Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

(after a short 2-week hiatus during our Italian pilgrimage, I returned to celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi at the parish.  Here, first, are some of my reflections given at Mass; following, is a brief history of the development of this week’s solemnity)

Guilt by Association

When I was young, my parents–as well as the parents of all of my friends–always wanted to know who we were hanging around with and what we were up to.  Positively stated, they would chide, “show me who your friends are, and I’ll show you who you are”; negatively put, “there’s guilt by association”.  In other words, what–and who–we surround ourselves with is very important in our overall development, maturity, growth and influence.  Yes, clearly the environment in which we live and move and have our being is significantly influential in forming us as persons throughout our lives.

The Corpus Domini procession, in a miniature from one of the liturgical codices of Santa Maria del Fiore (15th century).

 

In our first reading from the Book of Exodus, Moses associates the people with not only the law of Yahweh, but now the covenant He is offering them: he sprinkles the people with blood as a sign of their new-found pact.  But, clearly, the blood of bulls sprinkled upon the people did not effect any substantive change within the people.  But now, God the Father offers a new covenant, one ratified by His Son’s own offering of His Sacred Body & Blood which, once ingested, can form a new and divine liveliness within us.  Yes, as Christ’s Body and Blood mixes and associate within our own, the spark of the Divine is again rekindled, is again enlivened and strengthened.  It is in this new covenant, that we can then rejoice on today’s Solemnity: this Body and Blood of Christ the Lord brings us closer to our divine call and, not merely as individuals, but as God’s holy people…the Body of Christ in our midst.

Let us all be ‘guilty’ by our deeper and livelier association with the Body and Blood of Christ: let our maturity and growth in holiness come about anew today and always.  Amen.

 

Historical Commentary

Every year, sixty days after Easter, the Church celebrates “Corpus Domini”: a religious solemnity in honor of the Eucharist (the ‘body’ – corpus – of Christ in the sacramental sign of bread): an observance that first developed in Italy the thirteenth century and in 1263 was extended by Pope Urban IV to all of Christian Europe. In Florence as elsewhere, from that period the feast has been celebrated in solemn fashion, with a majestic procession in which the Eucharistic bread is borne through the city streets in a glass container know as a ‘monstrance’, which allows people to see the consecrated bread wafer. This procession acquired ever greater importance with the passage of time. Originally the celebration was limited to the interior of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella. It took place after Vespers, with the participation of the Bishop, the Cathedral clergy, the City authorities, the populace and representatives of the lay confraternities.

After the Council of Vienne (1311-1312), held during the pontificate of Pope Clement V, the City Government decided to make the celebration public, increasing the solemnity of Corpus Domini by bearing in procession with the Eucharist relics of the saints.

The church of Santa Maria Novella was then the biggest in Florence, the new Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore being still under construction on the site of the old duomo of Santa Reparata.

Even so, the number of people taking part became so great that the Dominican church could not contain them, and the celebration was held outside, in the city streets.

When the new Cathedral was nearly complete, the Chapter of Canons began celebrating the rites there, and insisted that the Eucharistic procession begin from the Cathedral. There arose a lengthy dispute between the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella, supported by the Dominican Archbishop Saint Antoninus (+1459), and the Cathedral clergy. The dispute ended in 1458 with a papal bull of Pius II, who established that the procession should indeed start from Santa Maria del Fiore. Emerging from the Cathedral, the cortège passed through the Baptistery, went to Piazza della Signoria and thence to Santa Maria Novella, where one of the Cathedral Canons said Mass, returning finally to Santa Maria del Fiore. The tradition of Mass at Santa Maria Novella lasted until 1920.

In the sixteenth century, after the fall of the Florentine Republic, the Medici grand dukes took part in the procession in their princely regalia, thus conserving and increasing the magnificence of the occasion. They encouraged citizens to adorn the facades of those houses before which the procession passed with tapestries, ornamental hangings, flowers and garlands, and later forbade the movement of pedestrian and carriage traffic along the processional route.

This solemn festival occupied the whole city. The preparations began three days before the feast itself, when people hung the street awnings that would shelter participants from rain or direct sunlight, and adorned the shop facades with red and yellow bunting.

On the Feast Day, the procession unfolded with great pomp. First came the children, then the lay confraternities, then friars and monks of the different religious orders, then the clergy of San Lorenzo and of the Cathedral. Finally came the Archbishop, carrying the Eucharist in a monstrance under a baldachin (a portable canopy). The rich baldachin in cloth of gold, called “of the Republic”, used for centuries on this occasion, was in fact made and paid for by the Florentine Republic. Several days before the Feast, the City Administration entrusted it to the Cathedral Chapter. Unfortunately the tragic flood of November 4, 1966, nearly destroyed it. Since then it has not been used; the City has though restored it and given it in charge to the Opera del Duomo.

All the city’s magistracies and the heads of the guilds also took part, accompanied by the soldiery and by musicians. The processional route was strewn with flower petals and laurel leaves, which citizens sold in Piazza del Duomo for the occasion. When the procession ended, the festival continued in the city streets where stands selling sweets and drinks were set up. This solemn festival has never been neglected by the people of Florence, not even for very grave reasons such as inclement weather, wars and sieges.

 

Future Celebrations at our Parish

Here are some pictures of the graphics composed and filled with flowers, crushed seeds, nuts and spices decorating the routes for the sacred procession…maybe these will inspire our procession next year?

Adversity calls forth, perfects, improves…and proves…the presence of virtue in our lives.

For example, I might think myself physically strong, but until I successfully lift something significantly heavy, I’m not convinced or sure that I really am strong. Or, I might think I’m a pretty good golfer, but when my scores are consistently higher than 110, I’m not really a good golfer, am I? And I might think I’m courageous, but unless courage is called forth from me, I really can’t say for sure that I really am courageous. Get it?  Adversity presents opportunities that can demonstrate, and prove, the reality and authentic presence of virtue.

Well, today our Scripture readings are encouraging us to appreciate, understand and adopt the virtue of love. “Love one another” is our Master’s directive. So what is this “love”? Here’s a pretty good definition: LOVE IS “desiring the Good for the other without counting the cost to one’s self.” Yes, Love is a movement of my interior being which longs for another/others to be God-like, no matter how hard it is for me to assist them in accomplishing this holiness or goodness.

A few caveats: first, I know that I love lots of various people throughout my everyday life, and I’m also aware of their love for me, but that’s easy–there’s no challenge really to love those who love us, is there? Second, consider how we love when it’s not easy; when it’s dangerous, painful, costly, uncomfortably, etc. What about when someone really and truly hates you? What if someone gossips about you? What if someone tells a hurtful thing about you–whether true or not–to others in order to harm you? What if someone hates you so deeply that they avoid all contact or interaction with you? Now THAT’s adversity! And that’s when love is proven and perfected in us.

As I grow a bit older, I have been blessed with a few opportunities to experience such instances of adversity and I’ve finally been able to love. How? Clearly not by my own inner strength or core goodness…it’s just too hard. But, realizing (and depending on) Christ’s ongoing forgiveness of my sins, my faults, my limitations…and grateful for His love, I am then able to share what I already possess: Christ’s love.

Yes, His command is that we love one another…”as I have loved you”. Here’s the challenge: when adversity strikes, am I able to truly love as Christ loves? If so, thank the Good Lord! If not, this is our invitation to accept–AND SHARE–the love Christ has for each and every one!

So, as we close out this Easter Day, we might be wondering: beyond the marvelous, glorious gifts of salvation from sin (the crucifixion of Jesus) and redemption (the resurrection of Christ from the dead), are there other affects borne from the Paschal Mystery…affects that we can experience even now in our everyday?  All we need do is ponder the Sacred Scriptures we hear proclaimed this weekend in our Sacred Liturgies.

Yes, on this Second Sunday of Easter–the last day of the Easter Octave–we see various, literally, tangible affects shared with the community of believers after Christ’s Resurrection:  “Peace” given to the disciples; faith “proven” for a doubting Apostle; singularity of mind and heart within the people who have faith; trusting generosity among sisters and brothers…all in the name of the Risen Christ.

Alleluia!

Easter Vigil in the Holy Night (2012)

Since last SundayPalm Sunday of the Passion of the Lordand flowing profoundly during these last days, each of us have been struck by very physical happenings and experiences:

• from walking and waving palm branches commemorating His entrance into that Holy City, to the oils being blessed and shared with us, that we might be anointed with His balm throughout our days;
• from the Lord washing our feet in loving service, to receiving His Body and Blood as food for eternity;
• from reposing with Him in the garden, to going out with Him to Calvary where He was offered to death on a tree;
• from His broken body taken down from the Cross to being laid in a tomb…His last breath spent, His last act completed…or so it seemed.

All of these physical happenings have had their effect on us: we moved, we walked, we heard, we sang, we saw, we prayed, we listened, we pondered and we made silence.  The experiences of these last days have haunted us, enriched us, and blessed us.  And now?  …now:

• we awake to see a glorious, holy fire roaring in the dusk;
• we watch as His Light illumines the darkness that surrounded us;
• we hear as stringed instruments and pipes announce He is Risen;
• we wash in the waters of baptism, renewed and refreshed;
• the balm of this great news anoints our hearts with the consolation and joy that, “He has been raised from the dead!”;
• our eyes see the newness of His Church;
• our nostrils smell the sweetness of our praise;
• our souls leap with every key and strum of our choir!

Yes, He is Risen!  And as powerful and strange as these last days have been, how powerfully new our future days can now be.  You see, only now do we have a hopeborne of faiththat we, too, will never die.  Christ, by His rising, has now changed forever the course of all human history: He, now, has become the gateway for our own eternal life.  He became a man so that by dying a man’s death, He would be one with us.  His nature is thus so bound up with ours.  And Hethe manrose, by His power as God, and in His nature bound with ours, He invites us to rise with Him.  How wondrous a gift…a gift that brings a final experience for each of us who believe: we experience a deep, a humbling, a most powerful gratitude for the gift of life offered eternally for each of us who believe.

Finally, recall that the first apostles heard the encouragement of the three women who visited the angel at the tomb, re-told in tonight’s gospel.  From that great news, too, we now hear Him beckoning, we now see Him alive, we now offer Him praise and thanksgiving for the dawn of eternal life has risen.

Alleluia!

A triptych is an artistic series of three panels that fold together, work together simultaneously to demonstrate a singular beauty.  They are often able to open and close, revealing even more depth of meaning.  You may have seen one before: maybe of Christ’s crucifixion in the center, with Mary his mother on one of the winged side panels, and John the Evangelist on the other winged side.

Anyway, years ago when I was in seminary, Pope John Paul II gave a stirring reflection on the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Suppera reflection replete with depth and imagery.  He spoke of the evening’s ritual and Scriptures as a kind of triptych:

with the Institution of the Eucharist in the center panel (tonight’s second reading), flanked by the Old Testament’s pre-figuration in the paschal lamb on one wing (tonight’s first reading), and brotherly love and service on the other winged side (tonight’s gospel story).

You see, what Christ is doing on this night, was pre-figured in the Old Testament Passover feast heard in our first reading.  And when He celebrates it on this very evening, He replaces the one-year old lamb and offers Himself in its stead.  Absolutely: no animal flesh or blood would be able to save us from the Passover of death, rather One like us would need to offer His flesh and His blood; God would have to offer His own Son in order to expiate sin, in order to restore the just friendship between God and Man.  And so the third part of the triptych, would then be the results of the pre-figurement and the fulfillment: that, loving service would now be His followers’ aim, purpose and mission…in order to bring His saving work to all.

So, it appears a natural question comes to mind tonight: has it worked?  Has what was pre-figured…has what was fulfilled…has what was commanded had any effect in us?  In other words, have we gained at all from Christ’s evening Supper?

John’s gospel stated, “He loved His own in the world, and He loved them to the end.”  The Eucharist now, is the permanent sign of God’s love, the love that sustains our journey to full communion with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.  Yes, His actions that night continued His saving work…we have the evidence of His great love, and we see that love blossom when we live out the mystery during these three days…and always.

As we pause this evening to adore the Blessed Sacrament in its repose, and as we meditate on the mystery of the Last Supper and the self-emptying gift of service offered to us by Christ Jesus, may each of us feel immersed in the ocean of Love that flows from God’s heart.