Celebrating ordination of new priests and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Next weekend will be wonderful for the local Catholic Church as well as the Universal Church. June 1, Bishop McManus will ordain new priests at St. Paul’s Cathedral for lifelong service to the people of the Diocese of Worcester.

And June 2, all our local parish churches and those across the world will celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. In the belief of Catholics, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass. And on this solemnity (a solemnity is the highest-ranked feast) the Church is especially thankful for so great a gift.

Corpus Christi will be marked by many outdoor processions in our parishes where priests will carry the Blessed Sacrament and will be joined by numerous parishioners in doing so.

There’s a special relationship between the ordinations and Corpus Christi. Without the priesthood there is no Mass. And the Mass itself forms the priest. What a joy it is for priest and layperson to witness the miracle that occurs on the sacred altar every day as bread and wine become something holy.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave two sacraments, priesthood and Eucharist, at the Last Supper. He joined them forever. They are celebrated on Holy Thursday.

As for Corpus Christi, Catholics have been celebrating this feast since the year 1246. That’s 778 years! In a particular way we remember the living and continuing presence of Jesus to us, under the signs of bread and wine, which become the Lord’s own body and blood.

The Eucharist unites us to God, of course. That’s first and foremost. But it also joins us to each other. One of the prayers the priest will offer tomorrow is this: “Grant your Church, O Lord, the gifts of unity and peace whose signs are to be seen in mystery in the offerings we here present.” This means that we, the people, are to become what the offerings of bread and wine are, a single whole made up of individual units. We’re to become one and live in peace.

The Eucharistic bread is composed of small kernels of wheat. They represent all of us. No two kernels are identical. It takes thousands of individual kernels of wheat, ground together, to make three cups of flour. And, those cups, baked, make a single loaf of bread. You can’t see the individual units anymore. They’ve all passed into that single loaf.

When we pray, “Grant your Church the gifts of unity and peace” this is what we’re supposed to do, become “one bread,” one community of faith characterized by our love for one another.

It takes 550 grapes to make a single bottle of wine. Each individual grape is a thing of beauty. When they’re pressed together, they make a single fluid essence, wine. The individuality of each grape is lost in the process as it makes something even more wonderful: wine. The many become one.

St. Paul wrote, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” Becoming one, our unison is the pivotal result which the Mass enables.

All our friendships and loyalties are to be mingled when we receive the Eucharist, the union of people in Christ ... meaning: husband and wife, become one in Christ; mother and child, one in Christ; priest, religious and laypeople, all joined in Christ; every ethnic group, one in Christ; rich and poor, one in Christ; male and female, all now one in Christ.

When we come to receive Holy Communion, we might dwell on a single host we’re going to receive, Jesus Christ coming into our bodies and souls. That’s fine and true. But we should also remember this: All those hosts in the ciborium held by the priest represent one Christ, waiting to give himself to all of us. The Lord gives all of himself to each of us, that each of us may be one with everyone else.

When we remember that, and strive for that, then bickering in families begins to disappear, feuds cease, neighborhood problems get smoothed over, and even the nations lay down their weapons and live in peace. As we go to the Mass let us become that people of peace! May we also pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Africa and many other places that now experience war.

And congratulations to Fathers Luke Johnson and Stephen Mullaney to be ordained to the priesthood!

Monsignor Thomas J. Sullivan is the pastor of Christ the King Church in Worcester.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Keep the Faith: Celebrating two sacraments ...