Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Feast of Corpus Christi
This feast Corpus Christi is a great feast, proclaiming and celebrating our faith in the wondrous gift of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is foundational to the living of our Catholic faith. As followers of Christ, Christians, we are not only brought into a relationship, but we have the blessing of a personal encounter with the risen Christ every time we receive Holy Communion.
The Mass is the central religious action of the Church. It truly is, as the Second Vatican Council taught, the “source and summit” of our Christian life. The Mass is our primary mode of worship of God. And for each of us, it is the moment when we receive Holy Communion that we are conscious of coming into a real sacramental union with the Christ – he abides in us and we abide in him. As we read in the Gospel today: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him”. This is a most wondrous thing.
St Paul reminds us that this communion is a participation in the saving action of Christ’s death and resurrection. At every Mass we embrace the salvation won for us on Calvary. The Eucharist is rightly called “the sacrament of the sacrifice of Christ”.
Since the beginning of the Church, the faithful have gathered for the celebration of the Eucharist. This is in response to the words of Christ at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me”.
Over the centuries there have been many reported Eucharistic miracles which have reaffirmed the faith of the Church in the Real Presence of the Lord under the form of bread and wine. Modern scientific research into these miracles have confirmed their authenticity.
Also, the Catholic spiritual tradition has seen many saints and mystics testifying to the profound truth of the presence of the risen Christ in the eucharistic species.
Thus, we not only have the clear testimony of Sacred Scripture but many confirming evidences of the truth of the Divine Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
In grateful response to this extraordinary gift Catholics have a love of the Mass and approach it in reverence and prayer.
When the feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV, he commissioned the theologian Thomas Aquinas to compose hymns for the feast. These hymns are now well-known in our Catholic worship:
O Salutaris Hostia expresses adoration of Christ, the Saving Victim, who opened wider the gate of heaven to man below.
Tantum Ergo Sacramentum speaks of adoring Christ, the Word made flesh, saying that faith supplies what the senses cannot perceive.
Panis Angelicus describes the eucharistic banquet where the lowly and humble are fed by their sovereign Lord.
Each hymn offers a rich reflection on different aspects of the wonder of the Eucharist and fosters more intense devotion.
Catholics have had the custom of visiting a church for silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle. Canon Law requires that churches be open to enable the faithful to come to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. It states, “Unless there is a grave reason to the contrary, a church, in which the Blessed Eucharist is reserved, is to be open to the faithful for at least some hours every day, so that they can pray before the Blessed Sacrament” (Canon 937).
Many saints encouraged people to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. For example, St John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, taught his parishioners: “Our Lord is hidden there in the tabernacle, waiting for us to come and visit him, and make our requests to him”.
Following the establishing of the Feast of Corpus Christi a range of devotional practices developed in the Church by which the Catholic faithful can offer prayer and adoration.
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament became an important devotion. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar in a monstrance as a focus for silent prayer and adoration, and after the time of prayer it is concluded by the Rite of Benediction, a blessing with the monstrance containing the divine presence.
Times of extended adoration have come to be arranged in churches and in some locations perpetual adoration has been able to be maintained, with people rostered around the clock usually for one hour at a time.
It is encouraging to see that in the Church today there is a resurgence of a desire for silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Another means of honouring the Lord’s presence has been Eucharistic Processions. By the fourteenth century eucharistic processions through the streets of towns and villages were a common feature of Catholic life and devotion. Such processions are public witness to our faith and also a means by which the blessing of Christ is invoked on the citizens.
The Council of Trent taught, in 1551, that the Most Blessed Sacrament “is to be honoured with extraordinary festive celebrations (and) solemnly carried from place to place in processions according to the praiseworthy universal rite and custom of the holy Church.”
Pope Benedict XVI in a homily in 2007 said that the Feast of Corpus Christi “was born for the very precise purpose of openly reaffirming the faith of the people of God in Jesus Christ, alive and truly present in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist. It is a feast that was established in order to publicly adore, praise and thank the Lord, who continues ‘to love us to the end,’ even to offering us his body and his blood.”
It is in this spirit that we celebrate Corpus Christi today. It is indeed a great feast in our liturgical year. Let us renew our desire to offer the Lord fitting worship and adoration in the Blessed Sacrament. And as Dark Mofo lays a heavy spirit over the city of Hobart let us bring the light and joy of the presence of Christ to this city in our procession this afternoon.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Sunday 11 June, 2023