POWER IN BREAD AND WINE
On the second Thursday after Whitsun Catholic Christians celebrate the
Festival of Corpus Christi; this year it was June 4th. It is a festival of joy, not
of mourning, because Christ is alive in bread and wine. Jesus created the
Eucharist on Maundy Thursday, but because that was in Holy Week, since
the 13 th century a special feast day was fixed which was outside Lent.
Catholic regions of Europe developed festive processions, during which the
Host is carried through the streets under a canopy. The streets are being
decorated with flowers and branches, services are held at altars at squares
and corners of the town. I remember from my youth that at these places
beautiful carpets of flowers were laid out. This custom wants to celebrate
faith lived in public and in the community. For centuries this festival was a
reason for contention between Catholics and Protestants who didn’t
recognise it because it was not biblical. In some rural areas it was said that
on that day protestant farmers deliberately ferried their dung to the fields,
where upon catholic ones did the same on Good Friday, which was seen as
the most important date in the protestant calendar. Thankfully these quarrels
now belong to the past, and in many places the festival is an ecumenical
one.
The festival concerns the very basic believes of Christianity, the presence of
Jesus in our lives, the Christ who was dead and rose again to tell us: “I am
with you all the days until the end of the world”. These were the last words of
the risen Christ to his disciples and also an orientation for us. We do not live
in a ‘godforsaken world’. These days many doubt that God is there, they do
not feel His presence in their lives. There is a need for witnesses,
experienced ones who can lead others into the experience of God’s
presence. And there is a need for some rites, some forms of service at which
people can find that they live in God’s presence.
God’s word isn’t only a text which can be interpreted and discussed. The
spirit of God can be experienced and heard, God is speaking to us. God’s
word is also a space in which the presence of Him that speaks can be felt,
and it is of consequence: because a community is growing from it.
Protestant theologians think of the church as the ‘creatura verbi’, the creature
of the word. The beginning of John’s Gospel speaks of the word ‘living
among us’, and this can be in the shape of men and women who share the
love of Jesus. In this love the unseen presence of Jesus can be felt and
experienced.
Part of the processions is the celebration of the Eucharist. The word
Eucharist means thanksgiving, it is the great thanksgiving for the experience
of God’ presence. In His word and in the community His Spirit becomes close
and in the celebration of Bread and Wine a great power can be felt.
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