Sayings of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

“Peace begins with a smile.”

“We fear the future because we are wasting today.”

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

“A life not lived for others is not a life.”

“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.”

“If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.”

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

“God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.”

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

“Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”

“‎Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”

“Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it.”

“True love is love that causes us pain, that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray to God and ask Him to give us the courage to love.”

“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”

“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.”

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

“Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier.”

“One of the realities we’re all called to go through is to move from repulsion to compassion and from compassion to wonderment.”

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realise it.”

“Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family.”

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.”

“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”

“Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”

“Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.”

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

“Life is a challenge; we must take it.”

“Poverty was not created by God. It is we who have caused it, you and I through our egotism.”

“People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centr “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

“Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.”

“Work without love is slavery.”

“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.”

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

“Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure make you to forget that you have been created for greater things.”

“We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved.”

“I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.”

“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.”

“The person who gives with a smile is the best giver because God loves a cheerful giver.”

“One filled with the joy preaches without preaching.”

“I do not pray for success; I ask for faithfulness.”

“I know I am touching the living body of Christ in the broken bodies of the hungry and the suffering.”

“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 18, 2023

We have a mission to the world, not just nurturing personal spirituality or even that of the Church

Matthew 9:36—10:8

Chapter 9:36-38 At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to sent out laborers for his harvest. Chapter 10:1-8 Then he summoned his twelve disciples* and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.a The names of the twelve apostles* are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve* after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Music Meditations

• We Are His People, the Sheep of His Flock Francesca LeRosa
• Christ Has No Body Now But Yours John Michael Talbot
• Whatsoever you do-Robert Kochis
• Be Thou my Vision-various- Enya is especially prayerful
• Servant song-Maranatha

Opening Prayer

Jesus, your good news of the love and forgiveness of God being poured out on people like me is both a comfort and a challenge. Help me to reflect your care and compassion to all those I meet. Help me to be disciple.

Companions for the Journey

From ‘First Impressions’ 2023, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Recently a woman described her work to me and brought this gospel to mind. She works for a charitable foundation that addresses the needs of homeless families, with special attention to poor children. As a baptized person she takes her vocation as a Christian very seriously. She said, “I never think of religion as something I do once a week at church – with a few prayers thrown in during the week for good measure. I realized years ago that my faith has to be the center of my life and influence every thing I do, every decision I make – that I had to look out at the world with the eyes of Jesus. That’s what my baptism means to me.”

My friend said she wanted to look out at the world with the “eyes of Jesus.”

I think of her because of what Jesus saw in today’s gospel. It begins: “At the sight of the crowds Jesus was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.” The woman I described said she became very aware of the needs of the poor. She felt that things were stacked against them. When budget cuts were made they were the first to suffer; they were the bottom of the totem pole – especially the homeless and those who had no political clout. So, she took a position with a small agency, an advocacy group for homeless families. “Frankly,” she said, “I earn less money than I would have elsewhere; but I believe I have a call.” She works and advocates for homeless families, working to get yearly grants to serve them. She has to raise two million dollars a year. She has a board of 30 volunteers who must work on that project of fund raising with her.

“And that’s the rub,” she said, “those 30 people! They are very nice, but some drive me crazy! They are not always efficient and available. This last time, as we got down to the wire finishing off the paper work, I had the hardest time gathering their necessary signatures. A few left for vacation trips and hadn’t signed the proposal. I went chasing after them so we could meet the deadline and raise the crucial two million dollars we needed to serve our clients. We would collapse without the money and people would suffer. Some people could drive you crazy! The only thing that holds us together is our vision of the needs of others – those needy families. We have a project and we think alike on it. Thank God, otherwise there are days when I could strangle some of them!”

Jesus sees the “troubled and abandoned” crowds and he has a concern. He must have help to address their needs, So he calls together the Twelve – his first official disciples. He shares his vision with them; he invites them to see what he sees. They accept his invitation to follow him and to see with his eyes. But that doesn’t mean they would have gotten together socially – joined a bowling club together, or had each other over for a 4th of July barbecue. We know that from the list and brief descriptions Matthew gives of the first disciples.

Simon and Andrew were brothers. They probably got along, but what did their families think of their dropping their fishing nets to go off with the itinerant preacher? Not all families share our ideals. The woman I described said that her parents thought she could make more money working for a bank, or a brokerage house: after all, she has the skills necessary to lead a team and raise two million dollars.

James and John were also brothers. Mark says Jesus gave them the nickname, “sons of thunder” – Boanerges. It doesn’t take much imagination to deduce how they got that name! Then there was Matthew himself, a tax-collector, a traitor to the cause of Israel because he collected taxes for the Romans. Simon was of the Zealot party. Zealots were super-nationalists, burning with zeal for the liberation of Israel. Some were terrorists against the Romans. I wonder what it would be like to invite the tax collector and the Zealot over for tea!

There are moments in the gospel when the apostles’ diverging personalities flared and Jesus had to reign them in. How did he do that? By continually keeping their vision clear; reminding them of the purpose for which he invited them and by urging them not to follow their own interests and priorities. He said that if they wanted to follow him they would have to make personal sacrifices, put aside their differences and focus instead on the needs of others. “Pick up your cross daily.”

Jesus brings this unlikely group together, he and his vision are the binding elements that keep them from fragmenting. Little by little he helps them look out at the world around them – with his eyes. He knows who they are; how different they are. And even though he is not finished with them yet; even though they may feel inadequate to the task, without degrees in Philosophy and Theology, not religious experts – he sends them out. They have been learning to see with his eyes and to notice and tend to those who are sick, those considered unclean, the lepers of society; the dead in body or spirit; those possessed of other spirits, who are “not themselves,” because they are crazed and distracted. Those Jesus sends are to invite the very ones Jesus would have invited, so that they too will learn and receive what the disciples learned and received from Jesus.

Many of us here in church today probably aren’t part of the same social circles. We certainly aren’t all family members. Probably there are some here we’d wish would just go to another church! We are here, not because we are naturally drawn to each other, but because we were baptized. The same water was poured over us and the same words said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We have been called out, named the way the Twelve are named for us today. And like them, we too are sent. We are like that woman who works for the homeless. As she said, “Each of us has to look around us.” In some way, where we live, work, recreate and go to school, we are called to see with Jesus’ eyes, and act accordingly.

No one can tell us exactly where and when we are to respond to Jesus’ call. We will just have to look out and see and hear the way Jesus did. And through our baptism, that is what we are being prompted and empowered to do. Today we pray for each of us: “Help us see what you want of us, help us not settle on being just occasional Christians, but “full time Christians.” Give us sensitive sight, your eyes, for the world. We pray too for those recently baptized, that our example will help them have vision and sensitivity to those who need them.”

Further reading:

• List of Apostles in the New Testament >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

Do I ever feel in need of the Lord’s compassion? Do I truly experience the compassion of Jesus in the difficult events of my life? Who are the troubled and abandoned in my little corner of the world? Do I know anyone who is lost, rudderless, like a sheep without a shepherd? Has there ever been a time when I felt overwhelmed by issues I had to deal with or tasks I had to accomplish? Did I seek help? How did I handle it? Do I trust God? Do I believe that God really loves and cares for me? How has God demonstrated “kindness” to me? What gifts have I received “without cost”? What gifts have I given to others thus far in my life? What is left for me to give? How has God called me, specifically, to be a divine representative? With whom have I shared God’s love? Do I ever unconsciously blame people for the demons they are wrestling with such as addictions, mental health, loneliness, poverty? Because of the failings of contemporary religious and political leaders locally and globally, who in our times are like “sheep without a shepherd? Has there ever been a time in my life when it was clear that I was called upon to help another, or others? What excuses do we commonly give for our inaction on behalf of those who need our care? In this gospel, Jesus tells his apostles to go out only to the lost people of Israel, not to Samaritans or Gentiles. Does this bother you? Do I understand the meaning of "the people of God"? Who belongs? Why? Jesus suggests that the way to proclaim the fact that the Kingdom is at hand is to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. What does this mean for me as a disciple in everyday terms ? Jesus calls his disciples to “give without cost”. How does this mandate affect my attitudes about money? What does this tell me about charitable giving and generosity to others? Do I think of my money/possessions as mine or as God’s?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

From Sacred Space:

I travel in imagination with Jesus as he make his journeys. I ask him what gives him so much energy to serve the sick, many of whom must have been frightening to look at and to touch. He chats with me about compassion, and I ask that my small heart may to be as compassionate as him. I sense his compassion towards me, and it comforts me.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

What are we to do with the mandate given to the Apostles, and by inheritance given to us? A good place to start is with the corporal works of Mercy: to feed the hungry to give drink to the thirsty to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, to bury the dead. (This can include being present to those who are grieving) Spend some time at the end of each day reflecting on when you did more than avoid sin; but reflecting on the positive good you created by reaching out to others.

Poetic Reflection:

Father Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., captures the spirt of the gospel:

“Lonely Christ”

Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

Literary (sort of) Reflection:

Three very powerful movies tell the stories of those Jesuits and Trappists who, in times of oppression and danger, risked their lives—gave their lives, even, to help those who needed help and care: The Mission Silence Of Gods and Men

Closing Prayer

Adapted from Sacred Space 2923, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus, in this gospel account I see you engaging with vigilant eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering in your world. To them you were the compassionate one, bringing balm to the wounded places in their lives. Lord, the cries of the poor and broken-hearted are evident in the news beamed into my living room daily. Let me not forget that you summon me today, to be your eyes, your ears, and your hands of compassion to all whom I meet.

Apostles in the New Testament

Matthew

Simon Peter, Andrew, his brother
James and John, the sons of Zebedee
Philip
Bartholomew
Thomas
Matthew the tax collector
James the son of Alphaeus
Thaddeus
Simon from Cana
Judas Iscariot

Mark

Simon Peter
James and John sons of Zebedee/”Sons of Thunder”
Andrew
Philip
Bartholomew
Matthew
Thomas
James, the son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
Simon, the Zealot,
Judas Iscariot

Luke

Simon (the one Jesus named Peter),
James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee
Andrew
Philip
Bartholomew,
Matthew,
Thomas
James, the son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
Simon, the Zealot
Judas Iscariot

John:

Only some named:
Andrew
Simon Peter
Philip,
Nathanael
Thomas
Judas
Judas, son of Simon Iscariot (6:71).
Unique to John, someone called “the beloved disciple” appears in prominent roles.

Acts:

Peter, John
James and Andrew
Philip and Thomas,
Bartholomew and Matthew;
James son of Alphaeus
Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.

The Body and Blood of Christ, June 11, 2023

Christ is with us in the Eucharist; we are the body of Christ

John 6:51–58

Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Music Meditations

• I Am the Bread of Life (by John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• We Remember (by Marty Haugen) [YouTube]
• Panis Angelicus (by Franck; sung by Luciano Pavarotti and Sting) [YouTube]
• Ave Verum Corpus (by Mozart; sung by Catholic Community at Stanford "virtual" choir) [YouTube]
• One Bread, One Body (by John Michel Talbot) [YouTube}
• O Salutaris Hostia (by Werner; sung by Cathedral singers, Richard Proulx, conductor)

Opening Prayer

From The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading, by David Fleming, S.J.:

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will—all that I have and all that I call my own. You have given it all to me. To you Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me (p.141)

Companions for the Journey

From Father Michael Marsh: “Do You Have Life?”

A friend of mine called last week. She asked, “How are you?” It’s a common question, one we ask and are asked every day. You and I both know the standard answers and I gave them. I said, “Fine. I’m doing well. Things are really busy right now. I’m good.” She laughed and said, “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

I suspect I’m not the only one who’s had this type of conversation. Most of us have these kind of conversations several times each day. We offer the usual answers. Sometimes we add something about our family, our health, where we have been, or what we have been doing. More often than not those conversations focus on the circumstances of life. We might be fine and busy, getting our work done, meeting deadlines and commitments, fulfilling obligations, volunteering our time, and loving and caring for our families but there is a difference, a vast difference, between doing life and having life within us.

Doing life or having life; that’s the issue Jesus is concerned about. That’s the focus of today’s gospel. It is important enough that it has been the subject of the last several Sundays of gospel readings. Each week has brought us closer to the unspoken question behind today’s gospel: Is there life within you?

That’s a hard question and one which many will avoid or ignore. They will turn back and walk away rather than face the question. “Fine,” “busy,” “good,” and “doing well” do not answer the question. They cover it up. The question pushes us to discover the hunger within us and the life Jesus wants to feed us. That’s what Jesus has been after these last few weeks.

Three weeks ago 5000 hungry people showed up. They were fed with five loaves and two fish. They didn’t understand. They thought it was about loaves and fish. It was really about life and where life comes from. Two weeks ago Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat. Is it perishable bread or does it endure to eternal life? Last week Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life, the living bread they came down from heaven.

Today he says, “Eat me. Drink me.” This is the only way we ever have life within us. Jesus is very clear and blunt about it. His flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. Any other diet leaves us empty and hollow, hungry and bereft of life. “Very truly, I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.” Those are ominous words, words that haunt and challenge us to consider whether there is life within us.

Jesus is talking about more than just physical or biological life. He’s talking about that life that is beyond words, indescribable, and yet we know it when we taste it. We get a taste of it when we love so deeply and profoundly that everything about us dies, passes away, and somehow we are more fully alive than ever before. Sometimes everything seems to fit together perfectly and all is right with the world; not because we got our way but because we knew our self to be a part of something larger, more beautiful, and more holy than anything we could have done. We were tasting life. There are moments when time stands still and we wish the moment would never end. In that moment we are in the flow, the wonder, and the unity of life, and it tastes good.

Most of us spend a fair amount of time, energy, and prayer trying to create and possess the life we want. In spite of our best efforts sometimes we live less than fully alive. Sometimes the outside and inside of who we are don’t match up. We ask ourselves, “What am I doing with my life?” We wonder if this is all there will ever be. Is this as good as it gets? We lament at what has become of us and our life. Nothing seems to satisfy. We despair at what is and what we think will be. Despite family and friends we find no place in which we really belong.

Those questions and feelings are not so much a judgement on us, but a diagnosis of us. They are symptoms that there is no life in us. We are dying from the inside out. There is, however, treatment for our condition and food for our hunger. Life in Christ, not death in the wilderness, is our destiny. The flesh and blood of Christ are the medicine that saves; what St. Ignatius called “the medicine of immortality.” One dose, however, is not enough. We need a steady diet of this sacred medicine, this holy food.

Jesus is our medicine and our health. He is our life and the means to the life for which we most deeply hunger. We don’t work for the life we want. We eat the life we want. Wherever human hunger and the flesh and blood of Christ meet, there is life.

In the eating and drinking of Christ’s flesh and blood he lives in us and we live in him. We consume his life that he might consume and change ours. We eat and digest his life, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his way of being and seeing, his compassion, his presence, and his relationship with the Father. We eat and drink our way to life. So leave nothing behind. Push nothing to the side. Clean your plate!

“Whoever eats me will live because of me,” Jesus said.

Further reading:

• Another Commentary on John 6:51–58 >>
• Transubstantiation / Consubstantiation / Real Presence: A Little Theology Lesson >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

I have life because of the Father; so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Do I see Jesus as the face of God actually near at hand—“God with us”?
  What does it mean to live in Jesus?
• How easy is it to get snarled up in the theology of the Real Presence on this occasion?
  How can this be an intellectual exercise and a distraction?
• Some early believers were horrified at this assertion of Jesus. How do Jesus’ statements about eating his body and drinking his blood challenge me?
• Do I spend more time trying to understand this mystery than actually experiencing this mystery?
  What message do I take from this gospel that I can use in my everyday life, my everyday relationship with God?
• What is the difference for me between doing life and having life?
  What do I want from life?
  Do I think it is what Jesus wants for me?
• This passage follows an earlier and very famous one on the feeding of the five thousand.
  How does the motif of God feeding his people enrich my appreciation of Eucharist?
• What is the reason for keeping people from this table of life we call Eucharist?
  Whose table is it?
  Who gets to decide who is welcome at the table and who is not?
• When I receive communion, do you think of union with Jesus or union with those around me? Both?
• How do I respond to the living presence of Jesus within me?
  In what ways do I make the Eucharist truly meaningful for those in my life?
• When I receive the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, do I reflect on my identity as a member of the body of Christ?
  What is my response to this gift of Jesus?
• Who are members of the body of Christ?
  What are our obligations to others in the body of Christ?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

Adapted from “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

In the Eucharist, we deepen our relationship with Jesus, not mechanically, but by becoming more and more like him over the years. We meet God in this mysterious and dramatic way: God gives himself to us, and we try to shape our lives into a loving gift for god. In heaven there will be no Eucharist as we know it, because our bonding with God will then be complete.

So I ask myself:
How am I fostering my relationship with Jesus?
Have I become more like him? What do I need to let go of or what do I need to do to be more like Jesus?
Do I consider my life a loving gift for God? What can I change about my life that makes the gift of this life of mine more truly loving?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Memory:

From Father Paul O”Reilly, S.J.:

“I am the living bread that has come down from heaven.”

I think I know how John the Baptist must have felt when everywhere he went people kept asking him “Are you Elijah – come back from the dead?”. Everywhere I went in Guyana, people always used to ask me: “Are you related to Bryan O’Reilly?” To which I had to respond: “only as brothers in the Lord”. It seemed to disappoint them hugely. Even so, it was a great joy to be able to report to Bryan the great love and affection that people in Guyana still felt for him after his many years of service to them as a Jesuit missionary priest. Fame may be a passing bubble, but love is not. After he retired from the Missions (at the age of 82) he went to work in our parish of “Corpus Christi”, Bournemouth in England. For the patronal feast of his parish he wrote a short poem for his parish newsletter, expressing something of what it means to him to have served the Eucharist all his life. Believing it worthy of a wider audience, his superior sent it out to our Province Newsletter. And, believing it worthy of a still wider audience I am sharing it with you here.

(For the best effect, take it somewhere quiet on your own and say it slowly and aloud.)

“Corpus Christi”

All absolutely empty.
Feelings have gone.
I gaze upon the crucifix.
And strive to ponder on the Eucharist.
Thoughts move along to the view
my window of the church of Corpus Christi.
The garden, the bushes and the trees
A strange vision will appear at times
As I hear the chimes, and these
Remind me of so many things.
Our Lady sings in the breeze
That blows across the garden and the trees
And I listen to a voice that speaks most clearly
“This is my Body – This is the cup of my Blood.”
A flood of memories pour into my mind.
The very fabric of my being.
And now I am seeing bright clear
The vision that is mine here – at Corpus Christi.
No one will ever understand – why should they?
Contrition – Compassion – Wish-filled yearning – explains it all.
I hear the call “Come Lord Jesus – come”.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Read Matthew 14:13-21 (The first story of the feeding of the four thousand). Imagine the scene in which the people follow Jesus to a “lonely place” and then are stranded without food. Try to place yourself in the story as one of the disciples. At which point do you become concerned enough about all these people that you speak to Jesus? What concerns you? That the crowd will become restless and angry, that it might turn on Jesus and as disciples you might get caught in the middle? Are you afraid that some will fall ill? Are you afraid that some will take food from others? How do you respond when Jesus tells you to handle the problem? What does this story reveal about my attitudes of scarcity vs. abundance? What Eucharistic overtones do you read into this story? What does this say to you about Eucharist and the world? What does this story say to you about bread (real bread) for the world and our obligation to provide it?

A Meditation on the Franciscan Style/Action:

This excerpt is from Justice Notes for Corpus Christi from the Southern Dominican Province in 2007. It is still relevant today.

“Whoever eats this bread will live forever”(John 6:51)

Each of today’s readings speaks of being fed and they lead us to think about the growing crisis of world hunger. “Rising food prices are fueling the global hunger crisis. It is taking an immense toll on the world’s poorest people, who typically spend up to 80 percent of their income on food. As many as 100 million more poor people could be made worse off by this burgeoning hunger crisis. After 30 years of progress against hunger and poverty, that is a setback that the United States and the rest of the world cannot afford to let happen.” (http://www.bread.org/learn/rising-food-prices.html [page no longer available])

“The prayer which we repeat at every Mass: ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ obliges us to do everything possible, in cooperation with international, state and private institutions to end or at least reduce the scandal of hunger and malnutrition afflicting so many millions of people in our world, especially in developing countries.” (Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007)

Did you know:

• 854 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago
• Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes—one child every five seconds.
• 35.1 million people in the US—including 12.4 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
• The U.S. Conference of Mayors reports that in 2006 requests for emergency food assistance increased an average of 7 percent. The study also found that 48 percent of those requesting emergency food assistance were members of families with children and that 37 percent of adults requesting such assistance were employed.

What can you do? Pick a concrete action. Do it.

Poetic Reflection:

Enjoy this lovely act of faith so movingly expressed by Mary Oliver:

“The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist”

Something has happened
To the bread
And the wine.

They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward

To receive the gift
From the priest’s hand,
Then the chalice.

They are something else now
From what they were
Before this began.

I want
To see Jesus,
Maybe in the clouds

Or on the shore,
Just walking,
Beautiful man

And clearly
Someone else
Besides.

On the hard days
I ask myself
If I ever will.

Also there are times
My body whispers to me
That I have.

Poetic Reflection:

This poem is just as appropriate for Corpus Christi as it is for Pentecost and for Holy Thursday. Enjoy.

"Gather the People"

What return can we make
for all the Lord has done in our lives?
We bring bread, wine, our clay dishes
and our clay feet
to this altar
and we pray that we may here
make a beginning—
that somehow in our days
we can begin to see the promises
the Lord has made us.

The promises do not always
glow with obvious light, or
overwhelm us by their obvious truth.
No matter what anyone says,
it is difficult to understand an invisible God
and belief is not always
the easy way out.

So we gather the people
and we tell the story again
and we break the bread
and in the memory of the one
who saves us,
we eat and drink
and we pray and we believe.

We gather, we pray, we eat.
These things are for human beings.
God has no need of them.
Yet he himself gathered the people,
prayed, broke bread
and gave it to his friends.

And so the invisible God became
visible
and lives with us.

—Ed Ingebretzen, S.J., from Psalms of the Still Country

Closing Prayer

Lord, you have given me everything, my life, my loved ones, my faith; you have given me your very self. Help me to do the same for all whom I meet. Help me to be the Body and Blood of Christ for others.

Transubstantiation / Consubstantiation / Real Presence: A Little Theology Lesson

Reference: Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Father Richard McBrien, General Editor

A little prequel: To understand this concept one needs the clarification of what being (ontos) really is. A little ontological definition from the University of Notre Dame: 93. Substance is being existing in itself; accident is being existing in another as its subject. -- Being is known either as something which subsists in itself without needing to be sustained by another, or as something which needs a subject in which and by which it may exist. In the former case, being is called substance; in the latter, it is called accident. Thus “Peter” is a substance, because he exists in himself; “white” is an accident, because it does not exist without a substance in which it inheres. Substance is also defined negatively as that which is not in another as its subject; or descriptively as that which sustains accidents. But from the fact that a substance exists in itself, we are not to infer that it excludes the idea of a cause which produces it, but only that of a subject in which it inheres. To define substance, with Descartes, as “that which exists in such a way as to need nothing else for its existence,” is to open the door to pantheism.

Transubstantiation:

Teaching of the Church that the substance of bread and wine offered at the Eucharist is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The term emerged out of medieval attempts to resolve the conflict between seeing bread and wine as mere signs or asserting their change into the body and blood of

Christ even in their physical components. In the late eleventh century theologians described the change that occurs at the Eucharist in terms of the change of the substance of bread and wine, which undergoes transformation into the Lord’s body and blood. The term “transubstantiation” itself is only found in the twelfth century, and was subsequently used at Lateran IV (1215). Under the influence of Aristotelian thought, theologians gradually came to distinguish between the substance of the Eucharist (the body and blood of Jesus Christ) and the accidents of bread and wine (weight, texture, color. Etc). These remain even as the substance of bread and wine changes into Christ’s body and blood.

In response to opposition to transubstantiation from the Reformers of the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent in 1551 affirmed that the substance of bread and wine is changes onto that of Christ’s, adding that ”this change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly named transubstantiation. Trent’s use of the word was intended not to explain how the change takes place but to provide a term that describes what takes place. Theological attempts in the latter part of the twentieth century to define the substance (transignification and transfinalization) led Pope Paul VI to insist in Mysterium Fidei (1965) that the new meaning and finality of the consecrated bread and wine are grounded in the new ontological reality of the presence of the body and blood of the Lord.

Real Presence

This is a teaching of the Catholic Church that Jesus Christ is present at and in the ‘eucharist his body and blood, humanity and divinity, under the form of bread and wine. The NT attests to the faith of Catholics and other Christians that Christ is present in and tohis church in a variety of ways. As the risen Lord, he is no longer bound by the constraints of a particular time and place and thus can be present when his disciples gather together to pray, invoke his name for healing, proclaim his gospel, forgive sins, suffer for his sake, and assemble to remember his Last Supper with his disciples. Fundamental to the recognition of this presence was the church’s experience of the power of the Spirit of the Lord transforming it into the community of his body and empowering it to continue his mission.

(See accounts of the Last Supper: Mt 26:26-30; Mark 14 22-26; Luke 22 14-20; John 6:52-56; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25; John, Chapter 6. There is strong evidence of the belief of the first-century church in the presence of the body and blood of Christ.)

Throughout the first millennium, the faith of the Church in Christ’s real Presence went relatively undisturbed. But some controversy developed in the ninth century and developed further in the eleventh century between extreme positions that saw the bread and wine as merely signs or as totally changed, even in their physical elements. Out of these controversies came the Church’s teaching on Transubstantiation (see above). Contemporary Church teaching and theology has placed the doctrine of the Real Presence within the context of the many ways in which Christ is present in the church. Paul VI (1965 in Mysterium Fidei). He identifies them as prayer, works of mercy, preaching, governance, the Sacraments, and finally The Eucharist, a way the surpasses all others. Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy spoke of Christ’s presence not only in the consecrated bread and wine, but also in the proclaimed word, the person of the minister, and the worshipping assembly itself.

The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist flows from his total self-gift on the cross and his will to make that gift effective for all people throughout history.

(Adapted from articles by S.T.D. professor of Systematic Theology, Seminary of the Immaculate Conception)