Corpus Christi 2010

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. This celebration was introduced in 1264 by Pope Urban IV. It was celebrated on the Thursday after the Trinity Sunday. Since Hong Kong is not a Catholic city. The Church cannot request a holiday to celebrate this feast. Therefore, here in Hong Kong, it has been moved to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. The Catholic Church in Hong Kong used to make this Feast an occasion for public profession of faith to the people of Hong Kong. With the passage of time, this public profession was moved to Feast of Christ the King and in recent years, to Mission Sunday. The Church herself is the Mystical Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12). Therefore, it is also a good occasion to reflect upon the nature of the Church.

The Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. This is the creed every Catholic recites on Sunday mass. She is open to all and therefore Catholic. She is able to trace her root with the first apostles and therefore Apostolic. Despite various schisms throughout the ages, the various Churches are united with God, with saints in heaven and souls in the purgatory. The Church is still one. What about her holiness?
Christ is holy. Therefore, His Body is holy. Since the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Therefore the Church is holy, as far as logic goes. But in reality, there are many saints and sinners in the Church. To what extent can the Church be holy?

Let us take a closer look at the meaning of holiness.
Something is holy when it is dedicated to God. A cup is holy when it serves exclusively for the purpose of God in sacrifices. A person is holy when he leads a dedicated life to God. By extrapolation, an organization is holy when it is exclusively dedicated to God. The Church is just such an organization.
Furthermore, the Church sanctifies. A sacrament is a visible sign through which God channels His sanctifying grace to men. Thus, the Church is the basic sacrament for the world. She sanctifies her members as well as the world. No doubt, there are sinners, a lot of them indeed, in the Church. They are offered opportunities to reconcile themselves with God and with men in the Church. This, the Church will continue to do until the end of time. By then, the Church will become the perfect Bride of Christ without any blemish. In the meantime, there will always be scandals, power politics and you name it, within the Church. Many people are disappointed with the Church. They lament that they love Christ but they cannot afford to love the Church. Alas! Just as what Fr. Milanese once said in the homily, the ugly Church is the true face of Christ on earth. She is His Mystical Body.
Before our Liturgy course yesterday, Fr. Thomas Law secretively told us to be prepared for the announcement of a Church scandal this coming Wednesday. He asked us to pray for the priests.

Some sixteen teenagers received their First Communion in the 11 a.m. mass this morning. Fr. Milanese was the celebrant. The gospel reading was the Luke version of the feeding of 5000 (Luke 9:11-17). Fr. Milanese jokingly said that he did not know how Jesus multiplied the five loaves to feed 5000. This was one thing he surely would ask Jesus to explain when he would enter heaven, or on the Judgment Day.
But our faith is not just something to look forward to at the end of the world. The Kingdom of God is here and now. The disciples made the same mistake.
Now the day began to wear away; and the twelve came and said to him, "Send the crowd away, to go into the villages and country round about, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a lonely place."
But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish -- unless we are to go and buy food for all these people." (Luke 9:12-13)
Confronted by the situation, the disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowd away to get themselves equipped for their next stage of journey, their march towards Jerusalem. The disciples wanted none of this provision problem. Let the people fend for themselves.
No. This was a wrong attitude. Jesus wanted them to face it here and now. The Kingdom of God is here and now, not some ideal in the remote future. "You give them something to eat." This is the duty of the disciples, the duty of the Church. But the Church is deficient. She does not have enough resources of her own.
"We have no more than five loaves and two fish." It was excusable for the disciples to worry because they did not know Jesus well enough. But it is inexcusable for the Church nowadays. God has provided for her needs for nearly 2000 years. God will continue to provide.
And all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over, twelve baskets of broken pieces (Luke 9:17).

Dear Lord, we are unworthy to be members of Your Mystical Body. I pray that I will not become a scandal for Your Bride. Strengthen the weaker members of Your Body. We suffer with them. Amen.