamation: “You are Simon, son of John, you will be called Cephas (ie Peter or rock”)

From this moment of first encounter with Jesus, their lives were dramatically different. 

Until now these first disciples had lived the kind of life that our contemporary society would call ‘normal’.  There were ups and downs, good days and bad days, successes and failures. ‘Life’ (as they had known it) was a process of trying to grasp at whatever offered happiness. Then, all over again they would realise that this 'hope' was nothing more than an illusory promise. 

These 'desert' travellers were longing for refreshing waters. They catch sight of an oasis. They spend time, energy and resources to reach this oasis, only to find a mirage.

And then there are the times when we grasp the promising offering. We eat our fill and even gorge on the apparent nourishment, only to discover that we are left feeling even more lonely and isolated than before.

But for John, Andrew and Simon, life had now changed. Sure they still had the good days and the bad. But instead of an aimless wandering from one attraction to the next, their new life had one single purpose. Instead of living as lonely drifters, they were now the intimate friends of Jesus who is the Messiah.  

This life provided both a meaning and context capable of answering any "what" or "why" questions.  They were now oriented towards the one who was capable of satisfying every human desire both now and eternally.

There are many key messages that we can take from the life and witness of John the Baptist. Each of these points is radically different from the predominant messages of our western contemporary society:

• Whereas the culture of our time encourages people to look after themselves, and to seek their own prestige and success, John the Baptist points away from himself, and clearly indicates the centrality of the person of Jesus.

• He was, above all else, the first witness to Jesus. Already he had his own support group - perhaps even a bit of a fan club. But the moment he recognised the presence of Jesus, he directed his own followers away from himself, and towards Jesus.

• John was a formidable presence since he was unafraid of those who might oppose the truth. As Pope Benedict reminds us,  he was prepared to denounce transgressions even when this meant paying the price of his life. He was committed to Truth.

We find our own health and happiness in this present life (and eternally) when we let go of self-concern, and look to Jesus.  

In the tender compassion of his divine gaze towards us we find all that we seek. We begin to use our words and actions to point to Jesus, and we are filled with courage to speak out on behalf of those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. 

Take a moment to pray with this Canticle from the daily Morning Prayer of the Prayer of the Church.  This was the proclamation of Zechariah on the occasion of the birth of his son, John the Baptist:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty saviour,

born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old

that he would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore 

to our father Abraham;

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight 

all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called 

the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord 

to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

to shine on those who dwell in darkness 

and the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

(Luke 1:68-79)

year of faith

This year marks fifty years since the opening session of the Second Vatican Council (11 October).

Pope Benedict has called for a "Year of Faith", that this year might be an opportunity to rediscover the beauty of faith.  At the heart of this is a "New Evangelisation".   

This "New Evangelisation" acknowledges an unfortunate reality in the lives of most Catholic's today.  The vast majority of Catholics formed since the Council, have little real knowledge of the beauty and depth of Catholic life. Much of our religious education focussed primarily on the way we treat others. This is essential of course, but if it is not based on a deep gratitude for the loving way that God always treats us, then we will find faith always to be a struggle.

Today the pope has launched a new website to provide guidance and resources for the "Year of Faith".  You will find the website at this link.

welcome

Today the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch website has linked directly from the diocesan homepage, to this blog for the weekly reflections.  

Previously the Sunday reflections were posted to the diocesan webpage. Now those who tap on this link on the diocesan homepage will come directly to this blog.

Welcome!

good company

Yesterday Cardinal Dolan of New York tweeted:

"If you ever feel life is monotonous or boring, remember that you are in good company: For 3 decades Jesus lived a life of routine & normalcy"

You can follow the Cardinal on Facebook at this link

and on Twitter here.

weekly newsletter

The weekly parishes newsletter for the Catholic Parishes of the Hurunui District and the Chatham Islands is now uploaded at www.catholichurunui.com

mustard seed

A couple of weeks ago I led a retreat day for a local group. The reflections of the day were focussed on what God expects of us personally and as a parish / Church community.

Personally, all that God hopes for us is already built into us as desire.  In our efforts to satisfy this desire we often grasp at what we think we want. We indulge the want, then minutes later we are looking for something else. We thought that this would bring us satisfaction but we are still restless. There must be more?

The good news? There is more!

A healthy person will realise that what s/he thinks s/he wants right now is probably not what they really want at all.  When we think we want chocolate and a beer, it is really good friendship that we would prefer. 

When I think i need the company of another person, I may fail to realise that it is really a felt sense of the presence of God with me, that I truly seek.

The evil spirit has mastered this technique of deception, by suggesting to us that this thing or that person will make us happy. But our experience tells us that most of our conscious longings are misleading. We are created for something much more than that which first attracts our attentions.

As St. Augustine said in the fifth century: ‘you have created us for yourself O Lord, and our heart’s are restless, until they rest in you.

You may recall the C.S. Lewis quotation I published in this newsletter a few weeks ago. Take a moment to ponder it again. 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

The Weight of Glory   C.S. Lewis

Sin is simply a willingness to settling for anything that does not deliver what it promises. God promises everything to us as gift, and gives everything. We want for nothing more.  All is gift.

Back to the retreat day.

As we reflected together it was clear that we all slip into the ‘bigger is better’ way of thinking. Over the years I have been to many Parish Council meetings where the key project has been to get people to Mass.

People think this is a daunting task. It is not!  I bet you anything you like, that I could fill every Church of the Hurunui and even the Chatham Islands, not just once but several times every Sunday. Impossible you think? Not at all. How would I do it?  In fact, if you name the age of the people you want me to fill the church with, I could manage that too!

Here’s how:

If you wanted me to fill the Church with teenage girls, I would call Justin Bieber in. to sing a couple of songs at Mass. If you wanted a church full of middle agers, I would twist the arm of a few All Blacks to give an ‘inspirational talk.’  See, not difficult to fill a church on a Sunday...

...but we know this is not the point.  Perhaps my example is a bit extreme. Let me offer another.

Some church communities seek to attract people by being ‘inclusive.’  This requires letting go of the fulness of life God has called us to, and settling for what is more easily achievable. The presumption here is that the Church is our Church, and that we are free to create it in our own image.

But the Church is not our Church. It is also not the bishop’s church or the pope’s Church. In the same way the parish is not our parish. It is God’s parish and we are God’s people.

There is a wonderful freedom in this. We do not have to invent or create ourselves. All we need to do is to be faithful to what God has called us to be. 

This means that if I have difficulty with Jesus’ teaching that I must love my enemy, I can’t simply discard or disregard the teaching. Nor am I called to alter this teaching to make it more ‘user-friendly’ in order to attract more people to the parish.

Our prime goal as a parish community is not therefore to fill our churches with people. Our central mission is to be faithful to all that God has called us to be.

But we have to face an overwhelming fear in the face of this task. The fear is that we want to be big and strong, powerful and influential. If what we say is unpopular then some will leave us and others will not be attracted.

This was exactly the situation that Jesus faced. Yet he remained faithful to all that he knew his Father was asking of him.

And, quite beyond all odds, this technique of gentleness and meekness confounded all who used methods and techniques of power and aggressive manipulation.

Sadly, too often, the Church too has used the techniques of the world to bring about change. The results may be temporarily satisfying, but never lasting. And then a saint like Francis of Assisi comes along in the Middle Ages and quietly feeds the poor. The results are not only immediate, but 800 years later Francis is probably the most universally popular saint.

And so back to the mustard seed. Pope Benedict is thinking that the church must grow smaller (in numbers) in order to be more effective. His point: we must not fall into the trap of thinking that it is our skill and our creativity that builds a parish.

"Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the church's history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intense struggle against evil and bring good into the world - that let God in."

“Light of the World” 

interview with Pope Benedict

Peter Seeward

Instead we are called to face our fear of what looks like failure (in the eyes of the world), and not be afraid of a simple and meek intimacy with God. 

As the pope suggests, this may mean that (for a time at least) our parishes are very small and even grow smaller. But our calling is not to be big or successful. We are called to faithful to God.

And the good news of history is that wherever people are faithful to God, they have not only survived, but grown (from the most insignificant of seeds) to become the most splendid tree of all.

+++

from Pope Benedict XVI  “Faith and the Future”

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning 

"She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…. 

"It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek . . . The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution — when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain . . . 

But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. People in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret. 

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”

airports

I have spent a bit of time waiting in airports in the past few weeks. This morning on a news report I read that Pope Benedict met with airport staff and offered them a few words of challenge and encouragement.

An airport is a unique kind of place. A liminal space where I am no longer where I was, but I am not yet where I am going.

Such a space offers unique opportunities for reflection.  

If I ever wrote a book I would like it to be the kind of work that airport kiosks sold; the kind of reading that a browsing traveller would be happy to pay a few dollars for, and to read at the gate or on the plane.

I suspect that whenever people find themselves in a liminal space they are more open than usual to considering a decision, or to pondering a new direction...

Back to the pope. You might be interested in the report:

new routine

The adjustment back into Study is a bit of a challenge.   I picked up the texts for the first semester of classes and struggled to carry them back to my room alone. 

It was good to meet many of the others who will make up the team of summer students.

The Mundelein Campus must be one of the most beautiful university sites in the world. The classical architecture buildings are along the shore of a lake, surrounded by trees and woods.

The rhythm of each day is clearly marked with classes all morning, and study all afternoon and evening. Three times each day we pray together in the chapel, with Mass as the high-point

It is 7am. Off to breakfast, prayer and classes.

young priests!

Two years ago I arrived at Mundelein University in Chicago for a six week study stint as part of a sabbatical.  I am now back for further study in the Master's Degree programme at the Liturgical Institute.

The student group for this programme numbers around 30.  A diverse bunch; young people with families, religious sisters and priests.  Among the priests I suspect I am one of the oldest.  

I recall that when I arrived here in 2010 I had come from the celebrations to mark the close of the Year of the Priest in Rome.  I looked back at my first blog entry from Mundelein at that time.  It was very positive: the world is full of young priests!

study

I was not a good student at high school. On a good day my exam results reached average.  Many of my teachers taught me what I had to learn, but no one thought of telling me how to learn it.  

Tonight I leave NZ for two months study leave at the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein University in Chicago.  Some of you who have been reading this blog for a couple of years will remember that I was there two years ago.

There have been a few things to organise in the week since I discovered that I was definitely to study this year.  Now I am at the airport in Auckland, about to board the flight.

The blog will continue with regular updates while I am away.

Please keep me in your prayer.  I pray daily for all readers of this blog, whoever and wherever you may be.

Corpus Christi newsletter

Weekly newsletter for the Catholic Parishes of the Hurunui District and the Chatham Islands.  Feast of Corpus Christi.


http://www.catholichurunui.co.nz/newsletter_10_June_2012.html

Corpus Christi

Orvieto is a beautiful settlement where all roads lead to the magnificent medieval Cathedral. The ‘treasure’ of this church is the corporal onto which the host was said to bleed during a Mass in the year 1263.

In this Middle-Age era of scepticism and instability, reports of the miracle spread rapidly and widely as a message of hope and confidence in the reality of Jesus present in the form of bread and wine. What Christians knew to be true was verified once again. The people were delighted.

The pope of the time was Urban IV. He had set up his home not in Rome, but in Orvieto. The Papal Palace is just beside the Duomo in the town. The miracle above happened in the nearby town of Bolsena, so it was probably only hours before the pope heard about it.

When he heard the wonderfully positive response of the people to the miracle, he too saw the event as a direct communication from God. The following year he proclaimed the feast we celebrate today: Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Eight hundred years later, on the other side of the world, we celebrate this feast that is the heart of our Catholic faith. God is with us. We are never alone and therefore have no cause to ever feel lonely.

God is available to us in every Mass in the most tangible and simple elements of bread and wine. The disciples of Jesus knew as they left the Last Supper, that something remarkable had happened at their table. They did not understand at the time why Jesus had told them to “do this in memory...”. But after his Resurrection three days later, and six weeks later filled with the Pentecost Spirit, they knew that Jesus had in fact gifted them with the fulness of Himself.

As they began to meet weekly ‘in memory of Him’, they did exactly as Jesus had instructed them. They took bread and broke it. They took the cup and proclaimed the blessing. They ate and drank what they knew to be His body and His blood. In doing this they realised that they were partaking of the food of life. This nourishment was the source and summit of their existence.

Within a few years, as the flailing Roman Empire desperately grasped at power, Christians were seen as a threat. Those who professed Jesus as their saviour, and who gathered for the Eucharist, were persecuted and often put to death. In the midst of this antagonism Christians became more committed to Jesus, and Christianity spread throughout the world.

God prevailed in the lives of this persecuted little group. Despite every opposition their community flourished throughout the Empire. Over the dark and difficult ages that followed, Christianity flourished. Twelve hundred years later St. Francis and St. Dominic proclaimed this life of Christ in ‘real presence’ in the Eucharist.

Forty years after the death of Francis and Dominic, just down the road from their home towns, the Bolsena miracle  renewed human understanding of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

After the Reformation, when many began to see the Eucharist as simply a symbolic ritual, Catholics continued to know that in receiving communion, they were taking the reality and fullness of Jesus into their lives. Catholics showed their conviction in this reality by receiving communion only after much prayer and reflection. This was no token ritual for them, but a conscious and active participation of God in a person's life. The natural response to such an overwhelming divine love is a personal conscious and active participation in the life of God.

It is significant that at the Last Supper, Jesus instructed his disciples to “remember”. “Do this in memory of me”.  He would have known how easy it is for humans to forget what is essential and to become preoccupied with what is less necessary and even trivial.

Weekly participation in the celebration of the Eucharist has throughout Christian history been the sign that one is seeking to live the life of Christ fully. 

Today, when we pass through the doors to enter a Catholic Church, we are expressing our desire to enter the life of Christ more fully. A Catholic church is not a 'community venue' but a holy place, consecrated to use only for prayer and worship. 

When we enter a Catholic church we are silent and still. As we enter we bless ourselves with the waters of baptism. When we arrive at our seat we genuflect to the reality of Jesus present in the tabernacle. In the moments before Mass begins we remember our need for God. In every Mass we are reminded of God’s desperate desire to live with and in us in every moment.

As the Word of God is proclaimed we recall what we have missed during the week. We remember that we need to know God is with us in every moment of the week ahead. Without this active memory, we can never feel as though we are truly alive.

The most basic of elements, flour, water and grape are brought forward as bread and wine. Now the Eucharistic Prayer is prayed and the substance of these humble gifts becomes the reality of Jesus Christ.

This is an even more wondrous event than a miracle. A miracle happens only when God chooses. But God has given us the power to choose the time and place of each Mass.  Jesus allows Himself to be given to us. God allows Himself to be consumed by us. In this moment we cannot doubt that Jesus is with us, for without own eyes we have seen Him make His home in our bodies.

When we recall that this is in fact what is happening, our healthy response is humility, gratitude and veneration. 

It is appropriate that in the moments before we receive communion we make a physical act of preparation, the Sign of the Cross or a dignified bow before the God who is eager to give us all that we desire. 
   

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Pope Benedict XVI Corpus Christi Homily 2011