1. --
Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Carol &
Dennis Keller
3. --
Brian Gleeson CP
4. --
Paul O'Reilly SJ
5. --(Your
reflection can be here!)
*****************************************************
1.
*****************************************************
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
2022
In the Gospel passage according to Luke, we hear/read the
story of the multiplication of loaves and fishes. The story
is symbolic in many ways, but especially in the abundance
that we receive when we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus
in Holy Communion to this day. The words that struck me in
this familiar story were: "They all ate and were satisfied."
Receiving Holy Communion during the pandemic was a rare
occurrence in most places until recently. For me,
participating in the Mass on line just wasn't the same.
Something, no SOMEONE, seemed to be missing, even with the
Spiritual Communion prayer that was said.
Using all our senses now as we receive this GIFT, if we
savor the experience, is indeed satisfying. A truly
wonderful sense of calmness always happens to me. It is as
if nothing else matters!
In truth, however, it all matters because it all matters
to God. The other people, the music, the Scriptures, and the
prayers are all part of the "abundance" that comes along
with its Source. Actually everything flows from the Source.
As we celebrate this weekend, let us remember the Gift we
have been given. Let us be truly grateful for the connection
it insures. Let this Gift flow through us to others as well.
Such was Jesus's intent, so let it be our mission as we are
sent forth.
Blessings,
Dr. Lanie
LeBlanc OP
Southern
Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one
******************************************************
2.
******************************************************
Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 19 2022
Genesis 14:18-20; Responsorial Psalm 110; 1st
Corinthians 11:23-26; Sequence Lauda Sion; Gospel
Acclamation John 6:51; Luke 9:11-17
These first two Sundays after Pentecost are heavily
loaded with intensely constructed faith matters. The
presentation of the Trinity and then the second Sunday, the
presentation of the Body and the Blood of the Lord are
essential to faith growth. For most faithful, not trained
professionals in theological, and/or philosophical thought
and process, these two topics tend to remain in piety and
devotion. Often times that means these two great
faith-truths lack the energy to make a difference in human
lives. Those are two of the four great underpins of worldly
Christian living. The other two are the Incarnation which
includes all of the life of Jesus and especially his cross
and resurrection. The second is the celebration of Pentecost
as the abiding presence of the Spirit of God, that advocate
promised, that energizer, that fountain of appreciation and
concern for all that is incarnated. So why Trinity, why Body
and Blood of Jesus the anointed one, the Christ? There is a
lot to unpack about these articles of our faith. Our faith
comes to us and remains with us and influences our daily
living in community. This is no "me and Jesus" truth. The
truth of the Trinity to our living is that the Trinity is a
community, and the life of God is in fact a communal life
that is held together as One by unconditional, unlimited,
and constant love. So also, is the community we call church.
Even better put we should call it the assembly, a coming
together of those called to gather. That is the meaning of
the Hebrew word – Quahal which transmutes to us by way of
the German Kirche and thus into the word "church." The
Trinity is the model of eternal life. For God in three
persons is beyond time and space though they are the source
and creator of both time and space. If we somehow wish for
eternal life, we are in fact seeking to participate in the
Life of God. Our feeble attempts to define, paint pictures
of life after death all appear pretty boring. We just do not
know what it is like. Only that the revelation tells us that
"eye has not seen, hear has not heard what God has ready for
us." We experience – unless we are filled with pride and
hubris – our incompleteness, our lack of knowledge and skill
and a clear and certain grasp of truth. In even the most
dedicated and committed marriage there remains a nagging
doubt about the completeness and finality of that
personalized relationship. Only eternal life residing
exclusively in the Trinity contains all that. God’s life is
a life of relationships, of community, of loving other so
completely that three are in fact one. The vocation to
marriage is a human way to experience that love. Marriage,
lived well, is a growth toward union, toward oneness. The
wedding day is merely a starting point. Love on that day is
more about appeal and a start to commitment that will grow
or fail in decay. Marriage vows given are a commitment to
living in that relationship to discover the depth, width,
and height of love. Such love, discovered in marriage, is a
door opening into the life of the Trinity.
This week, the relationship with God and community is
about Communion, also called the Eucharist, also known as
the Body and the Blood of the Christ. We cannot think of
"Christ" as the last name of Jesus. Christ is the ultimate
achievement of Jesus. Before his ministry, in his ministry,
and ultimately through his struggle with death, all this is
capped by being raised up alive and renewed by his
resurrection. Jesus became the anointed one, the Christ at
that victory. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension
are for us a roadmap as to how we grow into oneness with one
another. And through that oneness with one another in
community, we come into union with the Trinity. Life for
humans is a matter of growth – or decay: maturation or
childishness; appreciation or cut-throat competition, and so
on. The start of growth or decay is a binary choice in the
direction we chose to live our lives. Once that choice is
made the arc of our living heads in the direction of the
choice. The binary choice is toward goodness/wholeness or
toward evil/death of our spirits. Review again Matthew’s
gospel, chapter 25, where judgment of lives lived are a
review of life’s relationships. Rules are guides for
personal choices. Relationships reach out toward union with
community and ultimately with the Trinity.
Any adult living in the world knows the supreme
difficulty of appreciating others. How is it possible to see
others in a positive light when so much of their and our
efforts are to beat others, to discover weak points and
attack at those weak points for personal advantage. Maybe it
is how they look; maybe it is personal hygiene habits; maybe
it’s how they talk; maybe it’s the color of their skin;
maybe it’s their language or accent; maybe it’s the company
they keep. Whatever it is, there is always something about
the other that irritates us. How to get beyond those
incidentals? It has to be community. It has to be an
association of persons who support one another in faith, in
relationship, all laced with appreciation for the dignity
and worth of the others. Francis would name this
"accompaniment" an environment where we walk in the shoes of
others and lift up the fallen down, celebrate the joys of
life, heal the broken and broken hearted, and discover God
present with us.
Church is more than the institution needed to maintain
order. It is an assembly of those called together in a
common faith from which springs hope for wholeness (i.e.,
holiness) which creates in the human heart sympathy,
empathy, and charity toward members and non-members alike.
Thus, church affects the world through its persons. That is
how we must model and evangelize the world – by loving one
another and by accompanying the others – members and
non-members.
The rituals of our liturgies teach us – not merely the
liturgy of the Word, but also the liturgy of Eucharist.
Rituals are the classroom repetition so necessary to
hardwire learning into the movements of our hearts. The
reality of it all is that the movements, the objects of our
heart’s desires and inclinations actually color and energize
mental processes. What attracts us, what we appreciate, what
we love mitigates how we engage with reality. Actually, it
controls how we understand and live in reality. What and how
we love develops our character or demeans it. What is hard
to comprehend is that the words of Scripture and of homilies
may be the same each time proclaimed. But our ears are not
the same each time we hear. We hear with different ears each
cycle and discover even more inspiration and encouragement
because of who we are at that reading.
In addition to the Word, our liturgies contain a
communion service we call the Eucharist. That word is from
the Greek and means "Thanksgiving," the verb meaning "to
give thanks." It is in giving thanks that we discover
appreciation. It is in giving thanks that we are aware of
gifts. But there is more to the Eucharist than giving
thanks. If we reflect on the miracles of Jesus, we will
notice each miracle for a person has the effect of returning
a person to an active role in community. Each healing, each
exorcism, each feeding had the effect of enriching the
community with this healed, this freed, this nourished
person.
The offertory is about much more than financial support.
It is a collection of the endeavors and successes and
failures of the preceding week. This is not always able to
be symbolized by money. Even those who can put nothing on
the collection plate, even they are to offer something. In
this way, what is the work and efforts, and life of each
person is made a sacrifice of great value. All that is
placed on the altar becomes the "stuff" which the presider
calls on the Spirit to transform into the Body and Blood of
the Lord. Even the smallest gift becomes transformed. Thus,
rich, or poor, powerful or weak, healthy or sick – all is
transformed, thus making human life valued and enriched.
Then when we receive the Body and the Blood of the Christ,
we in effect receive the work of each person gathered in
assembly. By our presence in the assembly and more totally
by our gifts for the altar we become one with each other
attending. As a sign and symbol of that unity, it is a
recommendation that those returning to their place after
receiving, may and ought to stand until the entire assembly
has received. This is a sign of the reality of the assembly
united in the Body of the Lord.
But there is something Paul writes in the reading about
the gatherings of Christians. This is the earliest writing
about the Eucharist we have. The gospels were written after
this letter to the Corinthians. After the consecration of
the Bread, Jesus says, "do this in memory of me." After the
consecration of the cup, Jesus says, "do this in memory of
me." Does Jesus mean, have Mass to remember me? Or is there
that plus a whole lot more?
"Do this in memory of me" is not just attending mass. It
is doing what Jesus is doing at the table but as well in the
whole of his living, his ministry, his teaching, his
miracles, and most certainly his death and his resurrection.
It is for us to practice charity – ah, there is that last
virtue. We come in faith, with hope for growth, and we walk
with this community gathered and carry out of those doors
what faith, hope instructs us to do – that is to love our
neighbor as God loves us. Whether that neighbor is called
together with us or not, makes no difference for all are
created in the image and likeness of God. In our care and
love of all those others, we are practicing what it is we
believe and what we hope. That charity completes the liturgy
of the Mass.
My mother in the final years of her life was part of a
community of praise. She was unable to attend within the
community. But Father Wyen established at St. Henry parish a
community of praise. Each shut-in committed to praying for
the parish and each other. They were each given a clay fired
cup in the shape of a chalice. When they suffered, they were
to mentally place that suffering in the cup to add to the
Blood of the Lord. In this way they remained connected to
the parish. In this way, they were fulfilling the advice of
Jesus – "do this in memory of me." It provided meaning and
purpose to suffering and to enduring the difficulties of
sickness and aging. It made a difference to the parish and
to its members.
Dennis
Keller
dkeller002@nc.rr.com
******************************************************
3.
******************************************************
BECOMING ONE WITH JESUS IN HOLY COMMUNION
Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke
9:11-17
In a nursing home the residents were gathered in the
chapel for the feast we are celebrating, the feast of the
Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of the Eucharist. One
old woman, wheel-chair bound, was wearing two hats. A carer
from the home tried to remove one, but the woman clung on
tightly to her two hats. In her efforts to tidy up the
situation, the carer saw that she was now defeated. So, she
backed off, and let the old lady be.
Perhaps, like the old-time prophets, that old lady was
acting out a message to the gathered group. Perhaps she was
saying: you all should wear two hats, i.e., who you are as
individuals – as Ann, Bob, Barbara, Brian, Paul, Carol,
Kevin, Margaret, Peter, Luke, Betty, whoever - but who you
should also be as a baptized follower of Jesus - i.e., as
another Christ to others.
Speaking of Holy Communion, St Augustine in the 400s in
North Africa, said many wise things about who we are as
cells and parts, of the body of Christ. Among other things
he said: 'You are what you have received.' The first of the
signs in which we receive Jesus Christ is the sign of bread.
In the course of digestion, the bread and the person eating
it become one. The bread is assimilated into the body of the
one eating. When we receive Jesus as our Bread of Life for
our journey of life, we are more and more one with him. But
he is not changed into our bodies. No, we are changed, we
are assimilated into his body. It means that we are
incorporated more deeply too into that extension of himself
that is his Church, the body of Christians in the world.
Profound implications follow for living our communion,
our being joined and bonded to Christ and one another. These
could hardly be better put than in words of St Teresa of
Avila – these striking and beautiful words:
Christ has no body now but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion
on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands. Yours are the feet. Yours are the
eyes.
You are his body.
Yes, Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
At the Last Supper, Jesus dramatically acted out his care
and concern for, his bonding and union with, his followers.
He got down on his knees like a slave, went round the group,
and washed their feet, one by one. It's interesting that St
John, in his gospel of the Last Supper, does not mention the
action of Jesus with the bread and wine. Instead, he tells
us of the action of Jesus with a basin of water and a towel.
In this way, John tells us the meaning of both actions of
Jesus. It is all about belonging to one another in the same
community of Christ, the community of faith, hope, and love,
the community which is the Church. It is all about bonding
and union with one another. It is all about humbly serving
one another. It is all about reaching out with warmth and
care, and with welcome and hospitality to our neighbour, the
neighbour who could hardly be better described than 'any
person who needs me now - right here, and right now.’ As
Mother Teresa, now St Teresa of Calcutta, has said so
eloquently:
I know you think you should make a trip to Calcutta, but
I strongly advise you to save your airfare and spend it on
the poor in your own country. It’s easy to love people far
away. It’s not always easy to love those who live right next
to us. There are thousands of people dying for a bit of
bread, but there are thousands more dying for a bit of love
or a bit of acknowledgement. The truth is that the worst
disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis; it’s being
unwanted, it’s being left out, it’s being forgotten.
Love and service, welcome and hospitality, kindness and
compassion, self-forgetfulness and generosity, that’s what
it means to be ‘another Christ,’ to and to live his two
commands. The first which we hear in the gospel today – ‘You
give them something to eat’ (Luke 9:13) The second which we
hear in the story of the Last Supper every time we pray the
Eucharistic Prayer, the command: ‘Do this in remembrance of
me’ (1 Cor 11:24).
"Brian
Gleeson CP" <bgleesoncp@gmail.com>
******************************************************
4.
******************************************************
Year C: Corpus Christi.
"This is my body."
Exactly thirty-six years ago, almost to the day, I set
out with a good friend on a pilgrimage by bicycle from the
Holy Island of Lindisfarne in the top right hand corner of
England to Land’s End, in the bottom right hand corner of
England. So the whole journey was the length of England - a
journey of, according to the route we took (for which I was
not responsible), more than a thousand miles from the top to
the bottom of England.
It was a good trip, but we had a lot of tough days. And
the toughest of all came in the Peak District. Now, my
friends, I ask you as fair minded impartial judges, if you
were asked to plan a cycle route through the length of
England, and you came to a place on the map called the Peak
District, don’t you think that’s something you should be
going around rather than over? I mean, the clue is in name,
right? Well, my friend, if he thought at all, thought
differently. So over the top we had to go.
So, on this dreadful day, after about ten hours hard
riding through what felt like a wall of cold bitter rain, we
came to a little village high in the Peak District called
Matlock to stay the night. We were tired; we were miserable;
we were cold; we were wet; we were hungry; we were thirsty;
we were unhappy; we were bickering; we were arguing; we were
fighting – for two lads who were supposed to be on
pilgrimage, that is just not a good look. And neither of us
could remember why we were doing this stupid pilgrimage in
the first place. But it was an important feast day - Corpus
Christi – the Feast of the Eucharist and at that time they
always had it on a Thursday and it was a Holy Day of
Obligation. So, just about the one thing we could still
agree on was that the first thing we wanted to do was to go
to Mass. Now, to give my friend his due, he had at least
planned for this bit. We had planned to be in Matlock on
this day. We knew there was a church in Matlock. And we knew
there was a priest in the village. And we knew where he
lived. So as soon as we had parked up the bikes, we went and
knocked on his door. He opened the door and we could see
immediately that he was angry at being disturbed - well
maybe he had been doing something important. But we asked,
"Is there a Mass?" And he said, "No, it was earlier - you’ve
missed it; come back tomorrow."
We didn’t say anything, but I think he could see to look
at us that we were terribly disappointed. So, he changed his
mind and he said he would offer a short Mass specially for
us. So he brought us into the chapel and began the Mass. At
the start, you could feel the anger and impatience in his
every word and gesture. You could see it boiling up inside
him. But as the Mass went on, you could see the Holy Spirit
working in him, bringing him gradually to peace. His words
became slower; his gestures more solemn and reverent. And he
really began to pray the Mass. We prayed with him. We
received communion and stayed to pray for a little while.
And then we went on our way. And as we left, he said
something, something beautiful, something which touched me,
something that made me know that I too wanted to be a priest
- he said, "Thank you - Thank you for being hungry for the
Eucharist."
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to see the
Spirit working in someone else? As we left the Church, I
noticed that my friend now seemed much stronger, much
brighter, much more positive than when we had arrived in the
village. It was only many days later that I realised that I
felt it too. And we could now remember why it had been
important for us to do this pilgrimage. We were searching
for direction - the Will of God - in our own lives. And now,
in the Eucharist, we had received the food and the drink we
needed for our journey - food and drink that would last us -
in fact did last us - the whole journey.
Let us stand and profess our Faith in Christ who shared
His Body and gave His Blood for our Salvation.
Paul
O'Reilly, SJ. <fatbaldnproud@opalityone.net>
******************************************************
5.
******************************************************
Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections,
and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to
preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is
Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John Boll, OP
