Corpus Christi and the Mission Churches

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

Given at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark – 21/22 June 2014

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 John 6:51-58

Introduction

Good morning/ afternoon.  My names are Fr. Deogratias Ekisa.  I am grateful to Rector and the Priests of the Cathedral, for allowing me to speak to you.

A few years ago when I was making an appeal at a parish like this one, I was concerned that because of my foreign accent, the people did not understand my message.  So I asked the Pastor: “Did your people understand my message?”  The Pastor, a nice man, said: “No, I don’t think they understood half of what you said; but they still gave you the money anyway.” I have been practicing to speak more clearly and I hope that today besides being generous, you will also understand what I have to say.

I would like to speak first about today’s feast of Corpus Christi and then secondly about mission work in Uganda.

Scripture and Theology

Today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, traditionally called Corpus Christi, is a special reminder of this most wonderful gift that the Lord Jesus left for his Church on the night before he died.  The Lord wanted to leave us a concrete means of remaining with us, so that every generation of Christians would partake of the fruits of his saving work.  He took bread, gave thanks and gave the bread to his disciples saying: “Take and eat, this is my body.”  And then he took the cup filled with wine, and said: “Take and drink, this is my blood of the new covenant.”  And then he commanded them: “Do this in memory of me.”

For 2000 years the Church has continued to fulfill the command of Our Lord and Saviour, continuing to share the benefits of his saving work for all people.

·        Every Sunday, Catholics gather together to celebrate the Mass, in which, through the hands of the priest, they take bread and wine at the Offertory, they give thanks in the Eucharist Prayer and they share in communion, what is now the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  And we do this, to tap into the source of salvation, for as St. Paul told us: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is a participation in the blood of Christ and the bread that we break, is a participation in the body of Christ.”

·        The Body and Blood of Jesus are so vital for our salvation, that we take them to the sick and elderly who are not able to come to Mass.  And especially those who are about to die, the Body and Blood of Jesus are given as Viaticum, food for the final part of the journey to heaven.  For as the Lord told us: “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

·        Besides the Mass and communion outside Mass, we also continue to acknowledge the source of our salvation, when we adore the Blessed Sacrament.  We do this by adoring the Body of Christ reposed in the Tabernacle or exposed in the monstrance.  Eucharistic processions and congresses put the spotlight on the central place of the Body and Blood of Christ, the saving sacrifice of Christ that they make present for us today.

Mission Application

The Body and Blood of Christ are just as central for the mission church, as it is for the universal Church.  But the mission Church celebrates this gift in ways that respond to our unique needs and with particular problems unique to our situation.

Despite the best efforts of the Church in Uganda, only a small percentage of parishioners attend Mass every Sunday.  About 85% of Ugandans are Christian and about 45% are Catholics.  And so the typical parish in Uganda has about 10,000 parishioners and about 20 mission churches.  Before taking up my current assignment, I was pastor of what would be considered a small parish.  My parish has 4,000 parishioners and 12 mission churches.  Although sometimes I think of myself as superman, I could not celebrate 12 Masses in twelve distant villages on one weekend.  I usually celebrated two or three Masses every weekend and at that rate, the people of the mission Churches have Mass about once every two months.

And yet for them, this occasional visit by the priest is a great treasure.  This is the time when they celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass and receive the Body and Blood of Christ.  This is also the occasion for me to celebrate the other sacraments, confession before Mass, anointing after Mass and the sacraments celebrated during Mass.  On one occasion I celebrated, in one Mass, a wedding, baptized about 60 children and gave first Holy Communion to about 100 children.  As you can imagine, the Mass was quite long, three hours in fact.  The length was caused not only by the many ceremonies, but also because the homily was rather long; after all, I have to speak about all these sacraments and say the things I need to say for the next two months.  But do not worry about today’s homily; Father advised me that if I spoke less, you would be more generous.

Celebrating communion services is the next best thing for those village communities that are far from the main Church.  The catechist, who not only teaches catechism, but is also like the unofficial pastor of his or her village, usually travels to the main church, to bring back communion to his village for the Sunday communion and scripture service.  He also brings communion to the sick in his village, when the priest cannot come to them.

Unfortunately, the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament in adoration can only take place at the main Churches, which have a tabernacle and exposition only in those few parishes that might have a monstrance.

Mission Appeal

I come to you today, to appeal for your help, so that we can carry out the mission of the Church.  Your donation in today’s second collection will help us ensure that more people can receive the Body and Blood of Christ, as well as have their other needs met.  Let me give you a few examples of what we do with your help.

1.    Your donation of $100 enables us to buy a bicycle for a catechist to travel back and forth from his village and main parish church.  Your donation of $2,000 enables us to buy a small motorbike for priest to minister to all his parishioners, even those in far flung off villages of his parish.

2.    Your donation of $50 to $100 a month enables us to pay for our young men who are studying for the priesthood.  When these young men are eventually ordained, we currently have about 50 of them, they will reduce the ratio of parishioners to priest, which is currently about 10,000 to one, to a much more manageable number – so that parishioners have closer and more regular access to Mass and the sacraments.

3.    Many of our village churches could soon become full-fledged parishes, if we have more priests, but also if we can put up a church-building.  Our pleasant tropical weather allows us to build a small village church for as little as $10,000.

There are many more things we do, such as providing clean drinking water, running schools and clinics, in short, providing also for the material needs of our people, like the Lord provided manna for the people of Israel in the desert.  For when our people pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask: “Give us this Day, our daily bread,” they are asking not just for the Body and Blood of Christ, they are also asking that the Lord meet their basic needs of food, medicine, education and shelter.  You can see how we attempt to meet these all these needs in the photographs displayed in the narthex or speak to me after Mass.

Conclusion

But the photographs alone and even my words are not enough to show you how much of a difference, your generous donations make in the lives of the people in Uganda.  And that is why I am extending an invitation to you to come and visit us in Uganda.  I promise we shall not put you to work, unless you want to.

·        But you will have the opportunity to pray with parishioners in a small village church, whose roof has been put on with your help.

·        You will see school children running up and about in the sisters’ school, happy to have an education and promise of a bright future, thanks to you.

·        You will see the mothers who have brought their sick children to our parish clinic, relieved that their children are getting some medical care, at a clinic built and supported with your help.

I would like to end by asking you for the most important thing, your prayers.  Please pray for the safety and success of the work of the missionaries throughout the world and in Uganda in particular.  This work belongs to God and that is why we must ask God to help us.  I also promise you the grateful prayers of the Ugandan people, whose lives are made a little better, thanks to your help.  Thank you again for your warm hospitality and welcome.  May God continue to bless you.

Christ continues to be among us, in Word and Sacrament

Homily for Ascension Year A 2014

Acts 1:1-11 • Eph 1:17-23 • Matthew 28:16-20

Introduction

Imagine a very successful businessman or woman, a CEO of a big company, or the founder of a family business built from scratch; now he or she are in their senior years and are about to retire.  Perhaps they have been grooming the successor for some years now, teaching them the ropes and trying them out on a few challenging tasks to see if they are up to it.  Now he or she hands the reins to the successor and says: “carry on now – take the company to greater heights.”

My friends, let me suggest that the Ascension of Jesus, which we celebrate today can be compared to the retirement of this CEO.  Jesus is the retiring CEO, the apostles are his successors, and the business is the Church.

Scripture and Theology

After he returns to the Father in heaven, Jesus will no longer walk the earth in the flesh.  After the Ascension, Jesus is present in the world through the Church.  He has done his part; he has laid the foundation for the Kingdom of God; now it is the turn of his close disciples to continue the work.

That is why he told the apostles: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).”  This verse, known as the Great Commission is Jesus’ way of saying: “I am no longer here in person; you have to finish the job I have started, and do it in my name, make me proud.”

What does this great commission really say?  The commission of making disciples of all nations seems to have two main tasks: “Baptising them” and “teaching them.”  That is why Church has these two main instruments for fulfilling the job given to us by Jesus: Sacraments and the Word.

·        Through the sacraments, especially the sacrament of Baptism, in which people are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we are reborn and made children of the Father.  And if we persist in faith and charity, living up to our baptismal promises, we can hope to be counted among those whom Jesus invites into the Kingdom of the Father. If baptism is the sacrament that opens the door for us to discipleship, the other sacraments either strengthen our discipleship like Confirmation, the Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders, or they repair it when our discipleship is weakened by sin and illness, like the sacraments of Confession and Anointing of the Sick.  And so in celebrating the Sacraments today, we are simply fulfilling the instruction of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

·        The second task is teaching.  Jesus commands that the apostles make disciples of all nations by teaching them to observe all those things that he has taught them.  And indeed Jesus has taught a lot of things, and if I listed them all we would be here until the cows come home.  Suffice to say that we can find all that Jesus taught, not just in the Bible, but in the Catechism, where the successors of the Apostles, the Pope and Bishops, have organized his message according to themes and applied it to today’s situation.  And so whether the Church is teaching in homilies or catechism classes, or whether it is the Pope or the bishops teaching, they are continuing the command of the Master, making disciples for him.

But Jesus is not just throwing the apostles into the water and telling them to swim or sink.  Actually he has given them the tools for the task at hand in two ways.

·        First, for three years as they have lived with Jesus, he has exposed them to the great events of our salvation. They have heard him teach them, they have seen his miracles and example of prayer and compassion, they have seen his suffering, death and resurrection.  And now tells them to preach all these things to nations. Like the retiring CEO who has been grooming his successor for several years, Jesus has indeed groomed the apostles.

·        The second thing Jesus gives them is the promise that he will continue to be with them; we heard him say: “I am with you always, until the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).” Of course he is present all the time and everywhere, since he is the Risen Lord, who is no longer bound by space and time.  But he is also present in the Holy Spirit, who is the other advocate.  We can think of Jesus as that retired CEO whose involvement in the business is behind the scenes; perhaps he is a member of the board or even he is just a phone call away, when advice and wisdom is needed.  Jesus too is only a prayer away, as he continues to guide the Church.

Christian Life

The Apostles did indeed carry out the great commission given them by Jesus.  They made disciples, not only in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, but indeed to the ends of the earth.  They in turn passed on this baton of faith to their successors who continued his work until today, until the Good News reached even here in Atlanta, Georgia.

My friends this two-pronged approach of Word and Sacrament, continues to be the Catholic way of bringing people to Jesus even today.  Other Christian churches, believe in just the Word and perhaps baptism; but we Catholics believe in both Word and Sacrament, as the means of building up the Body of Christ.  Of course the way in which the Word is often clear, because we learn some new thing to believe or we pick up some advice on how to live a good moral life.  What about sacraments; how do they contribute to building the Kingdom of God?

Sacraments are essentially acted words; sacraments put in action, what the Word of God teaches.  In the Old Testament, the sacraments of the Jewish people were the sacrifices of animals and foodstuffs they offered to God.  The sacraments of Jesus have replaced those sacrifices.  They make present for us in a real way, what words only suggest.

·        Think about baptism.  Of course most of us were infants at baptism, but I am sure you have witnessed the baptism of others.  While we can teach all we want about becoming children of God, until we undergo the ritual of our bodies being washed with water, which represents our souls being washed, it is all abstract and theoretical. 

·        Think about your confirmation, when the bishop laid his hand on you and anointed you and said: “Be sealed with the Holy Spirit;” at that moment, you were branded forever as a child of God and given the task of being his apostle and messenger.

·        Think about when you go to confession, and you name your sins and tell God you are sorry and then the priest pronounces those words: “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” making God’s mercy really concrete for you.

Conclusion

My friends, on this Ascension Day, let us go home, not feeling like orphans, like Jesus has abandoned us.  Let us not feel like the apostles who, as we heard, remained there standing and looking at the sky for Jesus who had ascended.

Rather let us be assured that he has left us the Sacraments and the Word, as tools for continuing his work and his presence among us.  And as we celebrate the sacraments and hear his Word, let us also remember that perhaps the best way to live out the Sacraments and to proclaim his Word is by our witness and actions.  As St. Francis is reported to have told his followers: “Teach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words.”  And so, as we continue the work of Jesus, let our mantra as Catholics be threefold: Worship, Word and Witness.