One day last summer I crossed the Causeway during the BP Oil spill. I crossed in both stormy skies and calm skies. In both bad and good weather, I was escorted south and north by the majestic brown pelican. On this day, I had my eye on the pelicans as they were taking quite a beating in oily Gulf waters.
We who have crossed the 24 mile bridge that connects north and south shores of New Orleans have experienced the flight of the pelican. Perhaps we take little notice. Perhaps we enjoy the majesty of their flight which seems so effort less. Maybe we recall that the pelican is the state bird of our Louisiana.
But as people of faith, do we know that the pelican is a beautiful symbol of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; His most precious Body and Blood? I’ll explain more in a minute.
Before we return to Sunday’s in ordinary time today we celebrate, in a most special way, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ. Some of us may remember when this feast was called Corpus Christi. Of course every time we gather to celebrate Mass we participate in His Body and Blood. This solemnity is special. While it has been the unbroken teaching of the Church that Jesus is truly, most completely present in the Eucharist, this solemnity was established in the 13th century. A priest who had doubts about the teaching of the Real Presence was celebrating Mass for some pilgrims about ten miles from the Pope. At the point in the Mass when the Priest fractures the host, placing a tiny piece into the chalice, the consecrated host began to bleed. The evidence of the blood on the altar corporal was taken directly to Pope Urban who declared that Jesus Himself was asking the Church for a universal feast of His most precious Body and Blood.
How appropriate that the Church gives us a Gospel reading from John chapter six; the bread of life discourse. Jesus tells us firmly that He is the bread of life and whoever eats this bread will live forever. We know that many struggled with this teaching. The idea of consuming human flesh and blood was offensive to the Jewish people. But in this Gospel, Jesus, who has taught by way of parable and example, teaches very literally. Amen, amen which means you better pay attention, you must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. No symbol; no slight of hand; no tepid suggestion. Boldly He commands us: eat my body, drink my blood! My body and blood is true food and true drink and if you eat and drink you have eternal life. Again, no ambiguity here! A wonderful way to worship Jesus in His Body & Blood would be to read and pray with the entire 6th chapter of John’s Gospel.
Let’s return to our pelican. When a mother pelican feeds her young and food is scarce, the pelican uses her own beak to tear open the flesh of her chest. She feeds the young birds with her own flesh and blood and the babies are nourished and sustained. It has been known that a pelican will offer flesh and blood to the point of death. Look at our own Louisiana state flag. Recently, to honor the Eucharistic roots of our own state bird, the Louisiana Legislature added three drops of blood to the chest of the brown pelican on our state flag.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a great saint and so devoted to the Eucharist, wrote the hymn Adoro te Devote and refers to the Pelican of Christ whose blood has the power to forgive the world.
We are called to remember that Jesus loved the Church with His own body and blood to the point of death, death on the Cross. How does Jesus continue to love the Church today, some two-thousand years later? With His own body and blood in the Eucharist!
We gather every Sunday to receive this precious gift of love. What are we called to as we approach and eat His body and drink His blood? First, we are called to receive Him worthily. Aware of mortal sin present in our lives we are called to make reconciliation and receive forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession. Lines for communion are long; not so much for confession. Receiving Him requires reverence. Jesus is truly present so the consecrated host must be handled accordingly. As we approach to receive we are asked to make a sign of respect, a bow is considered normative. When the Priest or minister says “Body of Christ” and “Blood of Christ” we respond with an audible “Amen”. That amen means “Yes, I believe” or “it is so”. Our amen affirms that we believe that we received His body and blood. And even more; our amen, our yes, means that we are in community with Holy Mother Church. We believe and affirm Her teachings! We do not pick and choose. We follow the Church in all matters of faith and morals. When we receive Him in our hand we must receive not take and carefully consume Him. When we receive from the cup we do not need to consume a big gulp a small sip is sufficient. It is not necessary to make the sign of the cross while holding the consecrated host or the chalice. And when we return to our pew we should say a prayer of thanksgiving.
Our worthy reception of Jesus in Holy Communion is our declaration that we become what we receive. Eating His body and drinking His blood means we will be Eucharistic people to the people we meet. Our words, actions and deeds will let all we encounter know that “I received the living God and my heart is full of joy”.
Those pelicans I watched last year soared majestically in both the bad and good weather. Many of those brown pelicans soared beyond the threat of that devastating oil spill. Once endangered, the pelican is thriving and soaring. Man tried to destroy them yet still they survive. Man too has tried throughout two-thousand years of history to destroy the Church established by Jesus Christ whose source and summit is His very body and blood.
I’m glad I crossed the Causeway that day, and many days since then and have witnessed the flight of the pelican. And every time I do, I remember the gift of Jesus in His most precious body and blood which leads us to eternal life and I remember His Catholic Church, which endures because even the gates of hell will not prevail against Her!
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