SUNDAY OF CORPUS CHRISTI – 2020

Ø  Once the Easter time is over after the celebration of Pentecost, the liturgy takes us again to the ordinary time. 

Ø  However the first two Sundays of the ordinary time which follow Pentecost, are dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity and to the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Ø  Today I invite us to meditate from the heart, allowing our feelings to blossom and so help us to dream in this wonder made by Christ out of love.   

Ø  Allow our heart to be enkindled, let us fall in love with Jesus to be able to feel what his heart felt when he left us the Eucharist, his real presence among us.   

Ø  We will not reflect on all the readings as we do every week, but I invite all of us  to meditate on the sequence.   

Lauda Sion Salvatorem is a sequence prescribed for the Roman Catholic Mass of The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  It was written by St. Thomas Aquinas around 1264, at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new Mass of this Feast, along with Pange lingua, Sacris solemniis, Adoro te devote, and Verbum supernum prodiens, which are used in the Divine Office.

The hymn tells of the institution of the Eucharist and clearly expresses the belief of the Roman Catholic Church in the Transubstantiation, that is, that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus during the celebration of the Eucharist.

Lauda Sion is one of only four medieval Sequences which were preserved in the Missale Romanum published in 1570 following the Council of Trent (1545–1563)—the others being Victimae paschali laudes (Easter), Veni Sancte Spiritus (Pentecost), and Dies Irae (Requiem Masses). (A fifth, Stabat Mater, would later be added in 1727.) Before Trent, many feasts had their own sequences.^[2] The Lauda Sion is still sung today, though its use is optional in the post-Vatican II Ordinary form.

I will write the Sequence in bold and the explanations in italic.

Sequence

Laud, O Zion, your salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:

Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.

These two verses invite to praise our Savior and Lord.  
Special theme for glad thanksgiving
Is the quick'ning and the living
Bread today before you set:
Jesus in the Gospel of John c. 6 says that He is the true bread that the Father gives us, as it was also the Father who gave the mana, it was not Moses who gave it to them. Who eats this bread, which is Jesus, will live forever . Jn 6.48   
From his hands of old partaken,
As we know, by faith unshaken,
Where the Twelve at supper met.
When it was evening he came with the Twelve. As they reclined at table and were eating… Mc 14,17-18

Full and clear ring out your chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
From your heart let praises burst:

For today the feast is holden,
When the institution olden
Of that supper was rehearsed.

At the last supper Jesus gives us the memorial of his passion, institutes the Eucharist and he asks us to remember him whenever we get together for the breaking of the bread and for the  drinking  from the cup. Lc 22,19

Here the new law's new oblation,
By the new king's revelation,
Ends the form of ancient rite:

Now the new the old effaces,
Truth away the shadow chases,
Light dispels the gloom of night.

Jesus is the true lamb who takes away the sin, he was prefigured in the paschal lamb that the Israelites sacrificed for the first time the night before the exodus from Egypt. Jesus is he who leads us to true freedom.    Ex 12,43-51
He is the lamb of the book of Revelation, he was slain, he has the marks of the sacrifice but, he is alive and he is the only one who has the key to understand history, he is the only one who can open the book of life, of history, of the seven seals.  Rev. Cap. 5
The new and eternal covenant, words which the celebrant repeats at each Eucharist. Yes Jesus does with his blood, not with the blood of animals, the new covenant, which God had promised us through the mouth  of the prophet Jeremiah.   Jer 31,31 y ss.

What he did at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne'er to cease:

And his rule for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.

This the truth each Christian learns,
Bread into his flesh he turns,
To his precious blood the wine:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said: “Take and eat; this is my body.”  Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood…”  Mt 26,26-28

Sight has fail'd, nor thought conceives,
But a dauntless faith believes,
Resting on a pow'r divine.

Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things are all we see:

Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
Yet in either wondrous token
Christ entire we know to be.

Who so of this food partakes,
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:

Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Eats of him who cannot waste.

Bad and good the feast are sharing,
Of what divers dooms preparing,
Endless death, or endless life

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discernment the body, eats and drinks judgement on himself.   1Cor 11,27-29

When the sacrament is broken,
Doubt not, but believe 'tis spoken,
That each sever'd outward token
doth the very whole contain.

Nought the precious gift divides,
Breaking but the sign betides
Jesus still the same abides,
  Lo! the angel's food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven

 Still unbroken does remain
 

The bread is food for pilgrims, as we all are.   It is bread for the children, the Eucharist is a call to live as children. Jesus with his death and resurrection wants to share his filiation with us. Jesus said to the women  do not be afraid tell my brothers to go to Galilee… And to Mary Magdalene he says: “Go to my brothers and tell them, I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”    Jn 20,17.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.

I am the good shepherd I know my sheep and they know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I give my life for the sheep.  Jn 10, 14-15 (To know in the Bible it is not an intellectual knowledge but a knowledge from experience and of the whole person, this means that there is a profound  intimacy between the two persons)      

You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav'nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.

Father they are your gift to me, I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  Jn 17,24.

CLARETIAN CORNER

Our Founder Anthony Mary Claret and our Foundress María Antonia París spend many ours with the Most Blessed Sacrament, and during these times  they were enlightened by Jesus about their lives and the works that the Lord was entrusting to them, and on the need to surrender to Him.   

Next Saturday June 13 we will celebrate St. Anthony of Padua, which is the saint’s day of Claret and Paris, as well as the priestly ordination of Claret in 1835.    

May both the Founder and the Foundress get for us in this celebration of Corpus Christy an increase of love for the Eucharist and for each one of the human beings who live on this earth with us now.