Corpus Christi 2026 - Why Eucharist?

 

During my eighth year of seminary, we devoted an entire semester to study the Sacrament which is at the heart of today’s feast: the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist. We studied how the scriptures, like the great Bread of Life discourse from John’s Gospel, as we heard today, influenced the early Church’s understanding of the Eucharist. We studied some of the ancient Eucharistic Prayers and the early Church fathers.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, for example, around the year 130, wrote about how sad it was that there were some who claimed to be Christian but did not confess the Eucharist to be the real flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. We continued through the early Church fathers to the medieval theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, who composed the prayers and hymns for today’s feast.

At the end of the semester, our professor, Fr. Michael Woost—now Bishop Woost gave us some advice for the upcoming exam. He said, the best way to prepare for the exam is to “study everything”, as the exam would be comprehensive of all the material we’ve covered since class one.

Well, exam day arrived, and I thought I was ready! Bishop Woost handed us a small piece of paper with the exam’s only question, which consisted of two words and a question mark.  The big exam question was “Why Eucharist?”

Bishop Woost said, “you have two hours, I suggest you use it wisely.”  I watched my classmates open their exam book and start writing, but I just sort of sat there stunned for a moment. Now I promise you, I had studied. I had studied St. Justin Martyr, St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Theodore of Mopsuesta, Blessed Sacrament Priest Eugene LaVerdie, Cardinal Ratzinger; I memorized the third Eucharistic Prayer, and most of the first and second ones. And this simple question, “why Eucharist?” just stunned me.

I sat there for 5 minutes, unable to write anything, kind of embarrassed. I’m 8 years into seminary, and I can’t think of where to start writing about the Most Blessed Sacrament. So, I prayed. “Dear God, help me. Why DID you give us the Eucharist?” And immediately an image popped into my mind: an image of the Eucharist contained in the monstrance. And I thought of the many holy hours that I had made as a seminarian: holy hours in the seminary chapel here in Cleveland, holy hours when I was a student in Rome, holy hours in my home parish. And at the conclusion of each of those holy hours is prayed the prayer composed by St. Thomas Aquinas for today’s Feast of Corpus Christi:

“O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption.” And then I was able to begin writing. Now, I didn’t always get A’s in my seminary classes, but that was one exam that it all seemed to come together.

What the Church believes is expressed in her liturgical prayer. And that collect prayer for Corpus Christi answered Bishop Woost’s question: “why Eucharist”. Firstly, God gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of Christ’s passion. And secondly, “so that we may experience in ourselves the fruits of redemption”.

Let’s look at those two parts of the Collect prayer. Firstly, the Eucharist is a memorial. Jesus, at the Last Supper said, “do this in memory of me”. On the night before he died, our Blessed Lord took bread and wine and transformed them into his Body and Blood, and taught us—commanded us—to do the same. “Do this” Jesus says, “in order to remember what I have done for you—in offering my Flesh and Blood to the Father for your redemption on the cross, in my Passion.”

At Mass, bread and wine are truly transformed into our Savior’s Body and Blood. And those with eyes of faith are able to see Him, know Him, and be in Communion with Him as we receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

And that brings us to the second part of that beautiful prayer:  Jesus gave us the Eucharist “so that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of redemption.”

When we receive the Eucharist with Faith, in a state of grace, that produces certain fruits, certain effects in us. The particular fruits we receive in the Eucharist flow from his saving passion. When we receive the Eucharist our venial sins are forgiven and we are strengthened in unity with God and each other. As the Lord taught in the Gospel today, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” Jesus is the Eternal Word, who has risen from the dead, and lives forever, and when we receive the Eucharist, our souls are united with His Eternal Divine Life, so we too, may live forever.

This is why St. Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist, the remedy for our mortality, it’s the antidote against death. “whoever eats this bread will live forever." That’s the ultimate fruit of redemption, the reason Jesus died for us on the cross was to obtain for us eternal life, and that eternal life is communicated to us through the Eucharist.

This is why it is so concerning when Catholics stop going to Church and receiving the Eucharist in a state of grace. Without the eternal life that the Eucharist nurtures in us, we become deprived of the antidote for the powers of sin and death which seek to corrupt us.

The pride and lust and greed and selfishness which seek to drive us away from God are counteracted when we receive the Eucharist with the desire to overcome them. The fruits of patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control grow in us, when we receive the Eucharist with openness to these grace.

Through the Eucharist, we become whom we are meant to be. Without the Eucharist, we are not complete. We lose our identity. For Christ defined Christianity at the Last Supper, to include taking, eating, drinking, remembering His Body and Blood. So we pray that all those separated from the Lord’s table may find their way home, here, to the altar, where we fed, nourished, and sanctified.

Dear ones, today we celebrate the greatest treasure Jesus left His Church—the gift of himself. He invites us to share in His divine life, to participate in His eternal sacrifice, and to carry that life to others.

Today’s feast reminds us of our great privilege, but also our great responsibility: to cooperate with the grace available here, to allow Christ to shape and form us, and to bear the fruit of conversion out in the world.

We offer ourselves along with the bread and wine to be transformed, that our lives may become Eucharistic, that we may become what we receive, as St. Augustine said, blessed, broken, and given, poured out for others, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

5th Week of Easter 2021 - Wednesday - Allow yourself to be pruned

 

We hear again today how the Lord wants his Church to produce spiritual fruit. We bear spiritual fruit by remaining connected to Jesus—by loving him, following his teachings, and receiving his divine life through the sacraments.

Yet, the Lord also speaks today of pruning. “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

Every gardener knows that the purpose of pruning is to encourage growth. The gardener prunes his plants by trimming away dead or overgrown branches to encourage growth. Pruning makes the plant as a whole healthier and more fruitful. 

The idea of the Lord cutting away parts of our lives is somewhat off putting, because we are emotionally attached to our habits, our way of doing things, our way of communicating with people. And for most of us there is a lot of good already going on in our lives. We are already bearing fruit. But the Lord says, I want to prune those who are already bearing fruit to bear more fruit.

Baptized Christians have already received a major pruning. There has already been a severing from unbelief and pagan idolatry. There has already been a severing from the false teachings of the world. Many of us have had serious major sin cut out of our lives. And we’ve already begun to see fruits of faith and truth in us. But the Lord wants more fruit.

God wants to increase joy, and peace, forbearance, patience, goodness, self-control, and gentleness in us, and in our parish, in the Church as a whole. But in order to accomplish this, Jesus explains that we need more pruning. He allows us to grow for a while, then he prunes, that there might be new shoots of growth stemming up from the root. 

How does he do this? In the same way he accomplished our initial pruning: through his word, his teachings. Whenever we read the bible, we should hope to find some truth that will prune us—that will trim away some impatience, some in gratitude, some stinginess, some pride. Whenever we encounter the lives or writings of the saints, we should hope to glimpse or detect something in them that will prune us, to cut away some coldness, some laziness, some attachment to worldly comfort.

The secret to the joy and peace of the saints is that they have allowed themselves to be pruned so many times that fruit becomes abundant. And the Lord wants the  same for us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For lasting peace throughout the world: Christ, the Prince of Peace will put an end to all enmity and division, and unify the peoples of the world.

For Pope Francis and Bishop Malesic, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd and for an increase in vocations to the ordained priesthood, and that our priests may serve the Church with the love and devotion of the Good Shepherd.

That during this month of May, Christians may turn to Mary, Mother of the Church, seeking her aid and imploring her intercession with increased and fervent devotion, especially by praying the Holy Rosary. Let us pray to the Lord.

For deliverance from all evil and all temptation: for those under the influence of drug abuse, addiction, insanity, occultism, atheism, sexual perversion, and any spiritual evils which degrade the human person.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation or illness, and that the Lord may grant his gift of peace to those most in need of it.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

February 23 2021 - St. Polycarp and the many fruits of Prayer

 

We have many great saints whose feasts days fall within the Lenten season.  Today is the feast day of saint who was born just about 40 years after the death of Jesus. His name was Polycarp, and he was the bishop of a place called Smyrna, which is in the modern-day country of Turkey, not too far from Ephesus, where St. John took Mary to live after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, Polycarp was a student of one of the apostles, of St. John.

In the middle column of stained glass windows here in the eastern narthex is a series of scenes from the life of our Patron St. Ignatius of Antioch. And In the top window, there he is with St. Polycarp kneeling at the feet of St. John the Apostle, as he reads his Gospel. Polycarp and Ignatius were ordained bishops by St. John—and each sent to their respective dioceses—Ignatius to Antioch and Polycarp to Smyrna.

Ignatius and Polycarp continued to correspond after their ordination.

Ignatius begins his epistle to the bishop of Smyrna praising Polycarp’s rock-like faith, the blamelessness of his life, and then encourages him to press forward in the race of the Christian life and to work for the salvation of all people. “In all circumstances be “wise as a serpent,” and perpetually “harmless as a dove”, Ignatius tells Polycarp, quoting our Lord in explaining to his disciples how they must deal with the worldly.

Then Ignatius tells Polycarp, give yourself to unceasing prayer, asking for more wisdom than you already have. A bishop must be a man of unceasing prayer and wisdom. While a bishop must certainly be out in the streets preaching the Gospel, administering his diocese, setting good example for his flock, a bishop must be a man of unceasing prayer seeking God’s wisdom always. 

This is good advice for all of us, too. Our Lord in the Gospel today, tells us that we must be people of prayer, who go to our inner rooms, shutting the door to the distractions of the world, and praying to the Father in secret. It is in that secret prayer that we will derive much strength and wisdom in dealing with all the challenges of our vocations. And in prayer, the word of God, as we heard in the first reading, waters our soul like the gentle rain, bearing fruit. In fact, Polycarp's name means "many fruit", no doubt, fruit cultivated through prayer.

St. Polycarp, like our patron, Ignatius, would go on to be martyred for the faith--the greatest of the fruits cultivated in his spiritual life--the courage to give that ultimate witness--becoming a fruit that nourished the church and continues to nourish us to this day. While he was bishop, at the age of 86, a violent persecution broke out in Smyrna against the Christians. Christians were being forced to give up their faith or face death. Because he was a bishop, Polycarp was arrested.  He was led directly to the roman judge, who ordered him make sacrifice to a pagan God and commit blasphemy. 

Some of his Christian friends had urged him to make the sacrifice in order to save his life.  But, Polycarp responded, “for 86 years I have served Jesus Christ, and he has never abandoned me.  How could I curse my blessed king and savior.” So refusing to give up his faith, Polycarp was sentenced to be burned alive.

No doubt, it was through his prayer, that made his love for Jesus stronger than the flames of his martyrdom. In fact, descriptions of his martyrdom claim that, as Polycarp prayed during his execution, the fire created a sort of dome around him, and instead of his flesh burning, his body was like bread baking in an oven, like gold a silver in a furnace, he began to radiate the light of God. And a sweet fragrance like burning incense filled the place.

May we like Polycarp, cultivate a love for the Lord through prayer that is stronger than any earthly flame, a prayer life that sustains us in all of our challenges and duties, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.