The ordering for these four solemnities is perfect as well, because it provides a great source of meditation. In a sense, Corpus Christi may be connected to the Feast of Pentecost. As the ordering of the Solemnity of the Trinity the week after Pentecost was perfect, because it symbolized how the Holy Spirit leads us into the mystery of the Trinity, so the placing of the Feast of the Lord's Body and Blood after the Trinity reminds us that the Eucharist is the main means for nourishing the Divine Life within us.
The Feast of St. John the Baptist reminds us that the Eucharist should be converting us into an image of our Lord. The Eucharist is transformative. As St. Thomas Aquinas said in the hymn Lauda Sion, used in the Liturgy for the Sequence of Corpus Christi, "Both the wicked and the good / eat of this celestial food: / but with ends how opposite! / Here is life, and there is death: / the same, yet issuing to each / in a difference infinite." The Eucharist will either be to us a source of life or of death. If received worthily and with due preparation, it will nourish us unto eternal life. However, if it is received unworthily, or without thought to the action, it will harm the soul, as the most sacred action offered to men, will be done indifferently.
On St. John's Day, we are then reminded of his words, "He [Christ] must increase; I must decrease (John 3:30)." These feasts are being kept as reminders of what we are to become, vessels and images of Jesus Christ to the world.
This is why it is so perfect that the next solemnity we will commemorate will be the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The love of Jesus is what we are called to display to the world, but first we must allow it to enter our lives. As Pope Francis said, "It is your life that Jesus wants to enter with His word, with His presence." We must allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus before we can show that love.
To understand the depth of this love, however, we must encounter Christ both in the Liturgy and in charitable works. The Liturgy is the place where we are presented with the history of our salvation and God's love, and it is the foretaste of the love we will encounter in eternity. It is in charity that we encounter the love of Christ in the here and now and are able to give the love of Christ. As Jesus said, "Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me (Matthew 25:40)."
This is saying is then summed up in the next two feasts of the Church. Although it is only a memorial, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the perfect example of how we are to love. We are to give ourselves entirely to Christ and say, "May it be done unto me according to your word (Luke 1:38)." This must then overflow in love for the whole Church, as it did in Mary when she gave up her Son for us all.
The last feast is the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. These two saints show us what it is to live entirely for Jesus Christ. While it is impossible to here describe all of the ways in which they lived out the love of Christ, let us recall the hours they spent in prayer for the Church, the untiring manner in which they worked for the conversion and salvation of souls, and the sufferings they endured for the name of Jesus. The sacrifice of their lives was then consummated in Rome, where they were martyred for the faith.
May our lives then be a sacrifice for Christ. May we keep this week with faith and joy. Let it be for us a source of grace. May we participate in the liturgical life of the Church this week, to the extent of our vocations, with devotion. And may this participation then overflow into love for all of humanity and lead us into eternal salvation. Allow me to close with a quote from our Holy Father Francis, "Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes."
The Feast of St. John the Baptist reminds us that the Eucharist should be converting us into an image of our Lord. The Eucharist is transformative. As St. Thomas Aquinas said in the hymn Lauda Sion, used in the Liturgy for the Sequence of Corpus Christi, "Both the wicked and the good / eat of this celestial food: / but with ends how opposite! / Here is life, and there is death: / the same, yet issuing to each / in a difference infinite." The Eucharist will either be to us a source of life or of death. If received worthily and with due preparation, it will nourish us unto eternal life. However, if it is received unworthily, or without thought to the action, it will harm the soul, as the most sacred action offered to men, will be done indifferently.
On St. John's Day, we are then reminded of his words, "He [Christ] must increase; I must decrease (John 3:30)." These feasts are being kept as reminders of what we are to become, vessels and images of Jesus Christ to the world.
This is why it is so perfect that the next solemnity we will commemorate will be the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The love of Jesus is what we are called to display to the world, but first we must allow it to enter our lives. As Pope Francis said, "It is your life that Jesus wants to enter with His word, with His presence." We must allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus before we can show that love.
To understand the depth of this love, however, we must encounter Christ both in the Liturgy and in charitable works. The Liturgy is the place where we are presented with the history of our salvation and God's love, and it is the foretaste of the love we will encounter in eternity. It is in charity that we encounter the love of Christ in the here and now and are able to give the love of Christ. As Jesus said, "Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me (Matthew 25:40)."
This is saying is then summed up in the next two feasts of the Church. Although it is only a memorial, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the perfect example of how we are to love. We are to give ourselves entirely to Christ and say, "May it be done unto me according to your word (Luke 1:38)." This must then overflow in love for the whole Church, as it did in Mary when she gave up her Son for us all.
The last feast is the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. These two saints show us what it is to live entirely for Jesus Christ. While it is impossible to here describe all of the ways in which they lived out the love of Christ, let us recall the hours they spent in prayer for the Church, the untiring manner in which they worked for the conversion and salvation of souls, and the sufferings they endured for the name of Jesus. The sacrifice of their lives was then consummated in Rome, where they were martyred for the faith.
May our lives then be a sacrifice for Christ. May we keep this week with faith and joy. Let it be for us a source of grace. May we participate in the liturgical life of the Church this week, to the extent of our vocations, with devotion. And may this participation then overflow into love for all of humanity and lead us into eternal salvation. Allow me to close with a quote from our Holy Father Francis, "Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes."
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