Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The procession on Holy Thursday accompanies Jesus in his solitude towards the "via crucis". The procession on Corpus Christi, instead responds symbolically to the command of the Risen Lord: I am going before you to Galilee. Go to the ends of the earth, carry the Gospel to the world.” The Holy Father Benedict XVI said in his homily during Mass celebrated in front of the Cathedral of Rome St John’s Basilica, on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Pope then presided the Eucharistic Procession along via Merulana, to the Basilica of St Mary Major.
“With the feast of Corpus Christi, the Church relives the mystery of Holy Thursday in the light of the Resurrection” the Pope said in his homily. “With the procession of Holy Thursday the Church accompanies Jesus to the Garden of Olives: the Church strongly desires to pray and watch with Jesus so as not to leave him alone in the night of the world, the night of betrayal, the night of the indifference of so many. With the feast of Corpus Christi, we resume this procession but in the joy of the Resurrection. The Lord is risen and he goes before us”. The Pope continued “Jesus goes before us to the Father, he ascends to the Father on high and calls us to follow him”, therefore “the real destination of our journey is communion with God- God himself is the home with many rooms -. But we can only ascend to this home by going "towards Galilee" - walking the roads of the world carrying the Gospel to all peoples, carrying the gift of his love to men and women of every era. This is why the apostles went to "the ends of the earth"; this is why St Peter and St Paul came as far as Rome, a city which at the time was the centre of the known world, truly the "caput mundi".”
The Holy Father pointed out how in the Sacrament of the Eucharist "the Lord is always moving towards the world”, as the procession demonstrates...“This procession seeks to be a great and public blessing for our city. Christ in person is the divine blessing for the world - may the rays of His blessing extend over us all."!”. Accompanying the Risen Christ as he reaches out to the world we respond to his command: "take, eat, ... drink of it, all of you," Benedict XVI emphasised that "one cannot 'eat' the Risen One, present in form of bread, as a simple piece of bread. To eat this bread is to communicate, it is to enter into communion with the person of the living Lord. This communion, this act of 'eating,' truly represents an encounter between two people, it means allowing oneself to be penetrated by the life of the One Who is Lord, the One Who is my Creator and Redeemer. The aim of this communion is to assimilate my life to His, my transformation and conformity to the One Who is living Love. Thus, communion implies adoration, it implies the will to follow Christ, to follow the One Who goes before. Adoration and procession thus make up part of a single gesture of communion, a response to His call to 'take and eat'."
The Pope concluded by underlining the fact that "our procession finishes before the basilica of St. Mary Major, in the encounter with the Virgin, called by dear Pope John Paul II ‘Woman of the Eucharist”: “Let us pray to our Holy Mother and ask her to help us open our being ever more to the presence of Christ; to follow Him faithfully day after day along the paths of our lives. Amen.".” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2005, righe 36, parole 554)
