WEBSTER – Catholics can do something about the darkness in the world – because they receive Jesus in the Eucharist.
That’s what Father Javier Julio, pastor of St. Louis Parish, told his parishioners and members of the other two Catholic parishes in town as they celebrated the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) Sunday.
The people came together for eucharistic adoration, Benediction and a picnic, after Masses at their own churches.
St. Joseph Basilica held a procession with the Host in the monstrance to four outdoor altars on the church grounds, where they adored Jesus, present in the Host in the monstrance, said Father Grzegorz Chodkowski, pastor there.
They then returned to the church, where they continued adoration. Clergy and parishioners of St. Louis and Sacred Heart of Jesus parishes joined them there, arriving via Corpus Christi processions from their own churches. The joint service that drew more than 150 people included songs - and reflections by the pastors - in Polish, English and Spanish, the parishes’ languages.
Father Chodkowski told The Catholic Free Press about his reflection, given in Polish: the people come from different cultures, but Jesus is one and wants everyone to be one. He said that with a circle – the shape of the Host – all points on the edge are the same distance from the center. So too, everyone is close to God. He said Jesus in the Eucharist is the perfect way to unite Catholics.
“Let’s all celebrate the unity of all Christians,” celebrate being the mystical body of Christ, he said, when announcing the free picnic for the three parishes on St. Joseph’s grounds.
Father Adam Reid, Sacred Heart’s pastor, told The Catholic Free Pree he was delighted the three parishes came together for Corpus Christi for the second time in recent years; this was reflective of efforts to unite them.
In his reflection in English he noted that listeners were from various nations, and that political ideologies flourish and drift away, but Jesus, present in the Eucharist, remains.
“The world is going through a moment of darkness, when brothers and sisters kill each other” even in the land where Jesus was born, Father Julio said in his reflection in English and Spanish. “What can I do?” people ask.
“A lot,” he replied.
“The Church ... we have become a light under the table,” he said. “We don’t go out” to show Christ’s light. “The world needs to see him. ... We come to church on Sundays and that’s it.”
But we should “come to church on Sundays and receive him” and go out to show Christ’s light to those who don’t come to church, he suggested.
“Jesus Christ is here in his body, soul and divinity,” he said. “We have received him. ... He’s in us. ... The Eucharist is the center of our lives. ... Without the Eucharist we are nothing. With the Eucharist we can do anything. Look at yourself and find Jesus Christ in you. All that mercy ... hope” that’s needed in the world. “Each one of you is a light ... Never stop being that light.”