'When I hold the Host in my hands, it is really He who is holding me and all of us.' Sunday Reflections, Corpus Christi, Year C
Pope Benedict elevating the Body of Christ at Mass [Wikipedia]
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel Luke 9:11b-17 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.
The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.’ But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
In countries where Corpus Christi is observed as a holyday of obligation on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.
Readings (Jerusalem Bible
Luke 9:11b-17 in Filipino Sign Language
In the video above Bishop Robert E. Barron, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, tells a story about the young Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), at the time a promising writer, and Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) an established writer. Mary Flannery O'Connor was a devout Catholic from the southern US state of Georgia where, at the time, Catholics were fewer than two percent of the population. Mary McCarthy, who lost both parents when a child and who had an unhappy upbringing, described herself when the two met as an ex-Catholic. She and her husband had invited the young Georgian for dinner. The latter was very shy. But when Mary McCarthy described the Eucharist as 'a very powerful symbol' Flannery O'Connor, overcoming her shyness, retorted almost violently, 'Well, if it's a symbol I say "to hell with it"'.
Bishop Barron goes on to speak of the Eucharist as ipse Christus, Christ himself, quoting St Thomas Aquinas, with whose writings Flannery O'Connor was very familiar. The bishop then speaks of Christ 'really, truly and substantially present'. 'Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity' is the Church's traditional way of speaking of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This is vastly different from being a symbol, though symbols can be powerful.
Servant of God, Fr Ragheed Ganni (1972-2007)
Fr Ragheed Ganni's Testimony
Mosul Christians are not theologians; some are even illiterate. And yet inside of us for many generations one truth has become embedded: without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live.
This is true today when evil has reached the point of destroying churches and killing Christians, something unheard of in Iraq till now. In June 2004, a group of young women were cleaning the church to get it ready for Sunday service. My sister Raghad, who is nineteen, was among them. As she was carrying a pail of water to wash the floor, two men drove up and threw a grenade that blew up just a few yards away from her. She was wounded but miraculously, survived. And on that Sunday, we still celebrated the Eucharist. My shaken parents were also there. For me and my community, my sister’s wounds were a source of strength so that we, too, may bear our cross.
Last August in St Paul’s Church, a car bomb exploded after the 6 pm Mass. The blast killed two Christians and wounded many others. But that, too, was another miracle – the car was full of bombs but only one exploded. Had they all gone off together, the dead would have been in the hundreds since 400 faithful had come on that day. People could not believe what had happened. The terrorists might think they can kill our bodies or our spirit by frightening us, but, on Sundays, churches are always full. They may try to take our life, but the Eucharist gives it back.
On 7 December, the eve of the Immaculate Conception, a group of terrorists tried to destroy the Chaldean Bishop’s Residence, which is near Our Lady of the Tigris Shrine, a place venerated by both Christians and Muslims. They placed explosives everywhere, and a few minutes later blew the place up. This and fundamentalist violence against young Christians has forced many families to flee. Yet the churches have remained open and people continue to go to Mass, even among the ruins.
It is among such difficulties that we understand the real value of Sunday, the day when we meet the Risen Christ, the day of our unity and love, of our (mutual) support and help. There are days when I feel frail and full of fear. But when, holding the Eucharist, I say 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world', I feel His strength in me. When I hold the Host in my hands, it is really He who is holding me and all of us, challenging the terrorists and keeping us united in His boundless love.
In normal times, everything is taken for granted and we forget the greatest gift that is made to us. Ironically, it is thanks to terrorist violence that we have truly learnt that it is the Eucharist, the Christ who died and is risen, that gives us life. And this allows us to resist and hope.
Fr Ragheed Ganni lived in the Pontifical Irish College in Rome while he studied theology, before and after his ordination. He would have been familiar with the 17 Irish martyrs, a representative group, beatified by St John Paul II on 27 September 1992. Among them were four known as the Wexford Martyrs, Matthew Lambert, a baker, and three sailors, Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh, who were hanged, drawn and quartered in Wexford on 5 July 1591. The opening words of Father Ganni's testimony, Mosul Christians are not theologians; some are even illiterate, echo those of Matthew Lambert. He could not read or write and said in court under questioning, I am not a learned man. I am unable to debate with you, but I can tell you this, I am a Catholic and I believe whatever our Holy Mother the Catholic Church believes.
This testimony was given by a baker who died for his belief in the Bread of Life and, to use the words of Fr Ragheed Ganni, the Eucharist, the Christ who died and is risen, that gives us life.
Apse of Chapel, Irish College, Rome
Fr Ragheed Ganni is on the far right, holding the palms of martyrdom.
Fr Ragheed Ganni lived in the Pontifical Irish College in Rome while he studied theology, before and after his ordination. He would have been familiar with the 17 Irish martyrs, a representative group, beatified by St John Paul II on 27 September 1992. Among them were four known as the Wexford Martyrs, Matthew Lambert, a baker, and three sailors, Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh, who were hanged, drawn and quartered in Wexford on 5 July 1591. The opening words of Father Ganni's testimony, Mosul Christians are not theologians; some are even illiterate, echo those of Matthew Lambert. He could not read or write and said in court under questioning, I am not a learned man. I am unable to debate with you, but I can tell you this, I am a Catholic and I believe whatever our Holy Mother the Catholic Church believes.
This testimony was given by a baker who died for his belief in the Bread of Life and, to use the words of Fr Ragheed Ganni, the Eucharist, the Christ who died and is risen, that gives us life.
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35).
Ego sum panis vivus.
Patres vestri manducaverunt manna in deserto,
et mortui sunt.
Hic est panis de coelo descendens:
si quis ex ipso manducaverit,
non morietur. [Ioannes 6: 48-50]
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness,
and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that one may eat of it
and not die. [John 6:48-50]
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