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Feast of Corpus Christi Celebrating a priest’s Golden Jubilee on the solemn feast of Corpus Christi is again a special vantage point. Especially if it happens in a year dedicated to the Eucharist by the Church, we must stop and reflect, realizing that this is not so much about a person, not simply a tribute to a person’s service and dedication for a life time, but an event in which God’s grace is manifesting itself in our midst. - For our celebration’s point of reference is not simply something that happened 50 years ago, but 40 times 50 years, nearly 2000 years ago when God manifested his commitment to be our food and drink, a participant in our journey in the desert, a fellow traveler on the roads of human life, the nourishment for our journey and an inhabitant of our homes. Eucharist and priesthood go back to the same origin, to the night in which Jesus, ready to become a victim of betrayal, an object of violence, and a sacrificial offering, extended his life which he had spent in obedience to his Father on earth, over the whole of human history and gave over himself, consciously and willingly, first into the hands of his disciples and then into the hands of mercenaries hired to capture and kill him. And so ever since then, this life of Jesus, his presence, is handled by our hands, his heart throbs in our midst, his voice is not only evoked by memorized or written passages, but sounds aloud from his own mouth as he continues to speak personally to us, to impress us, to call us from within our own thoughts, our own desires, from the bottom of our hearts, from out of our emotions and sentiments. His sacrificial death belongs not only to history as the dark and unfortunate hour of human folly or the miscarriage of justice. Rather, it renews itself in a sacramental way every time he appears in our midst in the form of bread and wine, shows us his wounds, reaffirms his sacrificial intent and asserts time and again that for our sake he has been, he would be, he will ever be willing to undergo pain, throw away the beauty of human life, the sweetness of temporary and fleeting human existence and undergo the power of human evil, of pain, suffering as an innocent victim in order to prove how much worth we are for him. - It is at this point that a human being’s priestly life and ministry enter into the picture. To repeat this gesture, to explain its significance and to recreate his on-going ministry along the flow of passing time, Christ recruited from the beginning and keeps on recruiting his apostles: men he chooses to use as representatives, delegates, emissaries, his own missionaries empowered to go and do what he came to do. The priest he chooses is not just a machine chosen to function as he did by saying words and repeating gestures. The priest must authentically transmit, express and manifest what he did: a priest is there to say words of forgiveness and reconciliation, words of consecration and sacrifice, words of blessing, words of identifying and asserting the truth, words that contradict lies and deception, words and attitudes to make present in all places and in all ages Christ, the presence of God made man, of the Word Incarnate in human history.- I am speaking of words but do not mean merely speech, air vibrated by vocal chords, the product of grammar and rhetoric. The Bible uses the expression “word” and means action, story or event. God has created the world by his word: he spoke and what he said came about. The priest is chosen not to announce his own word, human words, but the word of God of which we read that God’s word is living and effective as a double-edged sword. God adds to the human sound the voice his own word that makes what it commands come about. So the words which a priestly ministry and priestly tongue must communicate are spoken with the virtue of the Holy Spirit. In the case of his sacramental ministry, the priest speaks and God transforms host and wine into his body and blood. In the confessional the priest pronounces absolution, and the bondage of sin is broken and reconciliation takes place. And analogously, word means attitude, and so, by his word, compassion and personal involvement, a message of peace and forgiveness, trust and reconciliation, encouragement and edification, courage in seeking the truth and patience in putting up with handicaps are manifested and, consequently, the world is made better. All this is rooted in the basic Eucharistic ministry of the Catholic priesthood, which comes down to us in his Incarnation and then distributes his coming among us through human mediation, by words, signs, attitudes and actions, into a broken world awaiting redemption. In the days following the death of Pope John Paul II all of us witnessed the extraordinary spiritual hunger that is even more tragic and more global than any other kind of physical hunger in modern civilization. At the Pope’s death I was in Rome on official business and was privileged to see and experience this unparalleled pilgrimage of four million people to the body of a dead Pope lying in state. What struck me as extraordinary was the large number of people who, as if by sudden inspiration or simple instinct, left behind job, family, occupations or hobbies and arrived to Rome in less than a day with no plan, no resources no particular purpose but to get a last glimpse of a spiritual leader whose personal presence had slipped out of this world but whose body was still in sight, though about to disappear from this world forever. I recalled the scene of the multiplication of the loaves in the gospels. At that time Jesus himself was shocked at the spiritual misery displayed by the multitude before him: “I am moved by pity over this crowd for they are prostrate with fatigue as sheep without a shepherd.” This came to mind as in the midst of an endless crowd a rather elderly and handicapped woman leading by hand two little girls stopped and asked me in Italian: “O padre, how can we find out how to see the pope?” I looked around and pointed to the crowd: it will be rather difficult to see the pope! But I did not continue because I was ready to cry. An orphaned world stood around me looking for the assurance that God is with us, that Christ has not abandoned us, that there is purpose, truth, meaning, and mostly hope in this life if not for us then at least for the next generation, those who are innocent and deserve a chance. So our vision has been restored lately and we understand that Jesus’ words “I am the Bread of the world” mean a commitment, an assurance, and a certainty. Also in our desire for priestly vocations we are today reassured and consoled: God does not deny the prayers of his faithful, just continue asking and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Our only task is to rekindle in ourselves some readiness to receive God’s gifts, availability for a renewed outlook, for thankfulness and an openness to forgive and leave behind all bitterness in order to let God make something great, new and beautiful out of our life on earth.
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