Corpus Christi

Dear Friend,

The Feast of Corpus Christi summons us to realize the power of our imaginations as disciples of Jesus. Imagination - our capacity as human beings to take something we know to be true and give it an image. Imagination is our basic tool for making images. We encounter the power of the imagination every time we walk into Mass, blessed as we are with the art of two or three centuries all around us in our Mission/parish church.

Out front, our Mission fountain is itself a great image of the Holy Trinity: its overflow of water spilling into three levels - poured out from one precious vessel to the next, yet one fountain all the same. “Everything that the Father has is mine,” said Jesus in last week’s Gospel, “And the Spirit takes from what is mine and declares it to you.” And that’s our fountain: the water (spirit/life) is shared out, and with the basin full for us to touch, children are ready to jump right in. I see them all the time (and the panicked looks of Mom and Dad).

So too, at the Last Supper, Jesus invites us to see something new, even as the specter of violence looms over him and his companions. We are invited to “put on the mind of Christ” as Paul would put it some decades later (Phil. 2:4). And we see - as Jesus sees - not just a sacred reality in the bread and wine, but also a new horizon of hope beyond the limits of human vision and our natural fears. At the altar, proclaiming “the death of the Lord” - his life-giving gift - we are directly under the Mission crucifix, depicted with radiant sun beams. Here is “Corpus Christi” - the Body of Christ - with its “solar power” of hope and life! Imagine that!

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan, Pastor