Here is the Corpus Christi homily of Pope Saint John Paul II from 2002. I was in Rome that year, my first-ever visit to the Eternal City (I’ve since returned twice). I was obliviously backpacking around, not knowing much, but knew it was Corpus Christi. Wandering the streets, I tried to find the Pope, whom I heard was leading the Eucharistic procession. I got lost, and asked a policeman who was directing traffic for directions – I cannot recall his response, which I don’t recall being helpful. So I ran through various side streets until, suddenly and serendipitously, I turned a corner, and there was the great John Paul II, my namesake, in his Popemobile, holding the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance. What a moment! I knelt, adored, and thanked God, as the Holy Father drove by. Here be his words just before he left Saint Peter’s. His presence had a great effect on me, more than I was aware at the time, of which the Pope likely knew nothing, but perhaps does now…
MASS AND EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION
FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
Thursday, 30 May 2002
1. “Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem, lauda ducem et pastorem in hymnis et canticis”: “Praise your Saviour, Zion, praise with hymns and canticles, Christ, your king and shepherd”.
With faith and devotion we have sung these words of the traditional Sequence that forms part of the liturgy of Corpus Christi.
Today is a solemn feast, a feast on which we relive the first Sacred Supper. With a public and solemn act, we glorify and adore the Bread and the Wine become the true Body and true Blood of the Redeemer. “Signs not things are all we see”, the Sequence stresses, but “here beneath these signs lie hidden priceless things”.
2. “Special theme for glad thanksgiving is the lifegiving Bread set before you today“.
Today we are celebrating a solemn feast that expresses the awesome wonder of the People of God:a wonder filled with gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist. In the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus wanted to perpetuate his living presence in our midst in the same form in which he gave himself to the Apostles in the Upper Room. He left to us what he did at the Last Supper and we faithfully renew his action.
According to established custom, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi consists of two moments: the Mass, in which the offering of the Sacrifice takes place and the procession, that manifests the public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
3. “Obedient to his command, we consecrate the Bread and wine, our sacrifice of salvation”. Above all, we renew the memorial of Christ’s Passover.
Days, years and centuries go by, but this most holy act in which Jesus condensed his entire Gospel of love does not pass away. He never ceases to offer himself, the Lamb immolated and risen, for the salvation of the world. With this memorial the Church responds to the command of God’s Word, which we heard in the First Reading: “Remember … Do not forget” (Dt 8,2.14).
The Eucharist is our living Memorial. In the Eucharist, as the Council recalls, “is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself our Pasch and the living bread which gives life to men through his flesh – that flesh which is given life and gives life through the Holy Spirit. Thus men are invited and led to offer themselves, their works and all creation with Christ …” (Presbyterorum ordinis, n. 5).
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