If we are not recollected: Corpus Christi Sermon

We had a rather beautiful Missa Cantanta on Thursday evening, the choir sang the Palestrina Missa Brevis, just a few voices it was quite exquisite. 'Engelond', not me but the football team, were playing in the World Cup and as it is no longer a Holy Day there weren't that many at Mass, after Benediction we sang the Salve and in a gesture of patriotic zeal I recited the Prayer for England. and what Our Lady did was plain for all to see. She does approve of Processions but I don't think she approves of footballing on Corpus Christi.
Anyhow, here is the Corpus Christi sermon preached by Fr Gerrard Hatton, who was in choro. He was ordained three years ago and exemplifies so much that is good about our younger clergy. It is short, pithy and challenging, it is one of the better sermons I have heard recently.

I recently meet a lady who is a missionary in China, she is not catholic but knew a lot about the underground church in China, she told me about the patriot church that does not have the pope, neither do they uphold the belief in the second coming or the holy Spirit, as it power and authority that the government cannot control. Later that day I was listening to pod cast on the liturgy, the speaker said many things but he summed up his talk by speaking about Ignatius Cardinal Kung Pin-Mei of China who was put into prison by the communists for 30 years, as he refused to deny his faith and the authority of pope, he was not allowed to offer Holy Mass, he made spiritual communions and prayed the rosary three times a day, he had been made a cardinal in secret. The speaker noted the red of a cardinal is simply more than a noble colour, but the willingness of these men to shed their blood for the faith in union with the successor of St Peter.

 Our age is no stranger to that Blood which has been shed for Christ, the speaker went on to talk about his experience of serving Holy Mass with this Cardinal was who in his 90s and offered it in Latin, he was stuck that even after the deacon who had purified the vessels this man, short of sight cleansed them again. Not because he was scrupulous, but he did out of love. All those years he had waited to hold the Body of Christ for whom he had suffered and he wanted not one crumb to be lost. Are we that careful, do we care that much, are we willing to turn to someone who was starved and denied of Our Lord for 30 years and ask him who we should behave in front of Our Eucharistic Lord? Do we prepare well for the Sacrifice of the King of Martyrs, has our piety become like a remote control, something we switch on when we do Holy things. 

Cardinal Kung teaches us that our whole life should be in imitation of our Blessed Lord, that our work, our homes, our prayer, our talk, even our fun and chill time should be a preparation for the Holy Mass. There is an important mission we all need to be a part off and rightly so to make every Mass Extraordinary, filled with holiness, be it low or high, new rite or old. We can have most devout priest, the finest choir and most meticulous adherence to the rubrics but if we are not recollected, if we are not willing to pray or visit the blessed sacrament, go benediction often, if we do not avail ourselves of frequent confession, or go to daily Mass or as often as we can, or make a spiritual communion when we can’t, if we don’t live a Eucharistic life worthy of Our lord and those martyrs, then it vanity and dressing up.We are the people the Lord has chosen, imperfect, sinful but he wants us and loves us more, in today’s feast we celebrate that enteral bond of his loving presence in Holy Communion and we recommit ourselves to that holy striving, that desire to be his and the need to form our lives in shadow of his passion, death and resurrection that he has left to us in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.