Bread Broken and Wine Poured Out For Us

 FEAST OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST 

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, a melding of two former feasts. Until a few years ago the church celebrated the “body” on one day (Feast of Corpus Christi) and the “blood” (Feast of the Precious Blood) on another.

 

Even though the church encourages us at every Mass to spend a brief period of silence after communion, this Feast encourages us to spend some longer devotional time before the Blessed Sacrament so we can reflect more deeply on this great mystery. I believe the pastor here moved the tabernacle back to the center so that people would recapture that quiet time before Mass to prepare themselves for this great celebration. The time spent reflecting on this great mystery reminds us that we become what we eat so that we too can become the self-giving Christ for others.

 

The evolution of the Last Supper into the Mass we know today is quite interesting. 

 

Did you know that the first record of the Eucharist was not the story of the Last Supper in the various gospel accounts. The stories of the Last Supper were actually written down later. The very first record of the Last Supper comes from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians written in about 54 AD. 

 

Brothers and sisters:

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."

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 

you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I Corinthians 11:23-26

 

The first Last Supper account, from the Gospel of Mark was probably written 66-70 AD, about 12 to 16 years later than the Last Supper account from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. 

 

At the time of Paul, when he composed our second reading today to the Corinthians, it was customary for Christians to hold an “agape meal” before the Eucharist. It was some sort of pot-luck dinner that the rich and the poor shared. However, in Corinth things had gotten a little out of control and the art of sharing was being lost. The rich would not share their food, but ate it in little exclusive groups by themselves, hurrying through it so they did not have to share, while the poor went with almost nothing. Some of the participants even got drunk at these meals. Did you know that Paul basically reams them out for their drunkenness in this same letter we read from today? And we think we have problems with things like when to sit and when to stand which keep changing!  

 

Did you know that St. Clement of Alexandra had to write a letter to his people in the year 200 about the problem of lengthy mouth-to-mouth kissing during the sign of peace? 

 

Did you know that in the year 350, the Council of Nicea actually outlawed the practice of kneeling during Mass as “novel,” preferring the older custom of standing as the proper way of praying at the Eucharist?

 

Did you know that the Mass changed from Greek to Latin in 384 so that people could understand and participate in their own language – Latin! Even in the old Latin Mass, we had some hang-over Greek words – words like Kyrie Eleison are Greek words, not Latin words! It wasn’t changed again until 1963, when we went to English, for the same reason – so that people could understand and participate in their own language? 

 

Did you know that lay people had their parts of the Mass taken away around the year 1000 and they were not restored to them till Vatican Council II? Growing up the priest and the altar boys, and maybe the choir, interacted while people said the rosary or read along from their missals in silence.  The Mass today is more like it was in the church’s early years than it was when most of our older members like me were growing up. 

 

Did you know that tabernacles in churches did not start till the 12th century and did not become standard until the 17^th century? Did you know that Protestants invented pews? Catholics had been using chairs, as we do here in our Cathedral, just as they do in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome today and in most European Cathedrals? There weren’t even chairs in the early church. People stood, even during long homilies. They did provide a bench along the walls for the sick and elderly. 

 

Did you know that so few people were going to communion in the 13th century, because they considered it too sacred to receive, that the Pope had to make a law saying people must receive communion at least once a year? It came to be called our “Easter duty.” Did you know that veneration of the Blessed Sacrament at Benediction and the custom of Corpus Christi processions became a substitute for receiving communion during this period? 

 

The feast we celebrate today didn’t come till the 13th century. This was when things began to really change. This is why and how all these “new developments” that did not exist in the first 11-12 centuries of our church came about. 

 

In 1263 a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Italy to celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At the time he was having doubts about Jesus being truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. He was affected by the growing debate among certain theologians who, for the first time in the history of the Church, began introducing doubts about the Body and Blood of Christ being actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. In response to his doubt, according to tradition, when he recited the prayer of consecration as he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, blood supposedly started seeping from the consecrated host and onto the altar and corporal.

 

Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV, who at the time was nearby in Orvieto. The pope sent delegates to investigate and ordered that host and blood-stained corporal be brought to Orvieto. These were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today.

 

This Eucharistic miracle confirmed the reported visions given to St. Juliana of Belgium just a few years before. St. Juliana was a nun and mystic who had a series of visions in which she said she was instructed   to work to establish a liturgical feast for the Holy Eucharist, to which she had a great devotion.

 

After many years of trying, she finally convinced the bishop, the future Pope Urban IV, to create this special feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, where none had existed before. Soon after her death, Pope Urban instituted Corpus Christi for the Universal Church and celebrated it for the first time in Orvieto in 1264 – in the mid13^th century - a year after the Eucharistic miracle that had been reported to him.

 

Inspired by the miracle, Pope Urban IV commissioned a Dominican friar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose a Mass and Liturgy of the Hours for the feast of Corpus Christi. Saint Thomas Aquinas' hymns in honor of the Holy Eucharist, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia are the beloved hymns the Church sings on the feast of Corpus Christi as well as throughout the year during Exposition, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and in Corpus Christi Processions when the Blessed Sacrament is carried through the streets. 

 

Some of you older folks, my age and older, might remember the Corpus Christi Processions of the past. The Holy Name Society of Holy Name Church, out on Third Street near U of L, under the direction of Monsignor Timoney its pastor, sponsored a local Corpus Christi Procession. It was held originally where Bellarmine University is now, but he had it moved to Churchill Downs. An account from 1952, says that 50,000 Catholics from the area around Louisville attended on a Sunday afternoon. There were other processions out in the country in places like Flaherty. I can remember marching with my father, uncles, brothers and other men from neighboring parishes down in Flaherty, Kentucky. Of the 50,000 attendees here in Louisville, 15,000 men and boys marched around the track at Churchill Downs, while 35,000 women and girls sat in the grandstand and clubhouse. Devotional music was sung and the rosary was prayed. When all those men were on the track in position, the Blessed Sacrament was carried from altar to altar, until Benediction was finally celebrated with the newly ordained priests serving as assistants to the main celebrant, usually the bishop or archbishop. Those processions gradually died out in intensity after Vatican Council II when receiving communion was again more stressed and are only a memory except in a few places where they have been revived a couple of years ago.

 

My friends, the Eucharist has undergone many changes in its form, but underneath all these additions and subtractions over the centuries, its essence is still the same. Baptized believers have gathered around bread and wine, having become the body and blood of Christ, to be nourished, energized, transformed and strengthened for over 2,000 years. It’s a family reunion. It’s bread for the journey and strength for the trip. It’s an intimate meeting between a loving God and his adopted children. It’s at the heart of what being a Catholic is all about. That is why we are here today – to celebrate what has been handed on to us in its essence from the Lord Jesus himself! 

A PRAYER FOR PERSONAL CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #25

 

CUSTODY OF THE EYES

Custodia occulorum, or custody of the eyes, is a practice with a long history, exhorted by St. Francis of Assisi and, in its recent past, used as a penance by those pursuing a rigorous spiritual life. But to the rest of us, it just means holding ourselves accountable for what we choose to look at. As an old saying goes, one I remember almost weekly, "It is easier to put on slippers than it is to carpet the world." I try to adapt it this way, "It is easier to change what I choose to look at, than change everything outside myself that I am able to look at!" However, sometimes you just have to look at things you should not look at. Who can resist, for instance, looking at a car wreck on the highway. You can't seem to resist slowing down to get a better look, even though you know you shouldn't!

Twice on vacation, I have ended up on a "clothing optional beach" unknowingly. Once was on the Dutch island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean and once on the island of Mykonos in Greece. Because of our Puritan background, Americans are obviously more prudish about things like that than people in many other countries. You experience it more in especially in European countries than you do here at home. 

The only problem I had with both experiences was who chose to parade around naked.  If you think it is mainly the young and beautiful, you'd be wrong! The fat, the old, the wrinkled and the ugly seemed to predominate. The more disgusting they were to look at, the more they seemed to parade shamelessly up and down the beach. The more you could not believe your eyes, the more you just had to look! They were what we used to call in the seminary, a "sure cure for concupiscence!"

Here is little lesson from an online theologian. Lust of the eyes speaks to the Ninth and Tenth Commandments. The Ninth Commandment is “Thou Shalt Not Covet your neighbor’s wife.” The Tenth Commandment is “Thou Shalt Not Covet your neighbor’s goods.” The sin of covetousness speaks directly to the “inordinate desire” described by the Seven Deadly Sins. Whereas “lust of the flesh” means overindulging in physical goods, “lust of the eyes” means wanting more than you have, and more than you should. Quite literally, we’re talking about seeing good things and selfishly desiring them. When Jesus teaches “You have heard it said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ but I tell you that whoever looks at a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” He is talking about lust of the eyes.

Lust of the eyes also includes the more “advanced” desires for money and possessions. These are “advanced” because they are not naturally attractive to us. We learn to desire these things because of the good they bring into our lives.

The lust of the eyes coincides with the Capital Sins of avarice and envy. Avarice, also known as greed, is the inordinate desire for money and possessions. Envy is the sin of sorrow over the good of another person. It is opposite of love, which is to will the good of the other. Lust of the eyes is a sure sign that we are thinking too much about ourselves and not enough about others.

The main virtue that combats lust of the eyes is therefore modesty. Modesty means thinking less about yourself and drawing less attention to yourself. It is also wise to practice “custody of the eyes.” Literally, this means controlling what you look at. If you’re drawn into selfish daydreams by looking at that boat for sale on the corner, don’t look at it! Make your first thought about how you can help others rather than how you can help yourself.

DON'T BE AMONG THOSE MISLED DURING TIMES OF UPHEAVAL

 

PASS THIS BLOG ON TO OTHERS WHO MIGHT BENEFIT FROM IT

I spend a lot of time and effort on my blog. I normally post something every other day. Quite a few people access it and tell me they enjoy it and get some benefit from it. If you are one of those people, feel free to pass the blog address on to others. It's free! To access this blog, An Encouraging Word, simply go to: fatherknott.com  For a list of available books go to ronknottbooks.com 

ONE LOVING COMMUNITY OF EQUAL PERSONS

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and

the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5

Today the church celebrates a feast in honor of God. We call God today “the Holy Trinity” because our God is one and three at the same time. According to legend, St. Patrick supposedly used a shamrock or three-leafed clover, to explain how God can be one and three at the same time. Just as a shamrock is one with three petals, God is one made up of three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Traditionally, priests and deacons end up telling you that the Trinity cannot be explained and then they spend twenty minutes talking to prove it. A better way to explain this mystery, for me at least, is to say that God is an inseparable and undivided community of three persons, relating to each other in love. Because God is a three-person community relating to each other in love, Jesus asked us to reflect this three-person God by loving each other as a community of persons.

I may not be able to explain the Trinity all that well, but I would like to say a few things about God from my own experience.

Over the centuries, people have always had a problem with God, but today people have a serious problem with God. The problem, of course, is not with God, but with people’s understanding and expectations of God. As someone said so wisely several years ago, “God may have created us in his own image and likeness in the beginning, but we have been trying to create him in our own image ever since.”

(1)   Some, of course, do not believe in God. I believe the only difference between a believer and a non-believer is that a believer has had some experience of God, because neither believer nor non-believer can actually prove the existence of God. To go from college seminary to theology seminary, we had to pass an oral exam in front of three monks who asked us about what we learned in our philosophy courses. The question I got was a question about St. Thomas Aquinas’ five “proofs for the existence of God.” I remember my answer even today. I told them that his proofs make perfect sense for people like me who already believed, but they probably would not persuade anyone who did not believe. My honest answer was a risk, but it obviously got me into theology!

(2)     Many do not believe because of the bad behaviors of those who say they believe. They do not experience God in the behaviors of believers. As Gandhi said, “I love your Christ. It is just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

(3)  For some other people God is like a Santa Claus who is supposed to bring you everything you want, just because you want it. Like ungrateful children, they believe that a parent God owes it to them to meet their needs.

(4)         For others, God is a scary, nitpicking disciplinarian who is “up there” keeping score and licking his chops in anticipation of frying us in hell for messing up.

(5)   For some, God is a fluffy stuffed bunny, cute to look at and quite harmless who can be brought out to make people feel better when they get a “boo-boo." He is there to take the pain out of life. Their God has been domesticated. He is harmless and actually irrelevant to ordinary life.

Personally, I grew up on (4) the “scary, nitpicking disciplinarian God.”  He was the God bent on exacting justice. He was tit for tat. If, I did this, he would do that. No matter how much I did right, it was never good enough. I would never admit it, of course, but I resented God for what he was putting me through – always expecting more than I could deliver.

In a late 1970’s dream, in a surprise gift from God, that old notion of God all melted away one night. I woke up knowing in my heart of hearts, in my gut, in the core of my being that I had God all wrong. With God’s help, I traded in my worn-out, distorted old notions of God. I woke up with a fresh new God, a companion God, a helper God, a hugging and affectionate God. I was left with no fear, no dread, no need to be perfect, no suppressed anger or resentment. I had discovered that I had created a God that did not exist from the bit and pieces of bad information and poor theology that I had picked up from other people.

From that day on, I began to notice that the God Jesus talked about was very similar to the new God that had been revealed to me, not through my head, but through my heart. Jesus talked about a God who loved both his sons, the one who kept all the rules, as well as the one who got down with the pigs; a God who invites the good and bad alike to his wedding feast; a God who gives all of us a full days pay, no matter how much or how little we work for him; a God who goes out looking for his lost and wounded sheep, only to rejoice when it is found – no lectures, no punishment and no demand for apologies.

That dream - that moment of grace - taught me more about God than all twelve years of theology studies that I had gone through in the seminary.  So today, I believe in the goodness of God, in God’s unconditional love for all of us, even though I still cannot explain concepts like the “Trinity.” I would rather “experience” God any day than be able to “explain” God. Since I have “felt” the love of God, I have no problem accepting the doctrine that God is not some static being above the clouds, but a “community of loving persons,” Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Because I have “experienced” God and have “felt” his unconditional love, I cannot think of a better way to spend my life than preaching this idea of God to those who doubt him, or who have never felt his love, in hopes that they will be open to receive this insight into who God really is! I certainly believe it can happen, not by my ability to prove God’s existence, but by modeling God-like unconditional loving behavior in my own personal life!  It's my goal, even though I am not there yet! 

    

 

 

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #24

 

THEY DON'T SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE

In 2014, I had the pleasure of leading the Bishops and priests of the Dioceses of Saskatoon and Prince Albert.  The Bishop of Saskatoon unfortunately had the flu most of the week, but he would get up and show up from his bed a few times that week. The Bishop of Prince Albert was a down-to-earth former White Father Missionary in Africa,  Bishop Albert Thevenot.  The Diocese of Prince Albert was north of Saskatoon, but both in the Province of Saskatchewan. We met together in Saskatoon. 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon is a dynamic and vibrant diocese located in Saskatchewan, in the heart of Canada’s prairie provinces, largely situated on Treaty 6 territory, which is also the traditional homeland of the Métis.

Stretching across 44,800 square kilometers from Macklin and Leader in the west, to Kelvington and Wadena in the east, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon includes some 75,000 Catholics served by 93 parishes.

From many backgrounds, speaking a variety of languages, with a range of socio-economic profiles, Catholics in the Roman Diocese of Saskatoon live in both urban and rural settings. There are First Nations and Métis Catholics, many served by the diocese’s most-recently created parish, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Saskatoon, and there are newcomers to Canada who connect to their ethnic community when gathering to pray and worship.

In the west are the many parishes of St. Joseph’s Colony, established more than a century ago by German-Russian pioneers, and served for many years by Oblate priests.

Around Muenster and Humboldt are parishes established as part of St. Peter’s Colony, another German settlement: this one grew up around the Benedictine Abbey established at Muenster: St. Peter’s Abbey.

There are also French-speaking communities established in the area of Vonda, Prud’homme and St. Denis, as well as a French-speaking-Catholic parish in Saskatoon: Sts-Martyrs-Canadiens. The diocese also includes a wide range of other national groups: Irish, Filipino, Polish, Iraqi, Spanish, Italian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Sudanese, Vietnamese, and others.

As you can see, language can be a problem even in northern Canada. I was told a story when I was there that I still remember plainly. It still makes me laugh and I like to repeat it to anyone I meet from Canada. It's about two American tourists, a husband and wife, who were visiting Canada. They go lost right outside Saskatoon. The husband sent his wife into a gas station to ask where they were while he waited in the car! The wife went in and asked about where they were. The man behind the counter answered her, "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!" The woman left and hastened back to the car and said to her husband, "It's hopeless! They don't speak English!"