June 22 - Corpus Christi - The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

 First Reading          :  Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16Psalm                      :  Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
Second Reading      :  1 Corinthians 10:16-17Gospel                     :  John 6:51-58 Today we celebrate the Feast
of the Body and Blood of Christ. One of our Eucharistic Acclamations after
the Consecration is “When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim your
death, O Lord, until you come again.” That is what Paul wrote to the
Corinthians (1 Cor 11:26). How can we say that when we gather for the Eucharist
we proclaim Jesus’ death? When we gather for the Eucharist it is to be an act
of love, reflecting the love of Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross for us.
If we gather for the Eucharist and we really don’t care about each other then
our Eucharist is meaningless. Once again in the same chapter Paul says that our
Eucharist is a shame if we do not love one another. When we gather for the
Eucharist it is to be an act of love, reflecting the love of Jesus sacrificing
himself on the cross for us. Our daily lives must reflect the Eucharist we
celebrate. Each day, we must give of ourselves, pour out our lives in service
and in love of others. How? In small ways — almost unnoticed, but so real and
sometimes not convenient to do. For example: "Daddy, will you come play
with me?" "Mom, will you help me?" The phone rings: "I
wonder if you could help me…" Or "I need to talk to you
because..." An older person in the family: how about a visit, a call or a
letter? In Eucharist, we celebrate here in worship what we must live out there
in daily life. That is why the Eucharist is essential to Catholic belief and
fundamental to Catholic life.  

June 15 - Trinity Sunday : God's Love overflows

 First Reading          :  Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9Psalm                      :  Daniel
3:52-56
Second Reading      :  2
Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel                     :  John
3:16-18 Today is
Trinity Sunday. Our God is not simply one. He is three-in-one. A community of
persons united in love. Therefore, there’s no chance that we’re merely
expressions of God’s neediness. Instead, we’re an expression of God’s love.
Perfect love, which God is, is giving, generous, overflowing. It can’t contain
itself. You and I might understand ourselves, then, as an overflowing of God’s
love. And since we’re made in God’s image, we can say that we’re both
created by overflowing love, and created for overflowing
love. Which makes our existence both a gift, and a possibility-
a possibility to give and receive love the way God does: a perfect love without
conditions, without limits. The Trinity is not something to be argued about or
explained in rational terms but a mystery to be experienced, the mystery of our
own unity in God. It is a sanctifying and mysterious presence, like a bright
cloud with a voice of fire and the fluttering of wings, an indwelling Spirit, a
boundless Light, a presence we manifest in ourselves whenever we invoke the
Holy Trinity in the Sign of the Cross: “In the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.

June 8 - The Solemnity of Pentecost: Transformation

First
Reading          :  Acts
2:1-11 Psalm                     
:  Psalm 104:1,24,29-31,34Second Reading      : 1
Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 Gospel                    
:  John 20:19-23Today we are celebrating
the great Solemnity
of Pentecost. If, in a certain sense, all the
liturgical solemnities of the Church are important, Pentecost is uniquely so.
This is because, having reached the 50th day, it marks the fulfilment of the
event of the Passover, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus through the
gift of the Spirit of the Risen One. The disciples are locked in the upper
room out of fear. But Jesus brings them Peace. The violence of the darkness
which attempted in vain to quench the light has produced peace. Death has
turned into life and peace and thus the disciples’ fear turns in to joy. Here
we find the beginnings of the transformation which the death and resurrection
of Jesus can produce. Pentecost puts an end to fear by calling men and women to
forgiveness. The wholeness and holiness which Jesus’ gift of the spirit has
brought into the lives of the disciples are now available, through them, to the
forgiven sinner.