by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n For some reason when thinking about preaching today\u2019s feast Of course, that is the goal of advertisers: Sometimes this subconscious process, Other times effective slogans amuse us, The phrase that kept popping into my mind this week, however, That phrase was rolled out in the late 1980\u2019s Despite the colossal failure of this ad campaign \u201cThis is Not Your father\u2019s root beer\u201d While hoping to avoid the backfire of the original Oldsmobile ad Liturgy geeks \u2013 and yes, we do exist \u2013 It was intended to be a kind of Holy Thursday celebration This was a traditional day of eucharistic processions, One seldom-noticed development in the liturgical year That a feast around the Precious Blood might appear Roman Catholics have traditionally had a much stronger devotion While it might be a bit of an overstatement, They had already received the whole Christ in the bread: A little-recognized change in the liturgical calendar After the reforms of Vatican II, Now you might be thinking to yourself, While I appreciate your concern about my mental well being, As some of you know, the \u201cbutterfly effect\u201d Taking the covenantal cup of Christ\u2019s Blood seriously One of the clues to the influence of this little change Depictions of people being sprinkled with the blood of bulls How many times have national poets and politicians evoked How many other cities and towns, beaches and outposts, When we receive the consecrated bread at communion Many years ago my godson was preparing for his first communion. Not to put too fine a point on it, Notably, the Cup proclaims a parallel yet distinctive truth. The Cup, however, does not do the same. One of the great spirits of the English Church in the 20th century
\na single advertising slogan has stuck in my head.<\/p>\n
\nto lodge an enduring verbal or visual trigger in your brain
\nthat moves your subconscious to recognition
\n– it\u2019s called brand loyalty –
\nand then to action –
\nthat\u2019s called spending your hard-earned cash.<\/p>\n
\nthat psychologists now identify as \u201cpriming,\u201d
\nis trigger by slogans that touch deep values,
\nlike the enduring phrase from DeBeers \u201cdiamonds are forever\u201d
\nor the insurance classic: \u201cyou\u2019re in good hands with Allstate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nlike \u201cWhere\u2019s the beef\u201d from Wendy\u2019s, or
\nAlka Selzer\u2019s \u201cI can\u2019t believe I ate the whole thing.\u201d
\nWe respond to this hit of dopamine
\nwith subconscious approval of the product
\nand a heightened instinct to buy when given the chance.<\/p>\n
\nwas not Nike\u2019s \u201cJust do it\u201d
\nor the Army\u2019s \u201cBe all that you can be,\u201d
\nbut the spectacularly unsuccessful
\n\u201cThis is not your father\u2019s Oldsmobile.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwhen the Cutlass Supreme was introduced.
\nOldsmobile was trying to appeal to a younger generation.
\nThe blunder, however, was that most Oldsmobile customers
\nat that time actually were fathers!<\/p>\n
\nthe phrase has morphed and thrived in public parlance:<\/p>\n
\nwas one of the first hard sodas on the market.
\nThe 2016 remake of Ben-Hur was touted as
\n\u201cthis is not your father\u2019s chariot race.\u201d
\nThere was also the \u201cNot Your Mother\u2019s\u201d cookbook series.
\nAnd the \u201cThis is not your mother\u2019s laundry\u201d service
\nwas quite popular on college campuses.<\/p>\n
\nor the theatrical disaster of the Ben-Hur remake,
\nI would like to submit that today\u2019s feast
\nis not your parents’ Corpus Christi Feast.<\/p>\n
\nknow that the feast of Corpus Christi,
\nliterally the feast of the \u201cBody of Christ,”
\noriginated during the late medieval period in Li\u00e8ge, France,
\nand in the 13th century was extended to the whole church by Pope Urban IV,
\nfirst celebrated on the Thursday after Pentecost
\nand then the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.<\/p>\n
\noutside the confines of Lent without the shadow of Good Friday.<\/p>\n
\nof exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
\nand more widespread reception of holy communion.<\/p>\n
\nsignificant for rethinking this festival
\nwas the mid-19th century development of a separate feast of
\n“The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nas a kind of liturgical afterthought
\nsix centuries after the establishment of a feast for the Body of Christ
\nis not surprising.<\/p>\n
\nto Christ\u2019s presence in the bread.
\nWe don\u2019t reserve the consecrated wine, but only the bread,
\nso eucharistic devotion is clearly focused on the bread.
\nEven when you look at the history of elevations in the Mass,
\nthe elevation of the cup appears almost two centuries
\nafter the elevation of the host had been introduced.<\/p>\n
\nI would suggest that Roman Catholics
\nmanifest a holy indifference to the cup and the precious blood.
\nFor many centuries people received only the bread.
\nWhen communion under both forms was finally allowed
\nand the cup was actually offered to the people \u2013
\nsomething I look forward again in the near future \u2013
\nmany people simply by-passed the cup.<\/p>\n
\nbody and blood, humanity and divinity.
\nThere was no need for the cup, which seemed redundant,
\nespecially because of its potential for spreading disease.<\/p>\n
\nsome 50 years ago, however, offers a pointed correction here,
\nand metaphorically brings me back to my father\u2019s Oldsmobile.<\/p>\n
\nthe official feast of the Precious Blood was eliminated
\nand joined to the ancient festival of Corpus Christi.
\nSo technically today\u2019s feast is not your parents’ Corpus Christi feast
\nbut the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.<\/p>\n
\nwow, that is amazingly un<\/strong>interesting, or, even worse,
\nthe old priest has way too much time on his hands.
\nInstead of abandoning him to researching outdated slogans
\nor liturgical minutiae \u2026
\nmaybe we can get him a membership in the Audubon Society
\nor buy him some puzzle books.<\/p>\n
\nI would contend that this seemingly innocuous piece
\nof liturgical minutiae
\nshould have major repercussions,
\nnot only about the way we celebrate this feast,
\nbut also about its foundational eucharistic spirituality.<\/p>\n
\nwas language developed by meteorologist Edward Lorenz.
\nIn 1961 Lorenz was running an experiment on weather modeling
\nand in the process, he discovered that even the divergence
\nof one-thousandth of a decimal point
\nwould render vastly different results.
\nA few years later he delivered a celebrated lecture titled:
\n\u201cPredictability: Does the flap of a butterfly\u2019s wings in Brazil<\/a>
\nSet off a tornado in Texas?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\nmight seem like little a small flap in our theologies,
\nbut the resulting whirlwind of insight and action
\nshould not be overlooked, either in Texas or Brazil.<\/p>\n
\nis apparent in today\u2019s readings
\nin which blood imagery appears quite prominent,
\nespecially in the first and second readings.<\/p>\n
\nrecalled in both of those readings
\nmight strike us as at least strange
\nif not offensive.
\nOn the other hand, last weekend on Memorial Day
\nwe recalled the ultimate sacrifice
\nof those who died for our freedom
\nand unfurled tens of thousands of flags
\nwhose red stripe reminds us that our freedom
\nwas purchased with the blood of many.<\/p>\n
\nimages of the blood-soaked fields of Europe and the Pacific
\nwhere the seeds of freedom and democracy were re-sown?<\/p>\n
\nhave been consecrated by the blood of heroes and victims,
\nmartyrs and the innocent,
\ntaking a stand for human dignity and human rights?<\/p>\n
\nwe not only welcome the Eucharistic Christ into our lives,
\nbut commit ourselves in a particular way to being Eucharist.<\/p>\n
\nAfter they had returned home from Mass
\na few weeks before that event,
\nas the mother was making pancakes,
\nBrian and his younger brother Cameron
\nbegan to argue about who would get the first pancake.
\nThe mother, thinking this could be a teaching moment
\nfor Brian in his preparation for first communion,
\nsaid to him, \u201cyou know Brian, if Jesus was here
\nhe would say \u2018give my brother the first pancake.\u2019\u201d
\nWithout skipping a beat, Brian turned to his younger brother
\nand said, \u201cYou be Jesus!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe act of receiving the bread announces in no uncertain terms
\n\u201cyou be Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIn the words of the biblical scholar Xavier Leon-Dufour,
\nthe bread announces \u201cwhat we are to become.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWe are never asked to be the blood of Christ.
\nRather, the cup reveals \u201chow\u201d we become Christ’s body:
\nby pouring ourselves out for each other
\nin service, even suffering for one another.
\nNot only in our living, but even in our dying
\nour sacrificial stepping aside, letting go
\nso that others might flourish. [1]<\/p>\n
\nwas Cardinal Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster.
\nHis care for folk, especially the marginalized and vulnerable
\nwas legendary.<\/p>\n