Corpus Christi Blog

By now, you know that when you attend Mass on Sunday you are participating as a member of the Body of Christ, which consists of all Christians – past, present, and future. We know that when we participate in the Eucharist, we are doing so in union with our fellow Catholics all over the world. We also stand and kneel at the foot of the same cross with all those in Purgatory and Heaven. However, when you attend Mass, how often do you consider your connection to the earliest members of the Church and understand that you are practicing something that has been exercised for thousands of years?

Peace, or a lack thereof, seems to be a prevalent theme in our country and world today. We are polarized on every issue we are facing as a society and are well aware of the spiritual forces seeking to promote discord and animosity among us. We constantly pray for peace: peace in our families, peace in our Church, peace in our country, and peace in the world. However, it is not enough to simply pray for peace, rather, we must actively pursue it by our own actions.

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this feast, we recognize the Church teaching that after her earthly life was over, Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven by virtue of her sinless nature. In September and October of 2020, I wrote a 5-part series on the Marian dogmas and doctrines taught by the Magisterium, with the Assumption published on September 27, 2020. If you were away from the parish at that time, or would like to refresh your memory, I invite you to visit our parish website to find and read it.

Today, we reach the seventh and final petition of the Lord’s Prayer – “but deliver us from evil.” It makes sense that the prayer would end on this note as it is one of the most important, if not the most important thing we could be asking for. The Church teaches us that, in this particular case, “evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil is the one who ‘throws himself across’ God’s plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ” (CCC #2851). When we are asking to be delivered from evil, we are asking specifically to be protected from Satan’s harm, as his very goal is to prevent us from obtaining our ultimate salvation so that we might suffer eternally as he does. What could be more important?

This week we find ourselves with perhaps the most controversial petition of the Lord’s Prayer – “lead us not into temptation.” Over the years, and even very recently, there has been much discussion over whether God would actually lead His people into situations that would cause them to sin. Why would a good and loving God do such a thing? Surely, He would not lead us down a path of sin and failure. What we need here in this dialogue is a proper understanding of temptation and virtue and the good that worldly temptation can provide for our spiritual health.