SUNDAY OF CORPUS CHRISTI – 2023
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 you 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 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 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 for ever . 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. And 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.
Whoso 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,
still unbroken does remain.
Lo!
the angel's food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
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.
Last
Tuesday June 13 we celebrated St. Anthony of Padua, which was the feast 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment