CORPUS CHRISTI 2

Phil

Jun 12, 20203 min read

SECOND SERIES OF REFLECTIONS IN CORPUS CHRISTI-TIDE

LUKE 22: Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

As he did with his disciples at Passover, Jesus asks all Christians to prepare a place for him, not in exclusive, selective places, but rather in uncomfortable places that are "untouched by love, untouched by hope. How many persons lack dignified housing or food to eat! All of us know people who are lonely, troubled and in need: they are abandoned tabernacles. We, who receive from Jesus our own room and board, are here to prepare a place and a meal for these, our brothers and sisters in need.

By giving themselves in service to others, Christians live "eucharistically" and imitate Jesus who "became bread broken for our sake." Like the disciples, who were instructed by Jesus to go out to the city to make preparations, Christians also are called to prepare for Jesus' coming "not by keeping our distance but by entering our cities" and tearing down "the walls of indifference and silent collusion."

Pope Francis - Corpus Christi 2019.

BEFORE YOU, LORD.

To be here before you, Lord,

that’s all:

to shut the eyes of my body,

to shut the eyes of my soul,

and be still and silent,

to expose myself to you who are here, exposed to me.

To be here before you,

the Eternal Presence,

I am willing to feel nothing, Lord,

to see nothing,

to hear nothing,

empty of all ideas, of all images,

in the darkness.

Here I am, simply,

to meet you without obstacles,

in the silence of faith,

before you, Lord.

But, Lord, I am not alone.

I am a crowd, Lord,

for people live within me.

I have met them, they have come in,

they have settled down,

they have worried me,

they have tormented me,

they have devoured me,

and I have allowed it, Lord,

that they might be nourished

and refreshed. I bring them to you,

as I come before you.

Here I am, here they are,

before you, Lord!

Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life

“Revelations of Divine Love” – Mother Julian of Norwich (14th Century)

The mother can give her child to suck of her milk,

but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself,

and does, most courteously and most tenderly,

with the blessed sacrament,

which is the precious food of true life …

The mother can lay her child tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed breast

through his sweet open side,

and show us there a part of the godhead and of the joys of heaven,

with inner certainty of endless bliss …

This fair lovely word 'mother'

is so sweet and so kind in itself

that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of him and to him

who is the true Mother of life

and of all things.

To the property of motherhood

belong nature, love, wisdom, and knowledge, and this is God.

COME, DEAR HEART - Evelyn Underhill

Come, dear Heart! The fields are white to harvest:

come and see As in a glass the timeless mystery Of love, whereby we feed On God, our bread indeed. Torn by the sickles,

see him share the smart Of travailing Creation:

maimed, despised,

yet by his lovers

Now in each blade I, blind no longer, see the glory of God's growth:

know it to be an earnest of the Immemorial Plan. Yea, I have understood how all things are one great oblation made: He on our altars, we on the world's rood. Even as this corn, Earth-born, we are snatched from the sod;Reaped, ground to grist, crushed and tormented in the

Mills of God, and offered at Life's hands,

a living Eucharist. Evelyn Underhill