Corpus Christi

Dear Parishioners,

This weekend we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!  Our Lord at His passion, death, and resurrection became the sacrificial lamb from which we partake in at the new paschal feast.  At the last supper, the memorial of the Jewish Passover, Jesus in anticipation of the fulfillment of his mission became the new sacrifice.  It is from this sacrifice that all people may receive new life and nourishment.  Christians enter into this same sacrifice at each mass.  There the priest, in the person of Christ, says Christ's very words at the Last Supper.  "This is my Body...This is the Blood of the new covenant." (Lk 22:19)  With these divine words, Christ becomes truly present upon the altar: body, blood, soul, and divinity.

St. Justin the Martyr speaking in defense of the faith in the 100s said, "For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, AND BY THE CHANGE OF WHICH our blood and flesh is nourished, IS BOTH THE FLESH AND THE BLOOD OF THAT INCARNATED JESUS." (First Apology, 66)

In 2019, Pew Research Center found that just 30% of U.S. Catholics believe that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ.  The other 70% think that the bread and wine are only symbolic, that it is still only bread and wine while we remember what Jesus did.  These were shocking results to many bishops, priests, and faithful.  These statistics helped to explain some part of why many Catholics have left the Faith for other Protestant communities, agnosticism, atheism, or to become non-affiliated.  One could logically conclude that if I don't believe that Jesus is really present at the mass, then I can go anywhere else to encounter God or God is not really among us.  This situation helped to set into motion the Eucharistic revival in the U.S.A. which culminated in the Eucharistic Congress at Indianapolis this last summer.  For more: check out the website for more information about the Eucharist. http://www.therealpresence.org

This weekend in the United States, parishes are taking up the call to increase devotion to the Blessed Sacrament with preaching, adoration, and processions.  I invite you to join us as we process this Sunday with our Lord to implore that he may bless our parish families of St. Joseph and St. Mary, those who are curious to know Him, the lost and forgotten, and especially those who have walked away. 

May our Lord's Eucharistic Heart prevail and conquer our hearts!

In Christ,

Fr. Luke Fleck