CORPUS CHRISTI...THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST OUR LORD

CORPUS CHRISTI 

Good evening/ morning everyone. I am happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. 

Last week I did a cemetery service for a non-Catholic at a non-Catholic cemetery and at the end, I looked at them all and said, "By the way, I didn't know that I am at the wrong side of the cemetery and now I have to go home and take a shower".  

Once a bishop said to his priests, "you know what you should start your homily or preaching with some stories or jokes or something unexpected. So that people will be more interested to listen to your homily". For example, the last time when I did my preaching, I looked at them all and said, "I am in love with a married woman. Then I gave a pause and looked at them all and said, "her name is Blessed Virgin Mary..." A priest who was inspired by the story went to his parish and on a Christmas day, he looked at the crowd and said, "By the way, our bishop is in love with the married woman and then he gave a pause and looked at them all and he got nervous and said, "And I forgot her name". 

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the solemn feast of 'Corpus Christi' namely the most holy and precious body and blood of Christ our Lord. Jesus says that unless we eat His body and drink His blood, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. His flesh is true food and His blood is true blood. Christ is the bread of life that came down from heaven. Our ancestors ate Manna in the wilderness and they all perished but on the other hand, anyone who eats the bread that comes down from heaven, will live forever. 

There is a non-canonical story in which God sends His angels to people to find out the pressing needs of them. Then upon returning to God Almighty, they all said that people need food. So, God sent His Son Christ Jesus who gave His flesh and blood to satisfy them all eternally.  

Every time we receive the precious body of Christ, something unimaginable happening to us. As we touch the precious body of Christ, we get the experience of that woman who was bleeding for twelve years and who went to all the doctors and physicians and spent all her money and at last coming to Christ, she said, "Even if I touch His cloak, I will be healed and as she touched the cloak, she immediately experienced healing 

When St. Mother Teresa was asked from where she got this much energy to do untiring mission among the poor and the needy and the outcasts and others, she said, "I spend an hour before the blessed sacrament every day".  

The Blessed Sacrament gives us an enormous energy to do great things.  The body of Christ that we consume, changes us into new spiritual beings. It's no longer we who live but Christ lives in us. We need the strength and energy of Christ today. We need more love and kindness of Christ today and we should become living body of Christ to our brothers and sisters who are not hungry for physical food but for real spiritual food. Yes, there is a deep longing in every one of us today to connect with higher being, Christ and that connection will happen to us as we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. 

What was the first food eaten on the moon? The Holy Eucharist, in 1969, as Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon, Aldrin a devoted catholic read from the gospel passage from St. John saying, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If you are with me, you will bear much fruit". Then, he opened the pyx that he took with him and consumed the holy Eucharist thanking Christ. 

When we talk about 'The Holy Eucharist', we often hear the word 'Transubstantiation' which means the essence of the mere bread and wine, after the consecration, with the power and grace of Christ, changed into His precious body and blood. We believe in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. And that's why as we come to receive the body of Christ, with devotion we respond saying, "Amen". Amen means I believe. Yes, we believe this body of Christ will change and make us like Him and thus we too will reflect His unconditional love and forgiveness and thus everyone will come to know that God is with them and He loves them without limit. 

In the gospel of John, When Christ our Lord talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, many people said, "oh it's every challenging and difficult teaching and who can follow it and thus they left Him and then Christ asked His disciples, "Do you also wish to go away?" They all said, "Jesus, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life".  

Conclusion: Friends in Christ, every time we receive the body of Christ, we receive the kingdom of God and every time we consume the body of Christ, we become like Christ and every time we say 'Amen' receiving and consuming the body of Christ, we promise to go out and proclaim the good news of salvation. Amen. 

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY. 

Good morning everyone, welcome to celebrate today's Holy Mass. Today we celebrate 'Holy Trinity Sunday'. 

I am happy to welcome all our new people today. Once I called the new people, fresh meat and a parishioner said, "Oh father, do you think that we are left overs". Whatever church you go, you will see that one parishioner sitting in the pew...I am not talking about …........... 

Once after Mass, a little child pointing out me to her grandma said, "It's Jesus, It's Jesus". I was so shocked and inspired by the Holy Spirit said to her grandma, "Please tell your grandchild, I am not the Son but the father". 

Once a bishop as he was doing the confirmation Mass celebration asked one of the children, 'What is Holy Trinity?". He said, "It's faith in one God. The father is God and the son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but they are not three gods but only one God". The bishop who was hard of hearing said, "I don't understand what you are saying". Then a man who was standing beside the bishop said, "Bishop, you suppose not to understand. It's a mystery".  

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the feasts of 'Holy Trinity'. It's an ineffable mystery which can only be experienced but not to be explained. This mystery can be experienced only by those who completely put their trust in God and surrender themselves to Him. 

We are called to believe in the Triune God and experience the mystery of the Holy Trinity knowing that the father is God and the son is God and the Holy Spirit is god but there are not three gods but only one God. 

The Father is God and in the Old Testament, we see how God the Father, the creator God, does miracles and wonders and how to talks and communicate with His creatures. For example, God calls Adam as he was hiding from Him after disobeying the loving God. He calls Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses and so on. Though we see the wonders of God the Father, we also come to know the coming of the Messiah and the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

The Son Jesus Christ is God and in the New Testament, we see how Christ the only Son of God announces the coming of the kingdom of God and even before began His public ministry as He was being baptized, the heavens opened, and the Holy spirit descended on Him like a dove and the voice from heaven said, "this is my son, my beloved with whom I am well pleased" 

The Holy Spirit the third person in Trinity is God the sanctifying God and in the Acts of the Apostles and all the epistles and once school children were asked about what the epistles and they said, "Epistles are wives of the apostles", talked about the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Conclusion: Yes, the Father God is the Creator God and the Son Jesus Christ is the redeeming God and the Holy Spirit is the sanctifying god. They are not three gods but only one God. Holy Trinity is a mystery, it's an ineffable mystery.  

Trinity prayer of Leo Tolstoy: Leo Tolstoy once said, "everyone wants to change the world, and nobody wants to change himself". His famous story is trinity prayer. Once there lived three monks in an island and they were far away from other people and then one day, the bishop from that region visited them. Upon visiting them, he found out that they didn't even know the Our Father prayer. So, he stayed with them for a while teaching them the prayer. Then one day, he said 'Good bye' to them and he left with his boat. When his boat was back in the open sea, he saw the three monks walk on the water and they were almost running towards the bishop. The bishop looked at them amazed and then they said, "Please bishop teach us the prayer again and we forgot the prayer". The bishop said, "what prayer were you praying so far?'. They said, 'There are three of us and there are three of you and please have mercy on us". The bishop said, "Go and continue to say the prayer".  

The Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God and there are not three gods but only one God. 

When we bless ourselves with sign of the cross, we say in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We do not say, in the names of the Father. Christ our Lord asked His apostles to go everywhere to baptized them all in the name of the father not the name of the father.......... We believe in one God.  

Many saints and holy men and women explained this mystery using created things like St. Patrick with three-gloved shamrock leaf, St. Cyril with the Sun, its light and its heat and St. John Marie Vianney and so on. 

The age-old story of St. Augustine that says how this mystery cannot be explained. 

When we celebrate the Holy Trinity Sunday we hear the word, 'Perichoresis'...means rotating forward around. It's a community of persons who work in perfect harmony and we are called to live like them in harmony. As they are one, we are called to be one. We don't say, my father when we pray, we say our father and we don't say, in the hour of my death but we say in the hour of our death in the hail Mary. God sent His son Jesus through the Holy Spirit to save us as community of people. So, let us put our trust in him. 

Once a parishioner said that the trinitarian god is a lot like our parish priest. You don't see him though the week and you don't understand him on Sunday. God bless.