Body of Christ – The Anchorite

Corpus Christi (A)

Though the Easter season officially ended two weeks ago at Pentecost, the Church has added a kind of epilogue to it by celebrating feasts on the two Sundays that follow Pentecost. Last week, we celebrated Trinity Sunday, which gave us the opportunity to focus even more directly on the triune God. This Sunday, we celebrate Corpus Christi, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, which shifts the focus to how the Lord builds up the Church.

Usually, when we reflect on the feast of Corpus Christi, we focus on the Sacrament of the Eucharist itself. We call to mind how it is the Real Presence of the Lord among us. We have Eucharistic processions and Adoration. We do very well to do these things, and more. Continue reading “Building Up The Body Of Christ”

Pentecost (A): I Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13

Many years ago, there was a popular game show called Truth or Consequences. A contestant in this show would be asked a difficult trivia question, which the contestant would usually get wrong. Getting the question wrong had consequences! The contestant would then have to participate in a potentially embarrassing stunt.

One unintended effect of this show’s title was to affirm that truth has consequences. If something is true, certain conclusions necessarily follow. For example, if we claim that Jesus of Nazareth is true God as well as true man, and that His Passion, Death and Resurrection are, together, the defining moment of human history, that claim has consequences. Our lives cannot be like the lives of those who do not claim this. Our perception of reality, our ways of thinking and acting, must be fundamentally transformed by this claim. If not, then we do not really believe that our faith in Jesus Christ is true. It may be only a slogan. It may be only political spin. But it is not truth unless it has real, visible, perceptible consequences for us. Continue reading “Truth and Consequences”