In Canada, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) is celebrated this coming Sunday, June 22, but it is traditionally celebrated on Thursday following the celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Last evening in Rome, beginning at 7:00pm local time, Pope Francis presided at a Mass which was celebrated in the Square outside the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.
At the conclusion of the Mass, there was a procession held, which travelled along the via Merulana to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where the Holy Father then imparted the Solemn Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. Last week, the Vatican Press Office reported that the Pope had planned to partake in last evening's procession, but yesterday, that decision was revised. While the procession moved between the two Basilicae, and the Blessed Sacrament was carried by His Eminence, Agostino Cardinal Vallini, the Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, His Holiness travelled by car to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
The official announcement which was released yesterday by the Vatican Press Office explained that the Pope also felt it opportune not to follow the long itinerary on foot on via Merulana, between the two Basilicas, in view of his forthcoming commitments – in particular the trip to Cassan oall’Jonio, in Calabria, in two days’ time – and at the same time he preferred to avoid the trajectory in an open car so that, in keeping with the spirit of today’s celebration, the faithful’s attention would be concentrated instead on the Most Blessed Sacrament, exposed and taken in procession.
The Lord, your God ... has fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known (Dt 8:3).
These words from the Book of Deuteronomy refer to the history of Israel, the people who God had led out of Egypt, out of conditions of slavery, those who for forty years he had led through the desert toward the promised land. Once they had been established in that land, the chosen people enjoyed a certain autonomy, a state of well-being, and they ran the risk of forgetting the sufferings of the past which had been overcome with the help of God through his infinite goodness. So it is that the Scriptures exhort us to remember, to keep the memory of the journey that took place in the desert in the time of famine and despair. We are invited to return to the basics, to the experience of total dependence on God, when our survival was entrusted entirely into his hands, so that we might understand that we do not live on bread alone, but ... on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Dt 8:3).
Beyond physical hunger, man bears in himself another hunger, a hunger that cannot be satiated with ordinary food. It is hunger for life, hunger for love, and hunger for eternity. And the sign of the manna – as with the whole experience of the Exodus – contained this dimension also in itself: it was the figure of a food that satisfies this profound hunger that man experiences. Jesus gives us this food, in fact, He himself is the living bread that gives life to the world (cf. John 6:51). His Body is real food under the species of bread; His Blood is real drink under the species of wine. It is not simple nourishment with which to satiate our bodies, such as manna; the Body of Christ is the bread of the end times, capable of sustaining life, and eternal life, because the essence of this bread is Love.
Communicated in the Eucharist is the Lord’s love for us: such a great love that He nourishes us with himself; a gratuitous love, always at the disposition of every hungry person in need of regenerating his strength. To live the experience of faith means to let oneself be nourished by the Lord and to build one’s existence not based on material goods, but on realities that do not perish: the gifts of God, His Word and His Body.
If we look around us, we realize that there are so many offers of food that do not come from the Lord and which seem to satisfy more. Some people nourish themselves with money, others with success and vanity, others with power and pride. However, the only food that really nourishes us and satiates us is that which the Lord gives us! The food the Lord offers us is different from the others, and perhaps it does not seem as tasty as certain foods which the world offers us. At such times, we dream of other meals, like the Jews did in the desert: they mourned for the meat and the onions they had eaten in Egypt, but they forgot that they had eaten these meals at the table of slavery. In that moment of temptation, they remembered, but their memory was sick, it was a selective memory – a memory enslaved, not free.
Today, each one of us can ask himself: and I? Where do I want to eat? At what table do I want to nourish myself? At the Lord’s table? Or do I dream of easting tasty foods, even if it means that to do so, I must live in slavery? Moreover, each one of us can ask himself: what is my memory? That of the Lord who saves me, or that of the garlic and onions of slavery? With what memory do I satiate my soul?
The Father says to us: I fed you with manna that you did not know. We must recover our memory. This is the task, to recover our memory, to learn to recognize the false bread that deludes and corrupts, because it is the fruit of egoism, of self-sufficiency and of sin.
In just a little while, in the procession, we will follow Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. The Host is our manna, through which the Lord gives us the gift of Himself. We turn to Him with trust: Jesus, defend us from the temptations of worldly goods that render us slaves, poisoned food; purify our memory, so that it will not remain enslaved in egoistic and worldly selectivity, but will be a lively memory of your presence throughout the history of your people, a memory that becomes a memorial of your gesture of redemptive love. Amen.
At the conclusion of the Mass, there was a procession held, which travelled along the via Merulana to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where the Holy Father then imparted the Solemn Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. Last week, the Vatican Press Office reported that the Pope had planned to partake in last evening's procession, but yesterday, that decision was revised. While the procession moved between the two Basilicae, and the Blessed Sacrament was carried by His Eminence, Agostino Cardinal Vallini, the Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, His Holiness travelled by car to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
The official announcement which was released yesterday by the Vatican Press Office explained that the Pope also felt it opportune not to follow the long itinerary on foot on via Merulana, between the two Basilicas, in view of his forthcoming commitments – in particular the trip to Cassan oall’Jonio, in Calabria, in two days’ time – and at the same time he preferred to avoid the trajectory in an open car so that, in keeping with the spirit of today’s celebration, the faithful’s attention would be concentrated instead on the Most Blessed Sacrament, exposed and taken in procession.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
The Lord, your God ... has fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known (Dt 8:3).
These words from the Book of Deuteronomy refer to the history of Israel, the people who God had led out of Egypt, out of conditions of slavery, those who for forty years he had led through the desert toward the promised land. Once they had been established in that land, the chosen people enjoyed a certain autonomy, a state of well-being, and they ran the risk of forgetting the sufferings of the past which had been overcome with the help of God through his infinite goodness. So it is that the Scriptures exhort us to remember, to keep the memory of the journey that took place in the desert in the time of famine and despair. We are invited to return to the basics, to the experience of total dependence on God, when our survival was entrusted entirely into his hands, so that we might understand that we do not live on bread alone, but ... on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Dt 8:3).
Beyond physical hunger, man bears in himself another hunger, a hunger that cannot be satiated with ordinary food. It is hunger for life, hunger for love, and hunger for eternity. And the sign of the manna – as with the whole experience of the Exodus – contained this dimension also in itself: it was the figure of a food that satisfies this profound hunger that man experiences. Jesus gives us this food, in fact, He himself is the living bread that gives life to the world (cf. John 6:51). His Body is real food under the species of bread; His Blood is real drink under the species of wine. It is not simple nourishment with which to satiate our bodies, such as manna; the Body of Christ is the bread of the end times, capable of sustaining life, and eternal life, because the essence of this bread is Love.
Communicated in the Eucharist is the Lord’s love for us: such a great love that He nourishes us with himself; a gratuitous love, always at the disposition of every hungry person in need of regenerating his strength. To live the experience of faith means to let oneself be nourished by the Lord and to build one’s existence not based on material goods, but on realities that do not perish: the gifts of God, His Word and His Body.
If we look around us, we realize that there are so many offers of food that do not come from the Lord and which seem to satisfy more. Some people nourish themselves with money, others with success and vanity, others with power and pride. However, the only food that really nourishes us and satiates us is that which the Lord gives us! The food the Lord offers us is different from the others, and perhaps it does not seem as tasty as certain foods which the world offers us. At such times, we dream of other meals, like the Jews did in the desert: they mourned for the meat and the onions they had eaten in Egypt, but they forgot that they had eaten these meals at the table of slavery. In that moment of temptation, they remembered, but their memory was sick, it was a selective memory – a memory enslaved, not free.
Today, each one of us can ask himself: and I? Where do I want to eat? At what table do I want to nourish myself? At the Lord’s table? Or do I dream of easting tasty foods, even if it means that to do so, I must live in slavery? Moreover, each one of us can ask himself: what is my memory? That of the Lord who saves me, or that of the garlic and onions of slavery? With what memory do I satiate my soul?
The Father says to us: I fed you with manna that you did not know. We must recover our memory. This is the task, to recover our memory, to learn to recognize the false bread that deludes and corrupts, because it is the fruit of egoism, of self-sufficiency and of sin.
In just a little while, in the procession, we will follow Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. The Host is our manna, through which the Lord gives us the gift of Himself. We turn to Him with trust: Jesus, defend us from the temptations of worldly goods that render us slaves, poisoned food; purify our memory, so that it will not remain enslaved in egoistic and worldly selectivity, but will be a lively memory of your presence throughout the history of your people, a memory that becomes a memorial of your gesture of redemptive love. Amen.
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