Pope at Mass on Corpus Christi:
‘Overcome silent collusion'
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| Pope Francis at Mass in the Roman parish of Our Lady of Bonaria in Ostia. |
In his homily at Mass on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi,
Pope Francis invited the people of the Roman suburb of Ostia to overcome the
walls of indifference and silent collusion.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in
the Roman sea-side suburb of Ostia on Sunday, becoming the first Pope since
1981 to lead the Eucharistic procession in a location other than the
now-traditional tract from St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major.
It comes as part of his visits to the parish communities of
the Diocese of Rome.
Overcome silent collusion
In his homily at Mass in Ostia’s St. Monica parish, Pope Francis reflected on how the Lord prepares a place and a meal for his disciples in the Eucharist. He also invited the port city’s residents to loosen “the knots that keep us bound to the moorings of fear and depression.”
“Jesus wants the walls of indifference and silent collusion
to be breached, iron bars of oppression and arrogance torn asunder, and paths
cleared for justice, civility and legality,” he said.
The Pope said the city’s beachfront “speaks to us of how
beautiful it is to open our hearts and to set out in new directions in life.”
The Eucharist, he said, is an invitation to be “carried along by the wave of
Jesus” and “to cast into the deep.”
Preparedness
Pope Francis also spoke about the role “preparedness” plays in the Sunday Gospel (Mk 14:12-16, 22-26).
He said Jesus, both at the Last Supper and after the
Resurrection, continually reminds the disciples to be prepared. More
importantly, he said, Jesus tells them he is preparing a place and a meal for
them.
The “large and furnished room” of the Gospel, he said, is
“our spacious and vast home here below, the Church, where there is, and must
be, room for everyone.” The Pope said Jesus has also reserved “a place for us
on high, in heaven, so that we can be with him and with one another for ever.”
Eucharist: both meal and place
Pope Francis said the meal Jesus prepares is “the Bread in which he gives himself”. Both the place and the meal, he said, are Jesus’ gifts for us in the Eucharist.
“Jesus prepares a place for us here below, because the
Eucharist is the beating heart of the Church. It gives her birth and rebirth;
it gathers her together and gives her strength. But the Eucharist also prepares
for us a place on high, in eternity, for it is the Bread of heaven.”
The Holy Father said this Bread “savors of eternity” and
“sates our greatest expectations and feeds our final dreams.”
The Bread of heaven, he said, is “the pledge of eternal
life”, a “concrete anticipation of what awaits us there.”
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