Most of you probably know that today is the feast of Corpus Christi - the Body and Blood of Christ.
There is so much that can be said about this day, and about our celebration of the gift of the Eucharist, but none of it can do justice to that perfect gift.
This evening, I was blessed to be a part of a Corpus Christi procession (in ABQ, of course) from Immaculate Conception to San Felipe de Neri. It was beautiful, and also historic - there hasn't been a Corpus Christi procession between these two churches in 55 years. (I didn't know that until I got to Immaculate Conception this evening!)
Corpus Christi processions are always wonderful: walking, singing, praying as a community of believers - with plenty of incense! It's a blessed experience to walk in procession with the Blessed Sacrament - to "take Jesus to the streets," as it were. This evening, that even involved a police escort stopping traffic so the procession could cross a major road!
Yeah, that's right: Jesus stopped traffic in Albuquerque tonight.
And he "stopped traffic" in the heart of every person who walked in that procession this evening - bringing peace, and order, and goodness, and healing, and all his good gifts, into our lives.
Wouldn't it be awesome if, in our walk with Christ - in our daily "procession" with him, we helped "stop traffic" more often? More figuratively than literally, of course - through the witness we bear to Christ through our lives? Through the way we live? Through the way we care for those around us? Maybe, just maybe, if through our lives, we share the love and compassion of Christ with others, we'll "stop traffic" - so Jesus can cross the road and walk into their lives.
Take our Lord to the streets. There's a world out there that desperately needs the hope, the love, the healing, the goodness, and every other good thing he brings. It doesn't do us, or anyone else, any good, if we keep Christ to ourselves. We who receive the Body of Christ - Corpus Christi - in the Eucharist - need to remember that we are also the Body of Christ - and as such, we need to take Jesus to the world.
+Peace, and all good, and a blessed feast of Corpus Christi!
I'll sign off for this evening with a photo as usual, but first, with words from one of my favorite Spanish hymns - and which has been a part of just about every Corpus Christi procession I've ever been part of, this evening included.
"Bendito, bendito, bendito sea Dios,
los ángeles cantan y alaban a Dios,
los ángeles cantan y alaban a Dios... ...
O cielo y tierra, decid a una voz,
bendito por siempre, bendito sea Dios,
bendito por siempre, bendito sea Dios."
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