On Holy Thursday we commemorated Christ’s Institution of the Blessed Eucharist. An event of such significance that Pope John Paul 2 made it the fifth decade of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.

It serves as an introduction to Our Lord’s Passion and Death

in the Sorrowful Mysteries. 

Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, we celebrated the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity - the sublime mutual Love of the Three Persons

in the One Godhead.

This Sunday we celebrate the Love of the Second Person, Jesus Christ, who promised his disciples (and hence us) that he would be with them/us till the end of time. 

The celebration of weekly Mass was an established practice of the early Christians, as is testified in the writings of St Justin Martyr (d165 in Rome: Feast day 1st June). It was not till the 13th century that the external cult of the Blessed Eucharist began. It started with a humble and persecuted nun in Liege, later to become St Juliana of Cornillon (c1192-1258). She lived in turbulent times when church/state relations were a shambles. Juliana had visions she thought indicated that public veneration of the Holy Sacrament would promote church and social cohesion. 

A local Canon championed her cause to the Archbishop of Liege who went on to become Pope Urban IV in 1261. In 1264, six years after Juliana’s death, he instituted The Solemnity of Corpus Christi to be celebrated on the Thursday after Pentecost.

Later it was to be after Trinity Sunday, and even after that, in the liturgical reforms of 1969, under Paul VI, all bishops had the option to transfer the feast to the following Sunday, as we do in Australia. 

Judging from what we hear and see in the Mainstream Media we live in turbulent times, more complicated than those of the 13th century but I’m not so sure the external cult of the Blessed Eucharist could have

much of an effect on a predominantly secular society.

Except maybe to boost the morale of practising Catholics.

Maybe the best we can do is to apply to ourselves the words in today’s

Prayer over the Offerings at Mass. 

Grant you Church, O Lord, we pray,

The gifts of Unity and Peace,

Whose signs are to be seen in Mystery

In the offerings we here present

Through Christ Our Lord. Amen 

Our gifts of Bread and Wine

Will be changed into

the Body and Blood of Christ.

We are to become other Christs,

                                   Agents of Unity and Peace.                                                 

              Joe Quigley