Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,<\/p>\n
Peace and blessings to you all! This weekend we celebrate one of my favorite Solemnities on the Church Calendar\u2014Corpus Christi–The Body and Blood of Christ. Every year, this special celebration gives us a vivid reminder of our greatest treasure\u2014Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. The origin of this celebration goes back to the 1200s in Italy. There was a priest who was having some doubt of faith about whether Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host at Mass. Just after he had spoken the words of consecration, blood started to seep from the host and went down onto to his hands and the altar. After this miracle, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. One interesting note, he had asked St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure to both write a set of prayers\/hymns for the Feast. It is said that after St. Bonaventure read what St. Thomas prepared, he thought they were perfect and decided not to submit his own. All these centuries later, we are still using the prayers and hymns that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote for us!<\/p>\n
The celebration of Corpus Christi is a great fit with our ongoing review of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. We have reviewed in the past about how the Mass is the one perfect sacrifice of Christ. We have also talked about how we are called to participate in that sacrifice. How do we do it? Through the priesthood! If I asked that anyone who is reading this who is a priest to raise their hands\u2026how many would there be? Fr. Albert, Fr. Daniel, and Fr. Blake? Anyone else? Of course, it actually matters what kind of priesthood I\u2019m talking about. As our Catechism<\/em> reminds us, all of us who are baptized into Christ have a share in His royal priesthood. We call this the common priesthood or the priesthood of the baptized. This is different from the ministerial priesthood or the ordained priesthood which is received through Holy Orders. Although we share in different ways and both kinds of priesthood are unique, each is a true share in the priesthood of Jesus. The ministerial priesthood serves the common the priesthood and \u201cis a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church\u201d (CCC<\/em>, 1546-1547). As baptized people who share in the common priesthood, we are all priests. Why is this a big deal? Because priests offer sacrifice\u2026and as sharers in the common priesthood, all the baptized are able to offer sacrifice in union with Jesus through the Mass!<\/p>\n Have you ever had a well-meaning person tell you to \u201coffer it up\u201d when you are in the midst of something difficult? We certainly heard this good traditional wisdom often growing up. It truly is backed by our belief that united to Christ, our sacrifices can be fruitful. We are invited at each Mass to unite our offerings with the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus. That is, we are invited to exercise our common priesthood. This exercise is led in each Mass by an ordained ministerial priest. As the Catechism<\/em> notes, \u201cIn the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis\u201d<\/em> [In the person of Christ the Head]\u2026\u201dThrough the ordained ministry, especially that of bishops and priests, the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the midst of the community of believers\u201d (CCC<\/em>, 1548-1549).\u00a0 We believe that Christ works through the words and hands of the priest so that He is truly present in the sacraments. We ordained priests understand very well this doesn\u2019t mean we are exempted from sin and weakness\u2014we strive to follow Christ faithfully each day just like everyone else. We do understand that Christ works through the ordained priest in a special way in the sacraments so He is present to His people. This is why we say that the ordained priesthood is focused on service\u2014it is for the purpose of fostering a true encounter with Christ. It really is an amazing gift of the priesthood!<\/p>\n The Church teaches ordained ministers to keep the love of Christ at the forefront. \u201cThe sacrament of Holy Orders communicates a \u2018sacred power\u2019 which is none other than that of Christ. The exercise of this authority must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by love made himself the least and the servant of all.\u00a0 [Quoting St. John Chrysostom,] \u2018The Lord said clearly that concern for his flock was proof of love for him\u2019.\u201d (CCC<\/em>, 1551). One of my favorite things to share about the vestments the priest wears for Mass is a reminder that the love of Christ should be what people experience. As he is getting vested, the priest will put on the stole, which is a symbol of priestly authority. You will notice that a priest wears a stole for the celebration of sacraments and blessings\u2014a concrete reminder he has been ordained so Christ can gift His people in these ways. For Mass, the priest wears the chasuble on top of everything. The root of the name of that vestment is similar to the word charity. That is, the chasuble is an outward reminder that on top of everything\u2026on top of the simple man he is\u2026on top of the studies, prayer, and preparation\u2026on top of the grace of ordination and the privilege of standing in the person of Christ in the sacraments\u2026on top of all of that is the love of Christ. For me as a priest, the chasuble is always a reminder of what we hope happens in the sacraments\u2014a true encounter with the real presence of the one who loves us perfectly. Please always pray that our humanness doesn\u2019t get in the way of that loving encounter!<\/p>\n Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this week!<\/p>\n In Christ,
\nFather Luke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"