Sunday, May 25, 2008

Corpus Christi 2008



Here and here are pictures of the Holy Father celebrating Corpus Christi in Rome on Thursday. It appears that it was arranged for people to receive the Eucharist on their knees. This is a truly Catholic tradition which I hope is soon universally revived. Pope Benedict commented thus:
Adoring the God of Jesus Christ, made bread, broken for love, is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and of today. Kneeling in front of the Eucharist is a profession of freedom: who bends to Jesus cannot and must not prostrate before any earthly power, as strong as it may be. We, Christians, kneel only before God, before the Most Holy Sacrament, because we know and believe that in it is present the one true God, who has created the world and has so loved the world to give his only begotten Son.
From Zenit:
Meditating on the Eucharistic mystery, the Holy Father cited the phrase from St. Paul: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

"In these words," said the Pontiff, "is perceived the truth and the strength of the Christian revolution, the deepest revolution of human history, which is experienced precisely gathered around the Eucharist. Here people of different ages, sex, social condition and political ideas gather."

"The Eucharist can never be a private event, reserved to people chosen on the basis of affinity or friendship," he added. "The Eucharist is a public worship that has nothing of esotericism or exclusivity.

"We have not decided with whom we want to gather; we have come and found ourselves together with each other, gathered by faith and called to become one body, sharing the only Bread that is Christ.

"We are united beyond our differences of nationality, profession, social class, political ideas: We open ourselves to each other to become one in him."

In fact, Benedict XVI affirmed, "from the beginning, this has been the characteristic of Christianity, visibly fulfilled around the Eucharist. And it is necessary to keep watch always so that the temptations of particularism, even if with good intentions, do not head in the opposite direction."
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