THE THE BODY OF THE LORD. A FESTIVAL TO BE REDISCOVERED IN A TIME WHEN EUCHARISTIC CULT SEEMS "OUT OF FASHION" IN THE STREETS DESERTED BY SHEPHERDS AND OCCUPIED BY "SACRED PROCESSIONS" OF THE "POLITICALLY CORRECT"

We are sorry to note - as evidenced by numerous messages from priests who arrived on our Island of Patmos in the past days - that in many of our cities by now the procession of The body of the Lord it has become a memory. Even the Diocese of Rome did not have its procession this year: on the other hand, on the eve of The body of the Lord however, it was used to carry out the meeting conference on human fraternity entitled Not Alone, which also included the presence of the Holy Father, did not materialize due to the last surgery.

— Liturgical ministry —

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In recent times we really saw more or less everything. Holy Masses celebrated on inflatable mattresses [cf.. WHO, WHO, WHO], on motorcycles or anything else used for altars; with sacred ministers in bathing suits or with clothes that to judge inappropriate for the Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice would be a mere understatement. Holy Thursday reposition altars that, from places that should express love and prayer towards the most precious treasure left to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, which have become a place of outlet for the most extravagant priestly paturnies [cf.. WHO].

It then comes as dew on the fleece in the desert the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, commonly said The body of the Lord, which the Church celebrates on the first Thursday after the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, or the following Sunday. Was written:

“How the Most Holy Eucharist represents the center and summit of all our religious life, as well as the fulcrum of the liturgy, the highest moment of Christian life and the holiest of sacraments, so the holiday of The body of the Lord, apart from Easter and Christmas, it is the most radiant of the liturgical year, because it marks the triumph of the Eucharistic King, and its institution is the most eloquent expression of the religious and ecclesial life of the Middle Ages" (Bernhard Ridder, Ecclesiastical history textbook, Pauline, p. 368).

The origin of this holiday it is traced back historically in the year 1247 in the diocese of Liège, where the bishop introduced this celebration in reaction to the theses of Berengar of Tours (998-1088), according to which the presence of Christ in the Eucharist was not real but only symbolic. The Bishop was inspired by the mystic Saint Juliana of Cornillon (1192-1258), Augustinian nun of Mount Cornillon Convent, who had a vision of the Church as a young man, appeared to her under the guise of a full moon, marked by a dark spot, to indicate the absence of a holiday. Later she had the vision of Christ himself who entrusted her with the task of working to ensure that the feast of the Blessed Sacrament was established, to revive the faith of Christians in the real presence in the Eucharist and to expiate the sins committed against the Eucharistic Sacrament. Become in 1222 prioress of her convent sought advice from the leading theologians of her time (tra cui Jacques Pantaleon, future Pope Urban IV) to request the establishment of the party. This brought the bishop of Liège, Robert of Thourotte (+1246) to call in 1246 a local synod ― because at the time the synods dealt with serious things ... ― which established that from the following year the feast of the The body of the Lord in the diocese of Liège. Incidentally: at the time the bishops had the right to establish liturgical feasts within their own diocese.

In 1264 Pope Urban IV who had already contributed and supported the party of The body of the Lord in Liège, also following the recognition of the Eucharistic Miracle of Orvieto-Bolsena del 1263, with the bubble Pass out of this world, established the solemnity of The body of the Lord for the whole universal Church, raising it to a feast of obligation and fixing its celebration for the Thursday after the Octave of Pentecost. On the Eucharistic miracle of Bolsena-Orvieto, however, we leave the floor to our confrere from Orvieto Marco Nunzi, who is an expert connoisseur [cf.. WHO]. I am interested in underlining some liturgical particularities of this feast:

Eucharistic liturgy. The texts of the readings of the three Masses corresponding to the festive liturgical cycles A, B e C, first of all they present the symbolic figures of the Old Testament concerning the Eucharist such as the manna given as food to Israel in the wilderness, the burnt offerings e i sacrifices of fellowship with the Lord, the blood of the covenant, the bread and wine offered by Melchizedek to Abraham. In the second reading of the same three Masses, the Apostle Paul states that communion with the Body of Christ is an eloquent sign of unity, of intimate friendship and "incorporation" in Christ, as well as faith and complete self-giving to him. The text of the Letter to the Hebrews (B) presents Jesus offering himself to purify our conscience from the works of death in order to serve the living God. In the Gospel passages it comes part of Discourse on the Bread of Life held by Jesus in Capernaum (cf.. GV 6), the last supper of Jesus and the institution of the Eucharist (cf.. MC 14, 12-6. 22-26) and the multiplication of the loaves (cf.. LC 9, 11-17). In particular, the stupendous sequence should be underlined Lauda Sion who sings of Christ the true Bread of Life who “feeds us, it defends us and leads us to eternal goods in the land of the living".

Liturgy of the hours. Beyond the hymns of Put lingua, the Sacred festivals he was born in The word coming from above, unsurpassed in content and musical melody, the psalms of the Office of Readings, of Lauds and Vespers summarize all the sentiments that a believing and loving soul can express to the Lord, who in the Eucharist gives us the eloquent sign of his infinite love for us. The two readings present the Eucharist as the center of the whole history of salvation, which has its preparation in the Old Testament and its full implementation in the New Testament. San Tommaso Aquino, in the second reading, don't hesitate to say

"the Only Begotten Son of God, wanting to make us partakers of his divinity […] became man to lift us to the heights of God […] in fact, he offered his body to God the Father as a victim on the altar of the cross for our reconciliation. He shed his blood making it count as a price and as a lavage because, redeemed from humiliating slavery, we were cleansed of all sins. Because, at last, remain in us a constant reminder of so great a benefit, he left his Body as food and his Blood as drink to his faithful, under the species of bread and wine. Oh, wonderful banquet! What can be more valuable? No sacrament is healthier than this. The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's passion, it is the greatest of all the wonders he wrought, it is the admirable document of his immense love for men» (Opusc. 57, on the Feast of the Body of the Lord, lect. 1-4).

Eucharistic Procession. As we have already said, In order to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Pope Urban IV extended the feast of The body of the Lord to the whole Church. While making no mention in the Bull of a Eucharistic procession, he immediately got into the habit of showing the faithful the Eucharistic Species during a solemn procession with the Blessed Sacrament, which evidently has always stood out for its special importance and significance in the pastoral life of Christian communities. It therefore agrees that, where current circumstances allow it and where the procession can truly be a sign of faith and adoration, it is preserved. In this case it is good that the procession with the Blessed Sacrament takes place immediately after Mass, in which the Host is consecrated and then carried in procession. The songs and prayers that are made along the way, lead everyone to manifest their faith in Christ, solely intent on the light of the Lord (cf.. Rite of Communion outside Mass and Eucharistic Worship, NN. 102 – 104).

Sorry to see - as attested by numerous messages from priests who arrived on our Island of Patmos in the past days - that in many of our cities by now the procession of The body of the Lord it has become a memory. Even the Diocese of Rome did not have its procession this year: on the other hand, on the eve of The body of the Lord however, it was used to carry out the meeting conference on human fraternity entitled Not Alone, which also included the presence of the Holy Father, did not materialize due to the last surgery.

That of Rome is just one example of an elegant episcopal "apology". ― with lots of shrugs to those who instead point out the importance of such a gesture ― to leave our streets and squares to others, most of the time transformed into large open-air trattorias, in this sense it would be enough to take a tour of Piazza del Duomo in Florence to realize it …

Perhaps on this trend of throwing away all our traditions to be "politically correct" it would be better to make a serene but urgent reflection, even if the discomfort and suffering that the priests and consequently the faithful are experiencing in an ever greater form, it would seem to matter little or nothing.

Florence, 11 June 2023

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