The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Holy See announced that at 7 p.m. on Thursday June 23, 2010, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass on the square in front of Rome's St. John Lateran Basilica. Following this Liturgy he will preside at the traditional Eucharistic procession from the basilica, along Via Merulana, to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Vatican offices are closed in honor of this great Feast.
The faithful throughout the whole world are invited to enter into the depth of this Feast and be changed profoundly by their participation. No 'old fashioned ritual', this reveals the very truth of the new reality. Though this Feast has been transferred to Sunday in the United States, the Church in most of the world will celebrate it on Thursday. Whenever it is celebrated, it is a richly significant day in Catholic life. Priests, accompanied by Deacons, lead the faithful in a solemn procession of the Consecrated Holy Eucharist throughout the Streets of the world.
In one of them St. Thomas noted: "Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in Him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues".
The Christian faith and life is about relationship, with the Father, in and through His Son Jesus and in Jesus Christ with one another for the sake of the world. The world into which we process is the world that God still loves so much that He continues to send His Son to save, recreate and transform it from within. The Corpus Christi procession symbolizes the ongoing redemptive mission of Jesus Christ and our participation in it.
Then we are sent into the world to carry Jesus to others. The Lord wants all men and women to live within the Church. She is the home of the whole human race and a seed of the kingdom.
As we march the Monstrance into the cities of the whole world we participate in a profoundly prophetic act. The early Eastern Church Fathers referred to the Church as the "world transfigured" and the "world reconciled." That reconciliation and transfiguration continues through the Church. Jesus has been raised from the dead and he walks into the world.
St. Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Philippi, reminds us our true "citizenship" is "in heaven." While we live in this current age we participate in bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven. We who are Christians now live in the Church and go into the world. Our mission is to bring this world back to God in and through Jesus Christ.
We have received the Bread of Heaven. Let us become what we consume. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, as we march through the Streets of the world lifting Jesus Christ enthroned, let us say"Yes" to the invitation to become "living monstrances". Let the consuming fire of God's love purify us so that we can now be used to reveal His presence to a world waiting to be born anew.
