REFLECTION ON THE SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI

From our earliest days as Catholics, whether from the cradle or as adult converts, we have been taught that the Body and Blood of Christ which we receive from the altar are but shadows and sign of the heavenly reality that we one day hope to experience. The Eucharist is without doubt the most powerful of all realities for a devout Catholic. But how closely in fact do we relate our faith in the Real Presence with the actual person of Jesus?

The Eucharist brings us face to face in an encounter with a living person; the person of Jesus Christ. He once walked the earth amongst us. He taught with authority. He healed. He drove out demons from the possessed. He showed power and authority over nature when he multiplied the loaves and fishes or calmed the storm at sea. He even, incredibly, had the power to raise people from the dead. Most wonderfully of all, he, the Son of almighty God, was able to empty himself of all his power and authority, become a humble human being like ourselves. He was able to place himself in our power, to suffer at our hands and die on our behalf and to rise from the dead, breaking the power of the one thing that humans fear above all and cannot avoid; the inescapable power of death over us, which before him was the one certainty of our human existence.

All this was done by someone to whom we could reach out, whom we could touch as surely as we could reach out and touch the person sitting beside us in this church; someone with whom we could speak, whom we could know and love as surely as we can know and love anyone on this earth. But how can we encounter someone who lived so long ago, who as a being of flesh and blood has so long passed from our existence, beyond our knowing him as his contemporaries know him? That is the question to which Corpus Christi supplies an answer.

When Jesus passed through death and was raised in the Spirit, he passed beyond mere mortal existence. He moved into a realm of eternity which we can scarcely grasp. His glorified risen body was no longer bound by time and space so that, through the same Spirit who raised him from the dead, he is able to make himself present to us, to live amongst us, at any time and at any place in the reality of our existence. He is always near to us, wherever we are and whenever.

One of the ways in which he comes to us is in the Eucharist. In it, he gives himself to us as he gave himself to his disciples at the Last Supper. In the Eucharist, we sit at table with him as surely as the Twelve did in Jerusalem two millennia ago. That event is as alive to us now as it was then; and it is made possible because his risen, glorious body is no longer bound by time and space. In our hearts we understand this when we receive Holy Communion at Mass.

But the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus are not ends in themselves. We worship a person, a living Lord. And it is he for whom we must earnestly search, whom we must discern in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a living link that brings us face to face with Jesus, and encounter between us and the living Lord who has destroyed for us death, the greatest of all our enemies, and who makes us fit for eternal life with God. He is waiting for us in that encounter. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” he says. “If anyone opens to me, I will enter and sit down to table with him.” That is exactly he wants to do in the Eucharist. And the door that we must open is that of our hearts. Let us welcome him thus into our lives; today and henceforth.

Fr Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Every year, just after the end of Easter, we come to the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. And year after year, as the meaning of the term Trinity is explained to us, we become more rather than less confused. What is the Holy Trinity, and why is it so important?

There are two simple facts that are both very familiar to us. The first is that “We believe in one God.” This is straightforward and simple. God is God; there is none other. God is all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing. But there is a second vital fact, even closer to our experience. It is that we encounter God as Father, Son and Spirit.

These are not just three different masks worn by God, so to speak. We experience God as three distinct persons. And we do not see these persons as superior or inferior to one other. We sense that they are equal yet different. When I pray to Jesus I am praying to a distinct individual, as I am when praying to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Each of them has his own character, and each plays a different role in my life.

As long as I keep these two facts distinct, that I believe in one God, but encounter Him as three distinct persons, there is no conflict. It is when I try to fit them together that I become confused. Imagine a man riding a one-wheeled bike along a tight-rope stretched over the Niagara Falls, juggling three small balls in one hand and one big one in the other. As long as he looks forward and keeps juggling and balancing, he will be fine. Let him drop one ball or try to bring them together, and he is lost. It is a fine balance, but as long as we keep our minds fixed on these few simple facts about God, it is not difficult at all.

Cardinal Newman had a beautiful illustration of the Holy Trinity. He pointed out that we can, using a prism, split white light into the seven colours of the spectrum. But if we try to combine these seven colours to produce white light, all we seem able to produce is a dirty, smudgy white. It is the same, he suggests, with the Holy Trinity. We believe in one God whom we worship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But as soon as we try to combine these three Persons, we run into trouble. And as we have already reflected, he says it is better not to try. Believe in one God; acknowledge him as Father, Son and Spirit; and leave it at that.

Perhaps Paul the Apostle expressed it the best of all: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Or the words of the Creed, where we confess that there is “the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” and “Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son” and “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,” but above all, in the opening words of the Creed, we “believe in One God.” That should suffice for us all.

Fr. Phillip

REFLECTION FOR PENTECOST

Have you ever wondered about the shape of the bishop’s mitre? Why should he wear such an odd headdress when he leads us in worship? This, and many other things, go to making up and reflecting the meaning of the Solemnity we celebrate today. When the Holy Spirit descended, two tongues of flames descended upon the head of each Apostle. The two points and red lining of the mitre remind us of this. They also remind us (and the bishops!) that they are the successors of the Apostles, tasked in the world with being first and foremost, witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in all times and places.

The events of Pentecost also bring to mind those of the Tower of Babel. There, human beings tried to climb to heaven without God. They were so affected, that each group or tribe spoke a different language and could not understand the others. They scattered over the earth in order to avoid warring against each other. This great parable from Genesis reminds us in unequivocal terms that without God as the centre of all things, there can never be unity or peace amongst men. Pentecost, when all those present heard the Apostles as though they were speaking their own language (with Galilean accents!) is a reversal of Babel. By destroying sin and restoring life, Jesus destroys the separation of Babylon and restores that peace and unity – something that He alone can do.

The Preface for Pentecost, which we hear at Mass today, expresses it like this: “…you bestowed the Holy Spirit today on those you made your adopted children by uniting them to your Only Begotten Son. This same Spirit, as the Church came to birth, opened to all peoples the knowledge of God and brought together the many languages of the earth in profession of the one faith.” Could it be any clearer that real unity comes through the work of the Holy Trinity, not that of the United Nations or the scattering of modern secular “peacemakers.”

But perhaps the most miraculous event of Pentecost was the crowds themselves, who listened to Peter. They were Jews from every corner of the Roman Empire, who had come to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. For many of them, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Passover was a celebration that lasted “a week of weeks” or fifty days. This was, literally, the last day of the feast, and no doubt many who heard Peter’s sermon were having a last look around at all the famous sights of Jerusalem. If you were to draw arrows on a map from Jerusalem to the places from which they came, those arrows would point away in every direction. And we are told that on that day, two thousand were added to the number of Christians, mostly people who would be returning to their widespread, far-flung homes.

Two thousand baptised Christians moving out into the known world in every direction, within twenty-four hours of the coming of the Holy Spirit, many of whom had seen the death of the Saviour!  One cannot but think of Jesus’ words to his apostles, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News…” and of the words of the prophet Malachi, that “…in every time and in every place, incense may be offered up unto my Name, says the Lord.” The proclamation of the Good News by Peter, and thus by those two thousand converts, that “He is risen…He is Lord…He has ascended…He will return…repent and be baptised,” is still Jesus’ commission to us today. It is through us that Jesus must be made known. As the Holy Spirit sent those first converts and Apostles out in every direction, so may he send us out today to proclaim the same Good News “to the whole world.”

Fr Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION

Two major themes dominate the seven weeks of the Easter Season: The Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The two are very closely linked. We can conceive them as two successive missions. Jesus has come amongst us for a number of significant purposes: that we might know the Father through knowing Him; that He might die for us, taking our sins upon his shoulders, freeing us from sin and death and giving us eternal life; and that He might found a Church which would proclaim the Good News of his death and resurrection “to the ends of the earth.” Having accomplished this, his mission is over, and He ascends, returning to the Father.

As Jesus explains in John’s gospel, this is essential; his mission has to conclude before the next one, that of the Holy Spirit, can begin. As God-made-man, Jesus is bound by the laws of time and space; He lived in the Middle-East two thousand-odd years ago. For knowledge of Him to be spread throughout the world, an agent is required who is not bound by time and space, someone to make Jesus present at all times, in all places, that we might “see” Him, and in seeing Him, as Jesus explains to Philip, might “see the Father”.

So it is that, as Easter progresses, the theme of Resurrection slowly yields to that of the Holy Spirit. On the last day of the Easter season, the Day of Pentecost, we will see how the great event in which the Church is founded, happens. For now, it is important to note how Jesus prepares his disciples for the coming events in which they are to play so key a role. He confers upon them a number of powers: to baptise; to preach; to forgive sins; to proclaim with absolute certainty the truth about God who reveals himself to us; to interpret with certainty the teachings and meaning of Scripture. The forty days Jesus spends with his disciples after his resurrection from the dead are days of preparation and waiting; waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells his disciples to do nothing but wait for the coming of the Spirit, to remain in Jerusalem for the Spirit to descend, after which “…you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”

As he had a plan for his disciples, so Jesus has a plan for each one of us. Each of us has a particular task that God wants us, and us alone, to accomplish. Blessed John Henry Newman put it beautifully in these words: God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.

The disciples of Jesus waited patiently for the coming of the Holy Spirit. When He descended, they understood God’s calling, and went down that path, to quote GK Chesterton, like a thunderbolt, never pausing or hesitating, no matter to what God called them. We, too, must “wait patiently for him,” trusting and believing that he has a task for us. And when that call comes, in the words of the old hymn, “let us, like them, without a word, rise up and follow Him.”

Fr. Phillip