In choosing music for today’s feast, be careful to reverence the Body of Christ that sits in the pews, the Body of Christ that is the worshiping community. We are one body, united with believers all over the world. We are united with those who are persecuted, driven from their homes because of their faith. We are one with those making their First Communion, with those receiving viaticum, with those whose illness means they can only receive one form of Eucharist.
It’s too easy to go overboard, treating the Body and Blood of Christ only as an object, a thing only to be carried around in procession, held up in elaborate golden monstrances to gaze at from afar, and immured in golden boxes.
Over-reverence can lead to such artifacts as the once-popular First Communion song “Little White Guest.” Every Christian formation coordinator knows the old saying that children can more easily believe the bread is Jesus than that the wafer is bread. (The rules say that Eucharistic bread must be made of wheat and water, must look like bread, and must be recently baked.)
Devotion has its place, but it’s relatively minor compared to the robust requirements of adult faith.
The other aspect often overlooked in over-reverencing the Body and Blood of Christ is the people of God: the community. As Jaime Cortez and Bob Hurd say so eloquently:
We are one with all who have answered “Yes” to the call of the Lord.Somos el cuerpo de Christo.
We are the Body of Christ.
Hemos oido el llamado;
We’ve answered “Yes,” to the call of the Lord.“We Are the Body of Christ,” ©1994, Jaime Cortez, OCP.
Text: Jaime Cortez and Bob Hurd.
All rights reserved.
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org