Many of you may have read or watched the movie about Fr Damien, who later became Saint Damien of Molokai (1840-1889), canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. I remember watching the movie about him when I was at a youth session organised by my parish. It was a movie that lingered for a long time in my mind. I don’t think that they movie was the catalyst for me to choose priesthood as my way of life, but it probably had a part to play.
Fr Damien volunteered to work among lepers in Hawaii when the Bishop had planned to send a priest there. While didn’t want to force anyone to go there, Fr Damien volunteered. It was only much later in the seminary that I laid eyes on a book about his life and mission. Known for his love of the Eucharist, in one of his letters he wrote, “The Blessed Sacrament is indeed for us a stimulus, for me as it should be for you, to forsake all worldly ambitions. Without the constant presence of our Divine Master upon the altar in my poor chapels, I never could have persevered casting my lot with the lepers of Molokai…”
As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, we would not be too far off recalling some miracle stories about the Holy Eucharist or the doctrine of the transubstantiation. Some perhaps even wondering when precisely the bread becomes the body of Christ? At a time when the celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ is going to be void of physical processions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and even the reception of the most precious gift of Jesus’ body and blood, the story of Fr Damien is one worth revisiting.
In a place where not many wanted to go on mission, nor was there the grandeur of a gothic cathedral and ornate decorations, Fr Damien celebrated the Eucharist and experienced the Eucharistic Lord in ways where others may not have even though having access to the splendour and beauty of a sacred space. In this period of a pandemic, our access to the Eucharistic Lord on the solemnity may be reduced to an online participation and a spiritual communion only, but the solemnity does not in any way lose its significance for the Catholic faithful.
Though many of us have been taught that regular mass and sacraments are essential for a personal relationship with Jesus given that we are a sacramental people. Despite the absence of these gifts that we treasure, there is still the personal encounter with the Lord. This encounter with the Lord must remind us of this new covenant that Jesus makes with us through the gift of His Body and Blood. For us in the new covenant, it means carrying out especially the one law of Christ that He left us at the same time as the institution of the Eucharist: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34).
The new covenant in the Eucharist that we celebrate, irrespective whether online or onsite, is being renewed as Jesus’ sign of His affection for each one of us – the gift of Himself on the cross is still alive. At this moment when humanity is fragile confronted by this pandemic, access to the sacraments may be hindered but the access to Christ is never deprived to all to seek Him.
St Damian of Molokai may not have had the best chalice, paten, altar table, vestments and maybe even suffered a leaky roof, but what he had was a community around him. Through the Eucharist, he found for himself and for those he served the support and encouragement, the consolation and the hope that helped him live the Eucharist with the lepers.
As we look forward to being able to encounter God through the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the language and the imagery in today’s Gospel points us to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice that is renewed in the new covenant – his own model of love. Perhaps this Corpus Christi, we can show our love for the Eucharistic Lord in our love for one another, with those whom we have had to stay at home with. For where there is love, there is God. So, let us love.
Solemnity of Corpus Christi (6 June 2021)
