Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

This past Thursday was the Feast of Corpus Christi which is the yearly commemoration and celebration of the gift of Holy Communion. It is a celebratory feast that echoes Maundy Thursday in its marking of the Last Supper and the First Eucharist but, obviously, it ends differently.

Maundy Thursday ends with the stripping of the Altar and the final, heartbreaking words, are “and they all deserted him and fled.” It braces us and indicts us in what is to come on Good Friday. It is the feast which launches the mysteries of the Triduum, the three holy days, that take us into the midst of the ancient story.

In some ways, Corpus Christi is about what’s next. If Maundy Thursday tells us how it all began, Corpus Christi is our chance to see how it’s going. How are we grateful for this Communion? When do we take it for granted? When do we appreciate its mysteries most deeply? How can we let it feed us more fully and yet leave us hungrier?

It is a Feast that should leave us hungry in some way. It challenges us to go more deeply — to offer our selves, souls, and bodies to God. It compels us to mark where we have gone astray and to remember the endless mercy of God. It teaches us to see Christ in the simplest, most mundane form, in Bread. It invites us to see him in other places where we still might find grace — in the poor and in the widow, orphan, and refugee.

It should leave us hungry for a deeper Communion. It should make us want to find the source of this boundless Grace. It should invite us to look to our left and right and see those whom Christ has called our brother and sister.

How is God making you hungry this Corpus Christi? How is he drawing you more fully and more deeply to himself and to the world around you? If Maundy Thursday ends with the disciples deserting and fleeing then how will we change the ending at Corpus Christi? How will we follow? How will we love him? How will we be faithful?

How can we go in peace to love and serve the Lord after we’ve received his invitation, come to his Table, and done as he’s commanded, taken and eaten, this week?

Fr Robert