One Last Hurrah...

.... for the Feast of Corpus Christi!

The Feast was established during the "dumb ox's" lifetime, and he left his imprint on it, not least of which is the hymn Adoro Te Devote.

I cannot be said to be a fan of St Thomas Aquinas. S ure, I like him OK, but trying to read the Summa gives me headaches. Its complicated questions and complex answers are really beautiful. However, I need something simpler. Today I got it. Here is today's Second Reading from Office of Readings in the Roman Liturgy of the Hours. As sublime as any hymn...

"O precious and wonderful banquet!

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin.

But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food.

What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation."

Then there's that hymn.... I sang it several times today in translation at various celebrations. Here's an introduction from the Catohlic Culture website, along with the beautifully cadenced Latin original and the almost as beautiful English translation by monk-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:

The text to this hymn of thanksgiving and adoration belongs to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), and its most famous English translation to Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). The chant itself is of unknown origin from the first millennium. It is brighter and lighter than many chants, with a smooth and lyrical line of four easy phrases, with a swell in the third phrase that provides quiet drama while never losing its discipline.

Aquinas is said to have written this text at the request of Pope Urban IV for the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. This chant is often used as a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass, though it is suitable for any time of focus on the Blessed Sacrament.

The Hopkins translation is beautiful; consider the last line of the third verse: “Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.” But it cannot compare to the ly­ric quality of Aqui­nas’s La­tin: “Nil hoc verbo veritatis ve­rius.”

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,

Que sub his figuris vere latitas:

Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,

Quia te contemplans, totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur:

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius,

Nil hoc verbo Veritatis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas,

At hic latet simul et humanitas:

Ambo tamen credens, atque confitens,

Peto quod petivit latro poenitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor,

Deum tamen meum te confiteor:

Fac me tibi semper magis credere,

In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini,

Panis vivus vitam praestans homini:

Praesta meae menti de te vivere,

Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie pellicane, Jesu domine,

Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:

Cujus una stilla salvum facere

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,

Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio:

Ut te revelata cernens facie,

Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae. Amen.

Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee,

Truly present underneath these veils:

All my heart subdues itself before Thee,

Since it all before Thee faints and fails.

Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit,

Hearing only do we trust secure;

I believe, for God the Son hath said it--

Word of Truth that ever shall endure.

On the Cross was veiled Thy Godhead's splendor,

Here Thy manhood lieth hidden too;

Unto both alike my faith I render,

And, as sued the contrite thief, I sue.

Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas,

Thee, my Lord, and Thee, my God, I call:

Make me more and more believe Thy promise,

Hope in Thee, and love Thee over all.

O Memorial of my Saviour dying,

Living Bread that givest life to man;

May my soul, its life from Thee supplying,

Taste Thy sweetness, as on earth it can.

Deign, O Jesus, pelican* of heaven,

Me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave,

To a single drop of which is given

All the world from all its sin to save.

Contemplating Lord, Thy hidden presence,

Grant me what I thirst for and implore,

In the revelation of Thine essence

To behold Thy glory evermore.

the Three Faces of Corpus Christi

The Feast of Corpus Christi, AKA the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, provides us the opportunity to explore different dimensions around our experience of the Body of Christ.

First, and most obvious, is the personal dimension. Christians are, in large part, defined by their practice of receiving the Eucharist. After Baptism, it is the one action most often mentioned by pagan writers in antiquity trying to answer the question "Who are these Christians, anyway?"

One reason (among many) why I became Catholic was the tremendous respect for this sacrament, which I as a Lutheran had already grown to love. Knowing that many of my sisters and brothers received our Lord in this way only once a month or sometimes four times a year was always distressing to me. I supported weekly eucharist in every congregation where I served. As a Roman Catholic I have found in daily Mass a great support for my all-too-slow journey toward personal holiness.

But this Feast also bids us look at the communal dimensions of Eucharist. The processions which will take place around the world over these next few days take Christ out of the church building and bring him out to where people live. Benedict XVI acknowledged this as he accompanied our Lord through the streets of Rome for Corpus Christi:

"Benedict XVI said that the Eucharist passing by, "between houses and through the streets of our city," is "for those who live in them an offering of joy, of eternal life, of peace and of love." In his homily, the Holy Father said he wanted to put Christ "in the midst of our daily lives, so that he walks where we walk, so that he lives where we live."

"We go through the streets of the world knowing that he is at our side, supported by the hope of one day being able to see him with our faces unveiled in that definitive encounter," he continued.

Benedict XVI explained: "For every Christian generation, the Eucharist is indispensable food that sustains us as we cross the desert of this world, dried by ideological and economic systems that do not promote life, but repress it.

"A world in which the logic of power and possession dominates, instead of the logic of service and love; a world in which the culture of violence and death often triumphs. "Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts and asks to come in not just for one day, but for forever."

For Jesus to be present with us where we are is not only a potentiality, it is a theological necessity. If God indeed became enfleshed in human form, then He would not leave us orphans at the end of His time on earth. The Sacrament of His Love makes him present, really present, wherever that love is remembered according to the form he commanded and using the priestly means He provides. What a promise!

There is also a third dimension to this feast. And that is the solidarity we feel among ourselves because we share in this one Bread. If Christ is truly present in this Bread, then one must also believe, and act as if, he is present to and in and through others also.

I attended a Serra Club meeting this morning, where a representative from Catholic Relief Services shared about her experience as a world volunteer. We were all moved as we heard her tell the story of her work in Africa, and as she shared how CRS and others reach out across continents to meet human need in the name of the Church.

One portion of her presentation in particular struck me. It was a definition of solidarity, along with some quotes from our beloved Holy Father John Paul II and several others.

Solidarity is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good: that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we all really are responsible for all.

-On Social Concern, Pope John Paul II, 1988

Solidarity is the conviction that we are born into a fabric of relationships, that our humanity ties us to others, that the Gospel itself consecrates those ties, and that the prophets tell us that those ties are the test by which our very holiness will be judged.

-Rev. J. Bryan Hehir

Solidarity is action on behalf of the one human family, calling us to help overcome the divisions of our world. Solidarity binds the rich to the poor. It makes the free zealous for the cause of the oppressed. It drives the comfortable and secure to take risks for the victims of tyranny and war. It calls those who are strong to care for those who are weak and vulnerable across the spectrum of human life.

-Called to Global Solidarity:International Challenges for U.S. Parishes, U.S. Bishops. 1997

I can think of no better way to commemorate the Eucharistic presence of our Lord than by sharing him at the Table, walking with Him through the streets of our towns, and then turning around and meeting him in the faces and outstretched hands of others who are in need.