Last weekend, Pentecost marked the end of the Easter Season, returning us to the liturgical season known as “Ordinary Time.” (See the column elsewhere in the bulletin that explains this more fully). Yet these next two Sundays, which follow Pentecost, are not simply Sundays of Ordinary Time, but have special significance as Solemnities of the Lord.
This Sunday we celebrate Trinity Sunday, one of our core beliefs in the Christian faith that God is One Being, yet Three Persons. How often we make the Sign of the Cross without even thinking that this simple gesture expresses outwardly our faith in the Triune God. While sometimes difficult to grasp its meaning, the Doctrine of the Trinity has been held as a true teaching of the faith since the very beginning. Our Creed, which we profess each week, expresses that truth. Many saints and theologians have written volumes on this mystery of our faith over the course of the past twenty centuries. A challenge to our intellect, it is a matter of belief, accepted and professed in faith.
Next weekend we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (formerly known as Corpus Christi) giving us an opportunity to delve more deeply in the mystery of Christ’s true presence in Holy Communion, and to commence a three-year Eucharistic Celebration throughout the universal Church. (More about that in next week’s column.) In the consecration at Mass, when the priest says the words, "Take this all of you and eat of it. THIS IS MY BODY which will be given up for you," the bread ceases to be bread in its substance, and becomes the Body of Christ. The same is true of the wine, being transformed into the Blood of Christ at the words, THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD..." In Catholic theology this is known as transubstantiation. Although still having the appearance of bread and wine, these elements have been changed in their very essence into Christ's Body and Blood. How? We can't explain. That they truly become Christ’s Body and Blood is a matter of faith. In John’s Gospel Jesus states emphatically, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,” (Jn. 6:55). St. Thomas Aquinas in his great Eucharistic Hymn the Tantum Ergo, which we sing at Benediction, says it well: "What the senses fail to fathom, let us grasp with faith's consent." Let us ready ourselves for this coming celebration of Christ’s Body and Blood, taking some time in meditation to reflect on our belief in the Eucharist, maybe attending Eucharistic Adoration on Monday evening or Thursday morning, preparing our souls through a good confession if we haven’t been in a while, and receiving the Lord’s true presence with open hearts next weekend!