HANDING IT ON
This weekend we have two great celebrations in our country. It is our national Father’s Day, and it is our Church’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). It strikes me that both of these events are about “handing it on”.
Father’s Day in Europe is celebrated on March 19, which is also the Feast of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary. In our own country, it has been celebrated on the third Sunday of June since 1910. It began when a young woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, who with her 5 brothers was raised by their father alone, attended a Mother’s Day service in a church in Spokane and came up with the idea of having a similar day for Fathers. The purpose was to honor fatherhood and the paternal bonds made between fathers and their children.
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi has been around since the 13th century when St. Julian of Liege convinced her Bishop to have a public celebration in honor of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which would be outside of Mass. In 1264 Pope Urban IV declared this to be a universal event and it was to be celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday (and it still is in some countries) but it is now celebrated in the United States on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday. Many parishes have Eucharistic processions around their local neighborhoods (look for some to take place in Santa Ana and Anaheim this weekend), but most parishes focus this celebration at the weekend Masses.
Now, to “handing it on”. In the second reading for Mass this weekend, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said: “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor. 11:23-25)
It is of vital importance that we hand on what is valuable to us; our knowledge, our experiences, our joys and sorrows, our love and faith, our failures and successes, our hopes and dreams. Handing on to the next generation is what brings richness to all of our lives, context to our present situations, and the promises of a new day to come. Fathers: hand on to your children what you know to be of importance for them to grow into maturity. Sisters and Brothers: hand on to others your faith in Jesus Christ, especially present in Holy Communion. It is in handing on the valuable realities of life that new life grows and flourishes.
Monsignor John Urell
