LITURGY MATTERS: Do we believe enough to be seen believing?

By Michael McKenna, Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies

As the Easter Season draws to its close the Church prepares to celebrate two significant feasts in succession—Pentecost and Corpus Christi—that together reveal something to us about the nature of Christ’s Church.

Scripture tells us that the coming of the Holy Spirit marks that moment the Church begins its public mission. Indeed, we are told that filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter proclaims the Gospel, and, deeply moved, the people ask what they must do (Acts 2:37). That very day, some three thousand people are baptised. The Church founded by Christ (through His life, death, and Resurrection), is ‘born’ or made manifest at Pentecost through the Holy Spirit, becoming a living, growing community entered into through baptism.

The celebration of Corpus Christi builds on this Pentecostal reality. Where Pentecost celebrates new life in Christ through the Spirit and baptism, Corpus Christi recognises that the mission of the Church cannot be sustained by human strength alone, and that it is those who are baptised in Christ who continue to be nourished and sustained by Him through the Eucharist. If Pentecost sends the Church into the world on mission, Corpus Christi reminds us that Christ walks with us, nourishing and guiding His Church in every age, always.

In the context of our forthcoming Corpus Christi celebrations and our annual Walk with Christ procession, it is timely to reflect on that moment when the disciples moved from being a small, fearful group locked away in the upper room (Acts 1:13) into a missionary Church sent to all nations. The early Church did not grow because it was discreet. It grew because it was recognisable.

The annual Corpus Christi procession is not about nostalgia; it is about mission. While there exists in the Church a temptation to cultural cringe at acts of public witness in a society where faith has been pushed to the margins—it is precisely for this reason that visible and embodied acts of devotion become most needed. Missionary witness today begins still not with preaching, but with presence, with turning up and turning out with courage and with conviction.

The Lord asks: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8) The annual Walk with Christ offers a gentle but unmistakable sign to the world that God is not absent from modern life—only often unacknowledged. And so we must ask ourselves whether our faith is still small, fearful and locked in the upper room, or do we believe enough to be seen believing?

Because, as symbol of a deeper, ongoing way of life, the true procession continues for us long after the walking ends.