worship at the cathedral 14: corpus christi procession, a manifestation of faith in the real presence

Last June 13 we again brought in procession the image of Our Lady of Fatima around the cathedral grounds and prayed together the rosary immediately after the 5:30 afternoon mass.  June 13 is the 100^th year anniversary of her second apparition to the children of Fatima.  There was a good enough crowd who joined the procession despite the fact that the invitation was only announced last Sunday in some of the masses.  So I am inviting our parishioners to gather once more on July 13, a Thursday, for the 5:30 pm mass and the for the rosary and procession immediately after.  Our Lady's message is so relevant especially at a time when parts of Mindanao are again becoming restive and terror attacks and threats are increasing by the day all over the world.  We turn once more to Our Blessed Mother who urged us to pray for peace and conversion, to pray especially the rosary.  We may find ourselves helpless in the face of these threats but we have a powerful weapon within our reach – the rosary.  And so, together let us bombard heaven with our prayers, let us pray together everyday and most especially at the anniversaries of her apparition until the month of October this year.

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The signing up for the Lord is now almost full with most of the slots taken.  We will be posting your names at the entrance of the Adoration Chapel and we will be giving out certificates to you, not so much to certify that you have committed yourself to this admirable task of accompanying the Lord for an hour in this holy place, but also to hang on your refrigerators, mirrors and cabinets to remind you of your commitment to the Lord and to our parish.  Thank you so much and may this commitment to pray benefit not just you and your family but especially our parish.  It is said that one of the first visible benefits of having an active involvement by parishioners in adoring the Lord before the Blessed Sacrament is the increase of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.  A politician friend already approached us expressing his willingness to sponsor a seminarian from the parish of Jaro from Grade 11 onwards.  But I have no one to recommend because this year Jaro does not have a Grade 11 seminarian.  Hopefully by praying together, adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, staying with Him for an hour would again stir the hearts of young men and women to offer their lives to the Lord and his holy church. 

Many times, people might feel that praying may not be doing anything worthwhile for the problems of the world.  Some may feel that by staying there they may not be doing anything at all for the church and for the world.  That is not true.  Prayer, first and foremost, transforms us.  Prayer transforms the world, probably not in a dramatic and earth shattering way, but little by little, starting with ourselves.  We believe in grace.  We believe in God's power to transform. We believe in God's power to inspire people to bring about change.  Let us not give up praying, for ourselves, for the world and for each other.

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By the time you are reading this we have already brought the Lord in procession around the Jaro Plaza for the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi – the celebration of Jesus' real presence in the bread and wine we offer in the mass and receive in Holy Communion.  This is the same presence we adore in the Adoration Chapel.  This procession is not just an act of prayer but primarily an act of faith.  We manifest what we believe.  And what do we believe?  We believe that the Lord is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament.  It is not just symbolic  presence (as in his presence there is just a sign, like a photograph) but real presence.  Jesus is truly and really present. 

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24: 13-25), if you remember, he broke the bread with them (meaning he celebrated the Eucharist with them) and the two disciples recognized him "in the breaking of the bread".  The,n Jesus vanished.  What does this mean?  When Jesus became present "sacramentally" (in the bread), he withdrew his physical presence.  It is as if he is telling us, "I don't need to be "physically" present now, for I am already truly present with you sacramentally and it is the same."  So stop running after apparitions of the Lord here and there.  Everyday He "appears" to us in the mystery that is the Holy Mass.  Everyday He comes to us in communion.  Everyday He is waiting for us in the tabernacle of our parish church and in the monstrance of our Adoration Chapel.  So, let us come to Him, for this is the real and daily miracle of the presence of Lord who promised that He will be with us until the end of time (Mt. 28:20).