Feast of Corpus Christi

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 29th May, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, our God present to us in the Eucharist; food, medicine and comfort for us.

We need his presence and we know that it is real because he has told us. He has come to us through sacrifice in this present so that we can find an answer to the yearning emptiness in our hearts. He leads us on the road, as we beg him, ‘Stay with us, Lord.’

At the end of the Mass we will accompany him in procession and kneel in adoration.

Let us call to mind our sins, that we may follow the Lord who is always with us.

Homily

“God is all to you: if you are hungry, God is bread; if thirsty, God is water; in darkness, God is light; if naked, God is a robe of immortality.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Saint Augustine of Hippo did not discover God until mid way through his life: he spent the rest of his days passionately hungering for deep awareness of God.

Today we know that our God entered into the simplest substances of bread and wine, transforming them at Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, separate because of his death and entrusted to the bishops and priests of the Church by his own words, ‘Do this in memory of Me.’

The Eucharist is like a precious diamond, like the Hope diamond with its sixty-four facets. The Eucharist is at once a thanksgiving prayer, a meal of a community, a memorial, a holy sacrifice, our holy communion and, as Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us, “a pledge of future glory”.

As we continue the journey of the Year of the Eucharist, it is the reality of Jesus present among us again and again, which draws us to God. In the holy Eucharist, the breaking of bread, Jesus does not leave us alone. He knows our need for friendship, companionship and intimacy and so he comes and stays with us.

The same Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary, died on Good Friday, rose on Easter Sunday and returned to the Father, the ascension, is with us, as he was with Mary and the apostles on that first Easter Sunday. His own words, ‘This is my body, given for you’, remind us that each time we come to Mass, our God draws us to see him and touches us with his love.

Jesus invites us to be joined to his sacrifice, making a gift of ourselves to God and to others, just as he did. This is only possible because Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. Saint Augustine says, “If you are his body and members of him, then you will find set on the Lord’s table your own mystery.” Through us Jesus brings his presence to the whole of humanity in its loneliness and grief.

What is significant for us is that anything less than this Real Presence would not satisfy the yearning emptiness in our human hearts. When we are grieving or lonely we do not want to hear someone say, ‘my thoughts are with you’, we want them to be here in the room with us to comfort and encourage us because it is his really being with us, which is important.

Jesus in the Eucharist is waiting for you on the altars and in the tabernacles of every Catholic church. You can come to receive him at Mass where he calls you to be present with him among his people. You can come alone at any time to kneel before his body reserved in the tabernacle. There is silence and stillness he will speak to your heart. You do not have to bear your burdens alone.

In his letter for the Year of the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II described the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist as ‘magnetic’. It is a presence so strong that draws our lives individually and humanity as a whole into its orbit. We go out from the Eucharist to serve Jesus in the world, but he always draws us back again. He is with us always. We are never alone. “Stay with us, Lord Jesus.”

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.