"SIR, WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE JESUS.”
This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ (Corpus Christi). Historically, this solemnity has been always characterized by the Eucharistic procession, the Catholic faithful coming out of the church-buildings, carrying the Eucharistic Body of Our Savior with great honor and adoration singing and praying in faith. This solemnity with its Eucharistic procession was established to demonstrate to the world, and to all peoples, the Church’s Eucharistic faith and to show herself as the Eucharistic Church. Because it is the Church’s faith that in the Eucharistic species of consecrated bread and wine, “Christ is really present, with his Body and Blood, soul and divinity.” St. John Paul II affirms the Church’s faith saying: “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Matthew 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.” (Encyclical Letter: Ecclesia de Eucharistia)
In this same faith, here in our neighborhood, we celebrate the 18th Annual Northeast Eucharistic Procession.; this tradition has become part of our parish life. As we celebrate this solemnity and participate in the procession in adoration and prayer, let us take our lead from St. John’s Gospel.
“Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus’. Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus”. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’” (Jn. 12: 20-23).
From this account of the Greeks searching to see and meet with Jesus, let us listen, hear and seen the world and situations around us. Steal on this our time souls, the world, men and women knowingly or unknowingly need Christ, are searching for Jesus, they desire to be and see the Savior Jesus Christ in their lives. They may be Catholic Christians who have abandoned and given up their active practice of Catholic faith, no longer nourished by the Word of God and Sacraments due to disappointments, delusions and other challenges of life. May be those who no longer have a sweet experience of Christian faith and may be non-Christians who would rejoice at the knowledge of Christ and his Gospel, and accept him as their personal Savior present in their lives as the; way, truth and life. The world, men and women today need Jesus.
In the world today, we are and must be like Philip and Andrew who tell Jesus about the preoccupations and worries, betrayal, misunderstandings, anxieties and fears, aspirations and hopes of our brothers and sister through prayers and adoration of Our Lord present in the Eucharist. It is our mission as the baptized and as a parish community that we lead humanity and the world to Jesus through our expressed faith as we do today in procession, but more to that witness to the faith through action by; sincere caring, welcoming someone who wouldn’t feel welcome inside the Church. We do by tending to someone’s tangible needs, being there for others especially the weak, rejected and abandoned. We must show Jesus to them. This is an even better invitation to the Kingdom than our annual processions, and it may bring about transformations in our lives and the lives of our neighbors and neighborhoods.
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,”, our celebration of this solemnity and our “great Northeast Eucharistic Procession” is the hour of Jesus, it must bring about true worship, whereby “God is perfectly glorified and human persons sanctified.” Moreover, it is when the Kingdom of God is establish and growing that is Jesus glorified and God the Father is glorified. When this happens, men and women become part of the sheepfold, belonging and participating in the life of the People of God, in the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.
Our Lady of the Visitation, Sts. Apostles. Philip and Andrew pray for us. Amen.
~Fr. Justus