From The Pastor

There is a lot of talk of the Evil One in the readings this Sunday. In his recent apostolic exortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis warns us about ignoring the reality of the devil: "We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable. The devil does not need to possess us. He poisons us with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy and vice. When we let down our guard, he takes advantage of it to destroy our lives, our families and our communities" (Paragraph 161).

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi where we celebrate the fact that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. When Jesus' physical Body ascended into Heaven, He did not abandon us. He left us His Body and Blood in the Eucharist as His sacramental presence. Sacramental presence means that the bread and the wine used at Mass still appear to be bread and wine and yet they have substantially changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Just as eyes of mere flesh and blood could not reveal to the people of Jesus' day that Jesus was divine, so also eyes of mere flesh and blood cannot recognize the difference between the Sacramental Body of Christ and an ordinary piece of unleavened bread. Growth in our awareness and understanding of Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist requires faith infused into us by the Holy Spirit.

Since we celebrated Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is really doing something here at St. Edwards. Last weekend, we had or second youth group gathering. Three of the Blue Nuns also showed up. We spent time just hanging out and eating pizza followed by yours truly attempting to prove the existence of God via St. Thomas' five ways. After the minds of the children of God were illumined, we went outside to play ultimate frisbee with the blue nuns and our seminarian Julian. One of the blue nuns, in full habit of course, went up for the frisbee and got her legs taken out from underneath her by a diving opponent. However, the coolest thing was that she came down with the frisbee! It could have made the NFL highlight reel. It is exciting to see how our youth group is really taking off.

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost. This solemnity initiates the growth of our Church. The Church has gone from repenting of our sins in Lent, celebrating the Resurrection of Christ in Easter, and now we are celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost until the Solemnity of Christ the King. On the Solemnity of Pentecost, the priest wears red to commemorate the tongues of fire that descend upon the Apostles.

This past weekend we had some of our youngest parishioners receive their First Communion. I was very impressed with their knowledge of the faith. In the Eucharist, Jesus is made really present in His Body and Blood. In the beginning, Adam and Eve disobediently ate from the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thereby separating themselves from God. Today, we eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life, the Cross, and thereby bring ourselves back into communion with God.