Corpus Christi @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

HOMILY - SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
JUNE 13/14, 2020
5:00 PM (SAT), 9:00 AM, 10:30 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



This weekend we commemorated the Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua. You can see his statue next to the St. Joseph altar.

His story is fascinating – you might want to look it up online or in a book. He was known for his powerful preaching, supreme knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick.



He can also help you find your car keys if you pray for his intercession.

But the story I want to relate was later in his life when he was preaching in Toulouse in the south of France. the people in that area had lost their faith in the Eucharist. They doubted if the bread and wine were merely a symbol, or if it was indeed the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.



And one outspoken man challenged him. He brought a half-starved mule and waited to see its reaction when shown a pile of food on one side, and St. Anthony holding the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance on the other. The animal totally ignored the fodder and to everyone’s amazement knelt before Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.



This feast is of relatively recent origin, the Mass and Office texts having been prepared by none other than St. Thomas Aquinas in the year 1264.

The immediate reason was to commemorate a miracle, one year before, where a German priest, doubting the generosity of Christ in coming Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist … was given a singular miracle when at the Words of Institution, “This is My Body,” the host began to bleed onto his hands and onto the altar cloth.



But even more than commemorating a 13th century miracle, this day celebrates the central mystery of our Faith – what the Second Vatican Council referred to as the “source and summit of the Christian life.”

Which begs the question – do we recognize Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist?



As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – quite possibly for the first time in almost 100 days … let us pray for a deeper appreciation and experience of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in this most Blessed Sacrament. And may the infinite and manifold graces of the Eucharist transform us – and our homes, our neighborhood, our country, and our world – all for the greater glory of God.

10th Week in Ordinary Time @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

VIDEOS - TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

MASS

Friday of the 10th Week in OT 6-12-2020


St. Barnabas, Apostle 6-11-2020


Wednesday of the 10th Week in OT 6-10-2020

Daily Mass for the Dead 6-9-2020


Votive Mass for the Priest Himself 6-8-2020


The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 6-7-2020


Solemnidad de la Santísima Trinidad 7-6-2020

Trinity Sunday @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

HOMILY - TRINITY SUNDAY
JUNE 7, 2020
ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS



Released in November of 1967, and having the distinction of being both #1 and #2 on the British singles chart simultaneously due to being released on both a single and an EP, the Beatle’s song I am the Walrus was written by John Lennon the previous summer.

The lyrics are a combination of poetry, nursery rhymes, and nonsense syllables and phrases – the result of three failed attempts at three different songs that were eventually joined together and became the iconic tune known to us over 50 years later.

It was the first studio recording made after the accidental death of their first manager, the recording featured orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet as well as a 16-voice choir of professional studio vocalists.

Critical reception was mostly positive, although the song was banned by the BBC (British Broadcasting System.)



Today is Trinity Sunday.

While many aspects of the Roman Liturgy have included the Trinity – namely in doxologies, Sunday prefaces; the feast we celebrate today – that is, a particular Sunday honoring the Trinity was not included in the calendar until Pope John XXII (the twenty-second) in the early 14th (fourteenth) century.



The feast was elevated liturgically to the highest solemnity by Pope Saint Pius X (the tenth) in 1911.

Now, anytime we speak of Theology – which is the study of God (theos = God, logos = study) … whether that be the Trinitarian theology, Patrology (the theology of God the Father,) Christology (the theology of the Person of Jesus Christ), Pneumatology (the theology of the Holy Spirit), or Theology proper of itself … we run two difficulties.

What you say can either come out sounding like jibberish. That’s the first risk. When you start bandying about with words like perichoresis in the Greek, or circumincession in the Latin – both are words referring to the relationship and the interpenetration of the three Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then there are the theological distinctions between the Immanent Trinity and the Economic Trinity.

On the other hand, you may find yourself spouting heresy … and all the big heresies revolve around mistakes about the Trinity or the Persons of the Trinity.



So, Trinity Sunday can be a bit of a theological minefield.

But the Trinity should not be unfamiliar to us.

We are baptized into the Divine life of the Trinity – as we are baptized in “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The Mass – the Divine Liturgy of the Church – is a sacrificial offering of the Son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.



We begin our prayers with the Sign of the Cross – proclaiming Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We end our liturgical prayers with a trinitarian formula.

And we memorize the Glory Be – which is a minor doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Not to mention the Gloria (Glory to God in the Highest) and the Creed which again are Trinitarian in structure.

The difficulty, of course, is that God is beyond our comprehension – making the Trinity a mystery.

And a mystery is best expressed in silence, prayer, and song.

As we continue in the Holy Mass, offering the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ to God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit – let us remember that we are children of God the Father, redeemed in Christ His Son, and have received an outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit.

(Goo goo ga joob.)