The Loss of Corpus Christi.......

Many may have noticed that Thursday came and went, and there was not a word from me about Corpus Christi. Originally I was going to put up a picture because I was too tired to write this post. But then I thought it would have a greater effect to say nothing about it, for reasons which will be abundantly clear in a minute.

For 750 years, true Christians came together to celebrate the solemn feast of our Lord's sacred Body in the Eucharist, and followed the Sacrifice of Mass up with a procession. All business stopped on the Thursday after the feast of the Trinity, and all took part in the holy procession. This event was prevalent and powerful up until the modern era. The streets were filled with people chanting the praises of God in every city of the west until our time. Then this began to taper off.

Vatican II never addressed this of course. Yet, the event of Vatican II opened the door for every liberal with an axe to grind against the Churches traditional practice and devotion. The same "experts" at Vatican II who helped framed the debates also re-interpreted the council to the world. One of the first things that was done was a discouragement of Eucharistic adoration, namely through the hatred of the 40 hours devotion. Instantly liturgists began demanding an end to Eucharistic adoration, because it was a "medieval add on". Of course it was recorded in Spain in the 6th century, but as we saw with the discarding of the Traditional Mass, 1400 years is not old enough for liturgists, unless it supports what they want. So in many cities, Bishops announced there would no longer be Eucharistic processions on Corpus Christi. Then, as soon as they were able, the Bishops learned they could move feasts to the Sunday, especially Holy Days of obligation, under the guise that they could help people participate more in them, rather than making people come to Mass during their busy weekday schedule of tv, tv, tv, and more tv, or atheistic capitalist greed which leads a man to ignore his family for the idol of money. In fact, the USCCB couldn't dare ask people to come to Mass a second time, so they have made Holy Days of Obligation "optional" when they come on Monday, so as not to make people come to Church two days in a row. Oh, how horrible! One might have missed both Sunday cartoons and heathen sitcoms on Monday night! Now I do realize that before Vatican II, on certain occasions in certain places Corpus Christi could be moved to Sunday. However that was a toleration in a minority of circumstances in certain places. Today, find me more than a handful of Churches that have Corpus Christi on Thursday rather than on Sunday!

In any event, that takes us too far from the point. Moving feasts from the weekday to the Sunday has worked well in favor of breaking down traditional devotion. When our Blessed Lord revealed Himself to Blessed Juliana of Mt. Cornillon and asked for the establishment of Corpus Christi, he asked that it be set on a Thursday. Not that it could be moved to Sunday if everyone is too busy. In fact, the gospel for the Sunday after Corpus Christi (today), has for today's Gospel this parable:

Et misit servum suum hora coenae dicere invitatis ut venirent, quia jam parata sunt omnia. Et coeperunt simul omnes excusare. Primus dixit ei, Villam emi, et necesse habeo exire et videre illam: rogo te, habe me excusatum. Et alter dixit: Juga bonum emi quinque et eo probare illa: rogo te, habe me excusatum. Et alius dixit: Uxorem duxi, et ideo non possum venire. Et reversus servus nuntiavit haec domino suo. Tunc iratus paterfamilias, dixit servo suo: Exi cito in plateas et vicos civitatis: et pauperes ac debiles et caecos et claudos introduc huc.

And he sent his servant at the hour of the supper to give the invitation that they might come, for now all things had been prepared. And all took up to make the same excuse. The first said to him "I have bought a villa [farm], and it must needs be that I have to go out and see it, I ask you, have my excuse. And another said "I have bought a good yoke of five [five oxen] and I go to test them, I ask you to have my excuse. And yet another said "I have married, and therefore I am not able to come. And the servant, returning declared this to his lord. Thus the master was angry, and he said to his servant: Go out through the lanes, streets and ways of the city: and bring here the blind, the infirm, the poor, and the lame. (Luke XIV, my translation, from Today's gospel).

Obviously the immediate application is to the pharisees and those specific Jews who rejected the Gospel. However, isn't it interesting, that the people of today are too busy to entertain the possibility of going to see our Blessed Lord on a weekday? As if Mass attendance wasn't so bad for Sundays, it is far worse for holy days. I find it mildly amusing and very interesting that this Gospel is on the Sunday when so many Bishops in the Novus Ordo are moving Corpus Christi to Sunday, because the people won't take part for the same kind of excuses offered to the Paterfamilias in our Lord's parable.

Now consider, what if in the face of increased secularization, an increasingly decreased presence of the Church in the world, if the Bishops had resiliently continued to assemble a Eucharistic procession, not just around the Church block, but down mainstreet, amidst its hustle and bustle, amidst the hubris of the world, to carry the king of the world, chanting the most excellent chants of the Pange Lingua, the O Salutaris, the Tantum Ergo, and any of the great Eucharistic hymns and chants which are today heard more on cd players than in churches? Imagine what a difference it could have made! Now in some places of the world there are again processions, and in other places like in Rome there have always been processions, but in Rome it is natural. In France and America, or England, they are no longer natural, they are quite exceptional, and if done at all, it is a short procession down the street from the Church so that no one will be disturbed. A hundred years ago the Catholic faithful gladly marched down any street to proclaim the glory of Christ's kingship. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was converted from protestantism, when in Italy a Eucharistic procession went past her window. One wonders how many more Elizabeth Ann Setons are waiting for our Lord to pass, who might be sparked into action by his presence? Who knows what kind of witness it might give to the world, of the faith of the Church?

But now, we can't be bothered during the week, and we need to run to the mall after Mass on Sunday so of course we can't have a procession! If we do have a procession it must be out of the way so as not to cause embarrassment or offend people.

Traditional Catholics are not exempted from this criticism of the state of affairs in the Church. There are plenty of parishes with large numbers at their Traditional Latin Mass, regardless of whether or not it is indult, one of the Latin Mass Orders, or SSPX or independent, why aren't they organizing processions? You mean people can't make sure to get the day off a few months in advance? Most employers give days off with sufficient notice. The priest can't do a procession? Some do by the way. Most do not. In fact an overwhelming majority do not, and it is sad. The feasts and traditions of the past helped uphold and strengthen the faith of the layman, and give a cultus which roots the family firmly in the true faith, making the reality of the Church ever more present in our society. It is a tragedy that we have not brought this back. It is the exposure to the Traditional Liturgy that increases our numbers, and the more we can do such as a procession like that of Corpus Christi, the more exposure to the Church the secular and agnostic society we live in will be exposed to. The restoration of Christendom will not happen in a vacuum, but with the devoted witness of Catholics everywhere. There is no more Christendom, it is dead. We have reverted to a period like the Roman Empire, where the members of the true faith (the true members not the lukewarm pretenders or the apostates) are like seeds in the earth, germinating without the notice of the proximate society. Only tradition can preach the gospel to the modern world, only tradition can bring union with the Eastern Churches, and only tradition can strengthen us against the assault of the modern world.