Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – On the solemnity of Corpus Christi, Thursday 19 June, Pope John Paul II presided Mass in the square outside the cathedral of Rome, the Basilica of St John Lateran, and the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Basilica of Saint Mary. The Mass was celebrated by the Pope’s vicar for Rome diocese, Cardinal Camillo Ruini with the city’s auxiliary bishops and new priests ordained by the Pope on June 11. In his homily the Pope mentioned his recent letter on the Eucharist: “The Church returns constantly to the Upper Room, the place of her birth. She returns because in this gift Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church the perennial making present of the paschal mystery. With it he brought about a mysterious “oneness in time” between that Triduum and the passage of the centuries. (cfr Ecclesia de Eucharistia 5). This evening too, with profound gratitude to God we stand in silence before the mystery of faith. We contemplate it with what in the encyclical I described as Eucharistic ‘amazement’ (ibid 6).”
The Pope then explained the fundamental significance of the annual Corpus Christi celebration: “Like the apostles and saints of all times we contemplate the face of the ‘Eucharistic’ Christ, learning from Mary, woman of the Eucharist in her whole life” (ibid 53). Recalling that the Mass would be followed by the Procession with the Blessed Sacrament to St Mary Major’s Basilica, the Pope said: “With this procession we want to symbolically express our being pilgrims ‘viatores’ on our way to our heavenly home. We are not alone on our pilgrimage: Christ, the bread of life walks with us…Jesus, spiritual food who nourishes the hope of believers, sustains us on this journey towards heaven and strengthens our communion with the Church in heaven”. SL (Fides Service 20/6/2003 EM lines 22Words: 310)
