Corpus Christi

It's the central mystery of the Catholic faith, the source and summit of all we believe. So it seems appropriate to take a little time to reflect on the majesty of the Eucharist. I know that all too often I don't make the effort to think about what -- Who -- I'm actually receiving at Mass. It's an easy trap to fall into. After all, we live in a world where sense data is everything. I think this is especially true for those of us in scientific professions. We're taught to gather information about our surroundings and to believe only what we can see or hear or touch. Some specialties will even cautiously stretch credulity to allow what we can deduce. But in the Eucharist, we are called to look beyond that which is sensible, to see that which cannot be seen, to seek that which is hidden. So, I think it's appropriate here to include one of the magnificent hymns of the great St. Thomas Aquinas, the Adoro Te Devote:




The translation for the first verse in Latin is roughly:
Devoutly I adore you, O hidden God, truly present underneath these veils, / All my heart subdues itself before Thee since it all before these faints and fails.
For a translation of the rest, visit this site.

And another classic Thomistic meditation on the Eucharist, the Tantum Ergo (which is part of a longer chant, the Pange Lingua Gloriosi):



For the Latin and English (albeit a slightly less than literal translation), try this link.

St. Thomas makes the point that what we see in front of us is deceptive, but also reminds us that it need not be so. In our hearing, he says, we can trust so long as we are listening to the Word of God. By His promise we know that our senses fail us, and that what we perceive as simple bread and wine is in fact the most sacred Body and Blood of Christ. This is the cornerstone of our faith: that Christ, the Son, gives Himself to us under these signs. The accidents of the bread and wine remain, but the substance (sub stantia, to stand under) is that of Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity. If you want a more in depth discussion of substance and accidents, either read Aristotle (the Metaphysics, if I remember correctly) and St. Thomas or ask me. But that's not really the point here. The point is to remember the magnitude of the hidden gift, which is the hidden God -- hidden from our eyes but not from our faith and trust in Him.

One other thought before I finally go to bed (which I really should have done hours ago). Fr. Drew spoke during his homily about our lives being analogous to paintings. Our lives are made up of choices and discrete events akin to the brushstrokes made by the artist. His point was simply this: the greatest paintings, the greatest works of art, are generally understood to have some kind of underlying coherence. The brushstrokes in these masterworks are directed toward the same goal, and that unity of purpose is what makes the painting true and beautiful. When the brushstrokes are disparate and random, some may still classify the resulting work as "art," but few would call such a thing "beautiful" or "coherent." Our lives, he noted, are much the same. Our brushstrokes may be wildly incompatible; our words and our deeds may fail to match; what we do and say under one set of circumstances may vary considerably from how we respond to different conditions. There is no guiding principle, no underlying theme, and the beauty of the work is marred. For our lives to be true and beautiful, then, we must use consistent brushstrokes and constantly direct ourselves toward the same end; that is, God.

I think his analogy is brilliant and I want to take it just a bit further. When we paint this portrait of our lives, we are called to direct ourselves towards God in everything we do, everything we say, everything we are. But in so doing, in directing our lives in all things (big and little) to Christ, that self-portrait will begin to change. It won't be a self-portrait at all...and yet, it will be a perfect image of ourselves. For by completely surrendering ourselves, we will be more ourselves than ever -- more perfectly fitting images of the One in Whose image we were created.

Anyhow, those are my (hopefully semi-coherent) thoughts for the night. I still haven't said anything about the OR and I have lots more to say about the peds ED, so stay tuned for more medical stuff in the near future.

Peace and God bless!