We are now half-way through the Holy Year 2025. In this month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we give thanks for the graces and blessings we have received through our participation in the various Jubilee events so far. Today, being the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we rejoice in the nourishment we receive from the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Devotion to the Eucharist and the Heart of Christ is intimately connected. The Lord’s Body and Blood is food for our journey as pilgrims of hope on mission in the world.
Pope Leo XIV took up the Petrine Ministry just over a month ago. With that, the Holy Father has continued to lead the Church in this Jubilee of Hope, appealing for peace in the world, so that we could live this time of grace in unity and love.
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| The Eucharist - Food for the Journey |
One of the most moving events so far was the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly earlier this month. In his message of unity, unity born of the Eucharist, the Pope reminded us that 'in the family, faith is handed on together with life, generation after generation. It is shared like food at the family table and like the love in our hearts. In this way, families become privileged places in which to encounter Jesus, who loves us and desires our good, always'.
Vocations to the priesthood and religious life grow within the family. On a personal note, I recall my first Holy Communion twenty-five years ago during the Great Jubilee Year 2000 on the feast of Corpus Christi. I give thanks to God for my family, especially my mother and grandmother, who led me to the Altar on that day. I think of Fr Sean Tucker, now retired in Ireland, from whose consecrated hands I received the Blessed Sacrament for the first time. I see this moment as one of the major sign-posts along my vocational journey.
Like all priests, borrowing the words of St Monica to her son, St Augustine, I can now remember my loved ones at the Altar of God wherever I am, especially those who have died. The "theologian of Corpus Christi", St Thomas Aquinas, in the Office composed specially for this feast, says that the Eucharist '...is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all'.
And so I am looking forward to the Jubilee of Priests which will take place this Friday, 27 June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This will be a wonderful opportunity to renew our Eucharistic faith, so that united in the Lord Jesus, we may continue to offer ourselves for the mission that has been entrusted to each one of us.
A couple of days ago, the Vatican announced the much-anticipated news about the Canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis. This teenage cyber-apostle of the Eucharist, and the soon-to-be first millennial saint, was very much in touch with the reality of our Christian journey – it leads to heaven. In fact, he said that the Eucharist is the highway to heaven. Without the strength of this heavenly food, we cannot live as pilgrims of hope. Jesus, truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, is our hope.
Since we now are moving into the Roman summertime, many pilgrims will be descending on the Eternal City. I am looking forward to welcoming a special group from home. Our universities will be closed for three months here. So, those of us who, as St John Paul II wrote in his Spiritual Testament, carry out the pastoral work of academics, will spend the holidays guiding pilgrims, doing theological research and assisting in parishes. Perhaps this blog will also take a little "summer break", unless something really exciting happens - it is the Jubilee after all!
Happy Feast Day!
The Pilgrim
Fr Runaine James Radine
Corpus Christi 2025
