This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, reflecting on the mystery of the Eucharist and its meaning in our daily lives as members of Holy Family Catholic Community. The Eucharist encapsulates the great intimacy of both our personal and communal relationship with Jesus. We worship as a faith community in a variety of ways: when we welcome and greet one another, through our lively and uplifting music and song, the richness and beauty of art and environment, stunning visuals, praise, adoration, petition, seeking forgiveness, healing, blessing, through laughter, tears, our listening and reflecting, and the transforming of our daily lives (the Mass never ends…).
Our worship, therefore, at Holy Family connects us more deeply to one another, enhances the way we live, and creates outreach through social justice. First and foremost, the Eucharist is intended to always be an inclusive celebration, not exclusive, to which all are invited, welcomed, and belong. Our faith teaches us that Christ did not die for any one select group of people, but for all people. The Last Supper symbolically represents all meals that Christ shared with the poor, the marginalized, and sinners in the Gospel passages.
Every week we gather around a common table of diverse people. At this table, the dignity of each person is celebrated, that we are all made in the image and likeness of God and are redeemed by the blood of Christ. The Eucharist is therefore a deeply transformative encounter that alters our lives, both as individual believers and as a whole Body. We were each made as a gift to be broken and shared for the benefit of others. We are called to engage in that difficult, even dangerous, process of conversion, moving beyond our inclinations towards selfishness and individualism and replacing them with selflessness and a genuine concern for the needs of one another. When we are dismissed from the Eucharist, we go forth into the world as missionaries of Christ’s love and become missionaries of peace and justice. We are all commissioned to continue the transformation of the world and to contribute to the building of a more just society— to proclaim a message of hope, and to establish as completely as possible the reign of God in the here-and-now. In the Eucharist we are changed. From the Eucharist we are sent.
The Eucharist and Social Justice – worship of God and service to our neighbor – must go together and not be separated. Without the former, the latter becomes empty and loses perspective; without the latter, the former remains incomplete and an inauthentic celebration of Christ’s selfless sacrifice. Christ in the Eucharist is both drawing us to Himself and driving us outward to make Him present in the brothers and sisters of every nation. The liturgy can never merely be understood as an end in itself but as a means by which we encounter God and are transformed into His instruments, cooperating with God to establish a more just world.
At Holy Family, we have three beautiful worship spaces to honor the Eucharist: the main church for Sunday worship, the chapel for daily mass, and the adoration chapel where people find solace and strength in the Eucharist. This weekend at all the masses we recognize those who are devoted to Eucharistic adoration. This devotion can be explained in the following manner:
‘In proper context, Eucharistic adoration makes us more aware, or leads us to a deeper understanding of the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. When we concentrate on the Blessed Sacrament … we meditate on Christ crucified and risen. The theological purpose of Eucharistic adoration, then, exists in the remembrance, celebration, and affirmation of the Paschal Mystery, our Christian story of redemption’ — (Therese Borchard, Our Catholic Devotions, Crossroads, N.Y., 1998). ‘Eucharistic adoration turns the attention of the faithful to the Mass, the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the source and summit of the whole of Christian life’ (Vatican II, Document on the Church, #11).
Following the 11:00am mass this Sunday, we will have a traditional procession from the church to the courtyard where we will pause and have some reflective music and prayers, and then continue our parish procession to the Chapel. This is an opportunity for the community of Holy Family to experience adoration in its proper form, to both nourish our personal faith and to enhance our connection to the social concerns in our world. The Eucharistic body and the body of every person are both the body of Christ Himself. Therefore, Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is intrinsically connected to His presence in the poor and vulnerable. May all forms of worship around the Eucharist remind us that we are changed and from the Eucharist we are sent.