Setting the Record Straight - Confounding Heretics With Corpus Christi - 5/19/18

All over the world there will be bold public processions this week which bear the Eucharist in a monstrance for all to witness an amazing truth; the Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, appearing on earth in this place and moment in that Eucharist. In the USA, May 31st, 2018 is the Feast of Corpus Christi (“Body Of Christ”). Just as many could not believe their eyes when they saw Christ who had risen from the dead, there are many today who doubt the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Too many Catholics are shy, even apologetic, about sharing their conviction that, when we receive the Eucharist, we are touched by Christ’s physical Body and Blood. (“Touch me and see…” Luke 24:39). This intimate contact usually happens inside our churches. Corpus Christi processions go outside of our churches as bold public proclamations of the truth of the Presence. That intent was made plain by Pope Urban IV who established the Feast of Corpus Christi seven-hundred-and-fifty-four years ago with the Bull, “Transiturus de hoc mundo”. With clarity he wrote: ”…we think suitable and worthy that, at least once a year – especially to confound the lack of faith and the infamy of heretics – a more solemn and honorable memory of this Sacrament be held.”

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