Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting, Pope Emeritus on Corpus Christi Processions By Greg Smisek It’s been my privilege to direct the Archdiocesan Corpus Christi Procession for the past eleven years. One of my early inspirations came from reading an exhortation given by His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as he led the Corpus Christi procession in the city of Munich, back when he was Archbishop there. Mike Bird asked me to encapsulate these reflections for our viewers, and I was happy to oblige. The complete exhortation can be found in God Is Near Us (Ignatius Press, 2003). The man who later would be Pope (and now Pope Emeritus) Benedict XVI reflected on three elements special to the feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ: standing before the Lord, walking with the Lord, and kneeling before the Lord. Standing before the Lord refers to our gathering together either at Mass or another starting point. Yet we don’t simply stand around as so many individuals, but rather our Lord gathers us to Himself and unites us in Himself. This expresses “the inmost meaning of the Eucharist, that we, receiving the one bread, enter into this one heart and thus become a living organism, the one Body of the Lord.” As “the public worship of all those whom the Lord calls,” the Eucharist takes us out of the comfortable confines of our circle of friends and like-minded associates, crosses boundaries, and forms us into a new brotherhood. Standing with and for the Lord reminds us that when we respond to our Lord’s call, we open ourselves up to an encounter and relationship not only with Him, but also with our brothers and sisters in Him. Walking with the Lord constitutes the Eucharistic procession itself, where the bishop or priest carries the Blessed Sacrament outside the church, exposed in a monstrance, typically surrounded by a ceremony crew carrying candles,ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ incense, bells, and a canopy, accompanied by the faithful singing festive songs. This walking with the Lord flows from the Mass. It solemnizes what happens every time we receive the Lord in Holy Communion. “The Lord who has become our bread is thus showing us the way, is in fact our way, as He leads us.” Just as the Lord went before His people in a pillar of cloud and fire during the Exodus from Egypt, “Man finds his way only if he will let himself be led by Him who is Word and bread in one.” Kneeling before the Lord in adoration is the climax of the action. When the procession returns to the church and the Blessed Sacrament has once more been enthroned on the altar, the event concludes with Benediction. Why kneel before the Lord? “If the Lord gives Himself to us, then receiving Him can only mean to bow before Him, to glorify Him, to adore Him.” His Holiness explains that bending the knee in worship and obedience, far from being contrary to our dignity and freedom, actually confirms them. “Only if He is the Creator is freedom the basis of all things; only then can we be free. And when our freedom bows before Him, it is not abrogated but is at that moment truly accepted and rendered definitive.” His Holiness concludes with a tender reminder that the One we kneel before is not only the almighty Creator, but the One who stooped down to us and gave His life for us. “The One whom we adore ... is not some distant power. He has Himself knelt down before us to wash our feet. And that gives to our adoration the quality of being unforced, adoration in joy and in hope, because we are bowing down before Him who Himself bowed down, because we bow down to enter into a love that does not make slaves of us but transforms us. So let us ask the Lord that He may grant us to understand this and to rejoice in it and that this understanding and this joy may spread out from this day far and wide into our country and our everyday life.” Please join us for the Archdiocesan Corpus Christi Procession on Sunday, June 22, at 2:00 p.m., led by Archbishop Nienstedt. We will gather and adore at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and walk with the Lord across Hennepin Ave. and through Loring Park. An ice cream social follows. For more information, visit WalkWithHim.org or call (651) 239-8574. Please continue to support SMB in these summer months with a financial contribution if possible.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 02:18:30 +0000
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