Every year on the second Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, traditionally known as Corpus Christi. Like the Trinity, this is a mystery of our faith that has survived the test of time. Using human concepts and words, we still struggle to fully understand the mystery of this awesome sacrament.

Remember, at the Last Supper, Jesus shared bread with his disciples, telling them that this bread is his body and that they were to eat this in remembrance of him. As we heard in the gospel, he had told them that he was “the living bread that came down from heaven.” He then assured them that “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

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Every year on the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity. Using human concepts and words, we describe God as a Trinity in order to better understand who God is. Ultimately, while these words and concepts do the best job they can, they are far from being perfect. To explore this mystery, I want to begin with a story that I suspect many husbands and wives can relate to.

On the night of their anniversary, one husband, determined to show his wife how much he loved her, took her to an elegant restaurant for an intimate candlelight dinner. As she sipped champagne, he recited romantic verses, telling her he would climb the highest mountains, swim the deepest oceans, even cross burning deserts for her; how he would slay dragons to protect her; how he longed to sit under her window and sing beautiful love songs to her in the moonlight.

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A Greek philosophy professor ended a lecture as usual by asking if anyone had any questions. Anxious to get to their next class, no one spoke up, until someone asked, “Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?”

The usual laughter followed and people stirred to go. The teacher held up his hands and stilled the room. Seeing that the student was serious, he replied, “I will answer your question.” Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into it and retrieved a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.

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One of my favorite cartoons is Non Sequitur; in one Sunday strip, little Danae finds herself sitting next to an elderly man in the park. The ten year old says, “I gotta tell ya, Mister, …that’s an awful boring tattoo on your arm. It’s just a bunch of numbers.” The old man explains, “Well, I was just about your age when I got it, and kept it as a reminder.” Danae asks, “A reminder of happier days?”

“No,” the man replied sadly. “It’s a reminder of a time when the world went mad. Imagine yourself in a land where your countrymen followed the voice of political extremists who didn’t like your religion. Imagine having everything taken from you, your entire family sent to a concentration camp as slave laborers, then systematically murdered. In this place, they even take your name and replace it with a number tattooed on your arm. It was called the Holocaust, when millions of people perished just because of their faith…”

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We are in the midst of the Easter season, but the gospel setting today takes us back to the Last Supper. Far from experiencing the joy we associate with Easter, the apostles are distraught. Jesus has been telling them that he is about to leave them. He even told them that one of them would betray him and that Peter would deny knowing him. All their hopes for a new Israel are being dashed. Always the master of pep talks, Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled. He urges them to go on believing in God. “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” He then assures them that he is going to prepare a place for them.

Thomas understandably challenges Jesus. “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Imagine setting out on a journey with no destination in mind. Only when we have a destination can we begin to plot our journey and make use of maps and directions. A journey into the unknown sounds more like a huge gamble that offers us a slim chance of arriving at a desirable destination.

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5th Sunday of EasterRead More »