We find healing through the Eucharist, when we appreciate Christ’s suffering for us, and give love to a needy person

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We find healing through the Eucharist, when we appreciate Christ’s suffering for us, and give love to a needy person

Corpus Christie (B) – June 2, 2024

On Monday evening a number of our Oblate youth gathered online to share the readings for Corpus Christi Sunday.  The leader asked for a topic of real life to connect with the Feast.

The topic discussed was: Forgiving our parents, forgiving God and forgiving ourselves.  All over the world, many people carry wounds from their childhood.  We should not be surprised, we are all imperfect persons who become parents.  However, in developing countries one can expect greater sufferings due to lack of: money, education, Government support, etc.

Only a few members shared something: a sign of the private burdens they carry.  One shared their parental abandonment.  One or two shared that these days we have much more knowledge and understanding of inter-personal skills, psychology, etc.  So there is a need for us to be understanding of failures by our parents, and take responsibility to be different.

We tried to connect with the suffering of Christ: though he was good and did many good things, he was mistreated: a bit like many people in the world today.  Corpus Christi, we came to understand, is the presence of God’s radically different response to unjust suffering/ injustice.

Christ rose from the dead, and came back offering peace to all.  His suffering was real, it was unjust: it was torture!  But Christ said to them, and says to us today: peace be with you.

We cannot undo, ignore or bury the past, but we can move forward if we accept that peace of Christ.  But, through the Sacraments, love of others and participation of the Church, we can come to believe we are loved and lovable.

The Body of Christ then becomes a powerful help for us to look back, through the eyes of Christ, and recognise the sufferings of our parents.  To see the sacrifices they made for us.

Once we embrace the love they showed for us through their sacrifices, we can more easily forgive the times they were too harsh on us, or unable to provide what we needed.

Even though it is difficult, there is a need for us to share the pain we carry and allow God’s love to touch us physically through the embrace of those who love us, and even the ritual of Reconciliation.

Reconciliation is not just a place to bring the sins we have committed, but also the sins others have committed against us.

We do ourselves a disservice when we hold back our pain: it often causes sin on our part by our anger/ actions towards others: especially our children, spouse or those we have authority over.

The Eucharist, Corpus Christi, is the ultimate touch of God’s love and forgiveness to each of us.  But, somehow, we can lose sight of how important it is for us: like when we live with mum and dad for many years we just take them for granted and even become more demanding! Ha, ha.

For those struggling to forgive our parents or God, it can help to recognise how some of those difficult struggles and experiences have made us stronger to face the world outside our family.

Finally, let us be honest with ourselves: are there things we have done, or allowed to be done to us, that we are now ashamed of?  How can we forgive ourselves?  There is the Sacrament of Reconciliation and then more regular reception of the Eucharist: God wants us to feel His love.

It seems too simple, but we only need to reflect, before receiving the Body of Christ, the suffering of Jesus on the cross, and imagine it was for me.  Then we can see our suffering in a different context.

As my sister says to me sometimes, “suck it up princess!” (and me being a prince!)  We can sometimes play the victim and look for sympathy, rather than toughen up and takes steps to become a winner.  We all need healing, but we also need to make a decision to live in the present and not in the past.

Today is a good day to pray for those who are suffering, and to thank God that at least we have the Eucharist to help us find the healing that every person needs.

Let us finish with the wisdom shared with us in Kenya in 2015 by Pope Francis: It was in response to a question by young youth leaders at a special audience in Nairobi:

The typical question was: if I was not loved properly as a child, how can I find the love that I need now as a young person?  Pope Francis said something like this: it is painful when we don’t receive the love we expect and need; but now, go and give love to other people who need love.  And you will find that God provides the love you need.

By Gerard Conlan, OMI