From Our Pastor's Desk
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From Our Pastor's Desk
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The Meal
The Eucharist is the sacrament of the presence, but also of the absence, of Christ. It is the meal of thanksgiving to Christ for having remained here as the bread which sustains us on the path of the faith; and it is also the meal of praise to the Father because through the Eucharist he guides us in the present so that we may securely reach our eschatological future. The feast that we celebrate today is the sacrifice of expiation in which Christ is simultaneously priest and victim. Sisters and brothers: 1. The Feast of Corpus Christi unfolds in an atmosphere of happiness and recognition because we ponder the infinite beauty of the gift. We carry him in a triumphant procession through our streets as a public profession of faith. In each Eucharist we come together around the altar in order to eat his Body and drink his Blood. It is a vital communion which reaches down to the very roots of our being. We live from him. With Saint Paul we can say: "For me, to live is Christ". John Paul II confessed: "For me, in the span of nearly fifty years of priesthood, the celebration of the Eucharist continues to be the most important and sacred moment. I am fully conscious that I celebrate it in persona Christi. The Holy Mass is absolutely at the center of my life and of my whole day." 2. The Eucharistic banquet demands that we realize fraternal communion in charity which unites us beyond the temple and which takes flesh in human relations. Unless acts of solidarity are inspired in the love of God, they be-come mere acts of philanthropy. On the other hand the person who has been feed with the Body and Blood of Christ is capable of giving and transforming. We need to live the virtue of charity that buds forth from Eucharistic Communion in order to thereby reach out to those who are most in need with an attentive and welcoming service in their need. And there are so many who do not have a voice to be heard, and who do not have any political clout which would make others take them into account! 3. Let us think of those who hunger physically; but there are other men and women who have no means of feeding their spirit. "Today humanity suffers the most terrible experience of all: Hunger for God and separation from him". For many of our contemporaries, God is something distant and vague, something that almost gets mixed up with the illusory or unreal. Some people are the victims of another's egoism, but others refuse to open their eyes to see the light. We always have to be ready to give and to receive. In order to give we need to be generous; in order to receive it is necessary to be humble. Only those who are generous and humble will be prepared to truly love. Love is communion, true giving of oneself to another. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ invites us to take part in the Mass, the procession, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and personal prayer. It is also a day suitable for practicing Christian charity. Do I live the Eucharist with a fraternal spirit? Does each Eucharist help me to grow in friendship, in brotherhood, in closeness to all others who share this same table, such that it leads us to be a parable of unity as Christ taught us? Love Begets Happiness
Love has no limits. In the Gospel Christ calls us friends; on this earth there is no greater sign of confidence than this, and for this reason happiness reaches its fullness. The source of happiness is that love that does not distinguish between persons, that does not discriminate, that does not pick and choose. Sisters and brothers: 1. Many of our contemporaries do not understand the meaning of true happiness. They see it as a parenthesis in the middle of a boring existence in which worry, insecurity and pain are predominate. For this reason we hear more and more laughs and see less and less smiles. "A fool raises his voice in laughter, but the prudent man at the most smiles gently", says Sirach. The one who bears God in his soul, perceives the imperative need of transmitting him with deep, serene and permanent happiness; it is the uncontrollable need to pass it on which penetrates to the depths of the heart, which reassures it. 2. "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" A mom's happiness is her children's happiness. This is an infallible theorem. But the greatest happiness comes with having God in our hearts. Where there is no love, there is no life and we only find the absence of God; it is then that we desire to fill this empty space with with false idols. On the other hand the person who has Christian happiness is a bearer of a new message of solidarity, of peace, of love; enlightened by happiness he knows how to welcome life with thanksgiving and veneration; it is the attitude of the person who has discovered that all of life is a gift. Only the one who makes the world a happier place is truly happy. Only the person who knows how to give happiness knows happiness. Happiness is contagious. 3. "The happiness of the heart and of the face". Paul Claudel places this message in the mouth of one of his characters: "My God, you have given me the possibility of having it that anyone who looks at me, would desire to sing, as if I had intoned for him in a low voice". Ask yourself honestly: does your smile reveal God's presence in your soul to others? Does the world get better when you do something to lift it up? The balm of sincere Christian happiness could once again bring, among our brothers and sisters in the faith, the resurgence of exemplary charity. Happiness imperatively needs to communicate itself through authentic friendship. Let us remember that the measure of love is love without measure. Authentic love knows neither strategies nor reckonings; for this reason love implies generosity, gratitude and happiness. Self-interested love is the antithesis of love. "Egoism is like unto those Egyptian bandits who only embrace their victims in order to strangle them." "Sing out with your voice", says Saint Augustine, "sing with your heart; sing with your lips; sing with your whole life." Sisters and brothers: Let us bring Christian happiness wherever we go: to our family, to our workplace, to our friends. Let it not be the happiness that the world gives, but that which Christ brought by his Incarnation. Only thus will we have the face of those who have risen. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests |
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