1962 Sunday Missal Mass Readings/Second Sunday After Pentecost

The Mass and the Eucharist

Of all the frightening statistics that we hear of these days, has any statistic been more chilling than that of the Gallup poll several years ago indicating that only 29% of Catholics receiving the Eucharist on Sunday believe that it is really and truly the body and blood of Christ? It seems that somewhere over the past few years Catholics have lost a sense of what Christ has given us in the Eucharist, and an appreciation of this great gift.

Real Presence

The Catechism of the Catholic Church begins its section on the Eucharist by saying: “The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life.’ The other Sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole of the spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.” As Catholics we believe that the Eucharist is really and truly Jesus’ Body and Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In fact, writes Fulton Sheen, “The mark of a Catholic is the willingness to look for the divine in the flesh of a babe in a crib, and the continuing Christ under the appearance of bread and wine on an altar.”

Jesus' Own Teaching

The reason we can believe such as seemingly strange reality is, simply put, because it was what Jesus taught us. First in the Gospel of John chapter six: “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him” (verses 55 and 56). Then at the Last Supper He not only teaches this truth again but this time actually celebrates the first Eucharist with his disciples: “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’ ” (Luke 22:19-20) Thus beginning with the Apostles, the Church has held fast to her faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

How to Gain a Deeper Appreciation

How then do we go about regaining an appreciation of this great and mysterious gift of Christ? For a faithful Catholic, everything should begin and end with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

Attend Mass Each Sunday

The Holy Eucharist is what makes us Catholics—it is, indeed, our identity. In this sense, the one who calls himself or herself a Catholic and does not participate in the Holy Sacrifice of Mass every Sunday is being untruthful to one's commitment to Jesus—they are living a lie. We are the Eucharistic People of God. The Catholic Church exists because of the Eucharist. We will begin rebuilding our faith in the Eucharist by attending Mass each Sunday, each day when possible, and thus be faithful to Christ’s commandment to “do this in memory of me.”

Pray

The second way to come to a more intimate knowledge and love of the Eucharist is through prayer. As St. Bernadine of Siena said over 500 years ago: "Prayer is the best preparation for Holy Communion. Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. When we pray we go to meet Christ Who is coming to us.” Daily prayer, and preparatory prayer before Mass is the way that we prepare ourselves for what should be the highlight and the center of our week, reception of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It is easy to miss what is happening at Mass if we don’t take some time beforehand to get ourselves ready. In the Mass we are nourished by God’s Word in the readings, and by Jesus' own Body and Blood. So we need some time of silent prayer to get our ears attuned to listening to God speaking to us, and some time to reflect on our lives and our own spiritual hungers which we need the Eucharist to satisfy.

Live What We Receive

Another way that we can begin to appreciate the Mass more is if we try to truly live that which we receive. The word “Mass” comes from the Latin dismissal, “Ite Missa est!” ("Go you are sent!") We have to recognize that the Eucharist is meant to give us the strength, the courage and the grace to live as faithful Christians in the world. So at the end of Mass we are all sent out, newly refreshed and refilled with grace, to do God’s work in this world. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to tell her sisters, that just as the priest at Mass so carefully handles and cares for the Eucharist, so they must go out and handle and care for the poor. The Eucharist is not meant to be something separate from our daily lives and work, rather we are meant to bring our daily life to Mass with us, and to take the Mass and Jesus Christ back out into our daily lives.

Ask Yourself

The Eucharist is essentially about a deep and profound union with Jesus Christ. It is about allowing Him within our souls so that He can begin to transform us, and make us like Himself. As St. Pius X said, “Remember, this side of heaven, there is no way to be closer to Jesus than by worthily receiving him in Holy Communion.”

So the question then remains for us, do we really believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist? That it is truly Jesus Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, present under the form of bread and wine? Do we believe that it is the greatest way to encounter Our Lord? Do we believe that through it He can transform our lives?

If not, then why not?

Who Can Receive the Eucharist?

Catholics who have received their First Sacraments, who are not conscious of grave sin, and who have fasted for at least one hour are encouraged to devoutly and frequently receive Holy Communion.

This is very important:

To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself." Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion. (CCC 1385)

Translation: taking this Sacrament with serious, unconfessed sin on the soul brings condemnation rather than salvation!

We are also required to fast for just one hour before receiving. Water and medicine do not break a fast. Catholics are obliged to receive this sacrament at least once per year, if possible during Easter (CCC 1388).

Non-Catholics are not ordinarily admitted to Holy Communion and are asked to pray that the action of the Holy Spirit will draw us closer together and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us (see CCC 1398-1401).

Why Can't Non-Catholics Receive Holy Communion?

Contrary to popular belief, the reason non-Catholics are asked to refrain from receiving Holy Communion is not because the Church wants anyone to feel excluded. The Church, in fact, has a certain responsibility to non-Catholics.

Because what makes us Catholic is our belief of Jesus’ True Presence in the Eucharist, it would be a disservice to allow non-Catholics to partake in this extraordinary union when they do not know or understand that which they are joining in. Why? Because they would not have been able to properly prepare themselves.

St. Justin Martyr wrote this in his apology to the emperor at Rome circa 150 AD:

We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true….For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and has both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.

Circa 110, St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote this concerning heretics:

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again.

And from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in a catechetical lecture he gave in the middle of the fourth century, we get this:

Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though the sense suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo, please forgive us.
Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and Protector of the Faithful,
pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Pope Saint Leo the Great, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.
Saint Padre Pio, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, fierce fighter of the Arians, pray for us.
Saint Clare, the great apostle of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, pray for us.
Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, pray for us
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, pray for us.
Father Gommar DePauw, pray for us.
Father Paul Wickens, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, protect the faithful from the snares of the disciples of Lucifer in disguise, and
bring ruin to those who intimidate, oppress, imprison, torture, and murder His faithful servants
throughout the world.

From Rev. Fr. Michael Angelo Cardenas of the Archdiocese of Mingle:

The full name in Latin of this feast is “Corpus et Sanguis Christi” (“The Body and Blood of Christ”). This feast is celebrated on the first Sunday after the feast of the Holy Trinity. This year the feast of Corpus Christi falls on May 29.

Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege ( Belgium) established this feast of the Blessed Sacrament in the year 1246 at the suggestion of St. Juliana of Mont Carvillon. Juliana, a Belgian nun, from age 16 onwards, often had a vision during her prayers of a full moon in brilliant light, while a part of its disc remained black. Finally, Christ told her the meaning of this vision. The moon represented the liturgical year; the black spot indicated the lack of a festival in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. She was to tell the Church hierarchy that God wished the establishment of such a feast.

In 1230 Juliana revealed this secret to a small group of theologians and, as a result, she had to suffer scorn and ridicule. But the bishop of Liege eventually listened to her. A diocesan synod in 1246 decided in her favor and prescribed such a feast for the churches of Liege. Some years later, Jacques Pantaleon, archdeacon of Liege, was elected Pope, taking the name Urban IV (1261-1265). On September 8, 1264, six years after Juliana's death, he established for the whole Church that feast in honor of the Holy Eucharist. It was to be celebrated with great solemnity on the Thursday after Pentecost week, and indulgences were granted to all who would receive Holy Communion or attend special devotions in addition to hearing Mass.

Pope Urban IV commissioned both Saints Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas to compose the texts of the Mass and the Divine Office for the new feast. It is said that when St. Bonaventure read what his friend St. Thomas had come up with, he burned his own composition. Thomas Aquinas composed five beautiful hymns to the Holy Eucharist: “Adoro Te Devote” (“I adore Thee devoutly”), “Lauda Sion” (“Laud, O Zion”), “Pange Lingua” (“Sing, my tongue”), “Sacris Solemniis” (“At this our Solemn Feast”) and “Verbum Supernum” (“The Word of God”).

Pope Urban IV presented the following reasons for establishing Corpus Christi as a universal feast: “1) that the Catholic doctrine receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife; 2) that the faithful who love and seek truth and piety may be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue; 3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be extirpated and repaired; 4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.”

In the 14 th century the custom developed of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a splendid procession through the town after the Mass on the feast of Corpus Christi. The popes encouraged this; they granted special indulgences to all who would participate in the celebration. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) solemnly approved and recommended the procession on Corpus Christi as a public profession of the Catholic faith in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

During the later Middle Ages these processions developed into splendid pageants of devotion and honor to the Blessed Sacrament. They are still publicly held, and often with the ancient splendor, in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, in the Catholic sections of Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Hungary, and in the Slavic countries and South America. Sovereigns and princes, presidents and ministers of the government, court judges, members of trade and craft guilds, and honor guards of the armed forces accompany the liturgical procession while the church bells peal, bands play sacred hymns, and the faithful kneel in front of their homes to adore the Eucharistic Lord. The houses along the route of the procession are decorated. Candles and pious pictures adorn the windows. In many places, especially in Latin countries, the streets are covered with carpets of grass and flowers, often fashioned in beautiful patterns.

The solemn celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, with its corresponding Eucharistic procession, far from being outdated, is much needed in our times. The present conditions of the world are not very different from those that existed when Pope Urban IV was prompted to establish Corpus Christi as a universal feast. Pope Benedict XVI described the people’s thirst for Christ in his homily during the Mass for the inauguration of his Pontificate on April 24, 2005: “so many people are living in the desert. And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. Therefore the earth's treasures no longer serve to build God's garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction.”

"The human race – every one of us – is the sheep lost in the desert which no longer knows the way,” Pope Benedict said. But amid this desolate panorama, the Pope assured us that “the Son of God will not let this happen; he cannot abandon humanity in so wretched a condition. He leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross.”

The feast of Corpus Christi is a time when our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament goes out to meet us in our very streets where we witness each day “the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love”. This is a time when we all can witness to Christ’s love for us and to his dwelling among us by glorifying him in a very open way. It is also a wonderful way in which we can show our love for our neighbors by bringing them closer to Jesus.

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