Corpus Christi and Coming Home! - June 6, 2021

Happy Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)!!! A special welcome back to anyone returning to Mass this weekend as well. As I hope you’ve heard, this is the weekend where the dispensation to the obligation to attend Mass for Catholics in the Archdiocese is lifted. So in other words, we go back to normal, and Catholics here are again required to go to Mass. However, for those who are sick, have serious health concerns, compromised immunity, or other genuinely serious concerns about risks, they are not obliged to attend Mass. But let’s instead talk about the Eucharist and coming home. Prince of Peace has designated this weekend as a sort of “Homecoming” celebration to officially welcome people back as the pandemic is retreating here.

My worst experience of a “coming home” was a Christmas when I was in college about 25 years ago. At the end of the Fall semester of my second year, I know my mom was sick, and at some point knew she went into the hospital for it as well. However, between my parents’ downplaying the news and my frantic studying and completing finals, it didn’t sink in until I finally arrived home about a week before Christmas. My homecoming was dark, literally the house unlit. I discovered there were no Christmas decorations up. Worst of all, the house was empty of people. Of course, mom (and dad with her) were in the hospital. I quickly went to see mom then. But that feeling of coming home to nothing was very scary and my normal excitement of Christmas was crushed. My story, don’t worry, turns out OK. We did end up celebrating Christmas in the hospital. Mom did recover after some weeks—she had a very bad case of pneumonia with complications. My mom and dad are still with me up in my hometown.

But, I bring up this story for several reasons. I know so many of you have had worse stories in your life, and some of you in this past year. When we lose someone we love, home is never the same. I also feel like the pandemic was sort of like my bad Christmas homecoming, especially a little over a year ago, when everything, including Mass, shut down. How dark and empty everything was!

But, now, let’s contrast that with what is going on this weekend during our Prince of Peace “Homecoming” and welcome back weekend as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. Instead of darkness and emptiness, we find light and fullness! Literally, the Light of the World, Jesus is here in the Church. Jesus is the fullness of Divinity and humanity who still comes to us every Mass (in a sort of mini-Christmas) in the Eucharist. The only thing incomplete is we want everyone to participate in this, to fill the Church with the light of many joyful countenances! And to that note, I have noticed many returning over recent weeks. So, we must celebrate the feast like the conclusion of the story of the Prodigal Son. Whether we never really left, or are just returning now, the Father urges us to join in. We as a community once were dead, but have come to life again, we were lost, but have been found.

Peace,
Fr. Greg