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This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on Corpus Christi, June 13, 2004
INOTICED at the sunset funeral for Pres. Ronald Reagan mourners offered a variety of gestures; a bow, a kiss, a military salute. The most popular sign was the Sign of the Cross. I remembered last Sunday's feast of the Holy Trinity and wondered how you and I normally use that sign and with what devotion or routine. Let us make it a prayer of blessing for ourselves and others. We sign our mind, our heart, and our shoulders with God's Trinitarian presence.
This week's feast continues the theme of God's presence in our midst.
The average food stamp recipient in Virginia receives a benefit of $2.55 a day. The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy will promote a welfare diet for three days in the Fall. Frankly I am not looking forward to this experience. However, I am sure it will put me in touch with the experience of fellow citizens who have no other choice for sustenance. It is in this context that one comes to understand that it was no accident that Jesus chose to be remembered under the species of bread. Ghandi once said, "If God is to show his face in India it had better be under the form of bread, because that is what the people need."
Jesus is with us as the bread of life to satisfy the hungers of the world. The Church deliberately chooses not the last supper but the story of the multiplication of the loaves for the gospel of Corpus Christi. Instead of sending the crowd home for supper he advises the disciples to feed them themselves from the few loaves and fish they possess. Jesus is with us as bread that we may be generous.
The bread of life is not with us only to be adored in the tabernacle in a static way. He is primarily bread broken and shared. The Eucharistic sign is not only a thing but an action, the Communion Rite when we give and receive the panis angelicum.
While some fear a diminution of belief in the Real Presence of the Lord in recent decades, I see an amplification of our awareness of the Eucharistic Presence.
Christ is with us in the elements of bread and wine. As our grandparents feared to partake too often of Holy Communion, many carry that same reticence to accept the cup when it is offered. Bishop Loverde has allowed the more frequent use of the cup in Sunday celebrations in the Arlington Diocese. Let us not refuse that offer because of a false sense of unworthiness. "Who is worthy to receive the Eucharist?" has become a lively topic of conversation as the next presidential elections approach. A bishop recently made a telling point: "When we approach the Eucharist we do not say 'Lord, you are not worthy,'.we say 'Lord, I am not worthy.' " Despite our reluctance, we place our faith in God's gracious invitation. Recall the wedding banquet where Jesus lost faith in the invited guests and went out to the highways and the byways. Let us continue to participate with greater frequency and devotion in a fuller expression of the Communion Rite.
Christ is also with us in the Word of God. Christ is with us in the celebrant as he dramatizes Christ's Passover.
All of these aspects of Christ's presence are fulfilled in the assembly when the whole church becomes the Body of the Lord. The sacraments are for humanity, sacramenta propter hominem as the Latin tag proclaimed.
Whether it be the sign of the cross, our public Sunday worship, or the witness of integrity in the workplace we are called to be his Body in the world promoting the peace and unity of all God's people. Like him we are invited to be nourishment for others as we reach out to meet the various hungers of the human family.