Sts Peter and Paul

Today, we celebrate two great persons in the history of the Catholic Church – Peter and Paul. They are the founders and the beginners of the Universal Church.

They are the solid rock on which the Church is built. They are at the origin of faith in Christ and its Church. They will forever remain as examples for us. To them the Church owes true greatness because they were sanctified by their martyrdoms.

They too were persecuted. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. He did not feel worthy to be crucified right side up like His Master. Whereas Paul was beheaded on the spot where his Cathedral stands today in Rome.

Peter makes his great confession of faith; “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” It was one of the glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called to become fisher of men for Christ.

Paul’s central conviction was simple – “only God can save humanity”. Paul’s experience of the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus made him once of the most Zealous, dynamic and courageous, and ambassador of Christ. The dying Christ was in Him and the living Christ was his life.

Who Is Jesus for Me?

As a member of the Church, we know who Jesus is. We profess our faith in him each Sunday as we recite the Nicene Creed. We share our faith with the rest of the Church. 

Do I live my faith in Jesus in my daily life? Jesus is asking me, “Who do you say that I am?” Today, the Church wants me to live my faith and to love my faith as an expression of my personal relationship with Him. 

The Real Presence of Jesus

This Sunday we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, popularly known as “Corpus Christi”. What we are celebrating is the devotion and worship of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Why do we need a feast of the Eucharist? In order to arrive at a better understanding of the Eucharist we need to ask why Jesus gave us this sacrament in the first place. There are two main reasons:

(1) Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). In the Eucharist he provides a visible sign and an effective means of Him being present to us and us being present to him. As Jesus himself said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

(2) Jesus said that He came that we may have life and have it to the fullest, (John 10:10). In the Eucharist He provides a visible means of communicating this life to us so that we can be fully alive both in this world and in the next world.

Pope Benedict XVI says, “The Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the Church; they do not simply stand side by side; they are one and the same; it is from there that everything else glows.”

The Body and Blood of Christ unites us more closely to Christ and, through Christ, we are united into one Body, the Church.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The feast of the Blessed Trinity was introduced in the ninth century and was only inserted in the general calendar of the Church in the fourteenth century by Pope John XXII.

Looking at the Holy Trinity – the questions that arise – “Who are they?” “What they are saying?” and “Why not just the 3 persons alone?” Instead of worrying on these questions, it is better for us to ask a useful question “How can I can get closer to Triune God - God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who is already dwells in every one of us?

We celebrate this Trinity Sunday to meditate on God that we believe. It is not enough to say “I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,” “I believe one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,” and “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

It is perhaps more important to know what God I believe in and the quality of God that I believe in. How can we develop our intimate and healthy relationship with each person of the Trinity?

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and every shall be, without end. Amen.