Today we celebrate this great Solemnity in honor of the Eucharistic mystery. In it, liturgy and popular piety come together, having spared no ingenuity or beauty to sing to the Love of loves. For this day, Saint Thomas composed those beautiful texts for the Mass and the Divine Office. Today we must give great thanks to the Lord for having remained among us, make reparation to Him, and show Him our joy for having Him so close: *Adoro te, devote, latens Deitas*…, I devoutly adore Thee, hidden Deity…, we will say to Him many times today in the intimacy of our hearts.
During the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament, we can say to the Lord slowly, with love: *plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor*…, I do not see the wounds, as Thomas saw them, but I confess that You are my God; grant that I may believe more and more in You, hope in You, and love You.
Faith in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist led to devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass as well. In the early centuries of the Church, the reason for reserving the Sacred Species was to be able to bring Communion to the sick and to those who, for professing their faith, were in prison on the verge of suffering martyrdom. With the passage of time, the faith and love of the faithful enriched public and private devotion to the Holy Eucharist. This faith led to treating the Body of the Lord with the utmost reverence and giving Him public worship. We have many testimonies of this veneration in the oldest documents of the Church, and it gave rise to the feast we celebrate today.
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Our God and Lord is present in the Tabernacle; Christ is there, and our adoration and love must be made present there. This veneration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is expressed in many ways: Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament, processions, prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, genuflections that are true acts of faith and adoration… Among these devotions and forms of worship, "the solemnity of Corpus Christi deserves a particular mention as a public act of homage paid to Christ present in the Eucharist (…). The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of Love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet Him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith and open to making amends for the serious faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease."² Today especially must be filled with acts of faith and love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
If we attend the procession, accompanying Jesus, we will do so like those simple people who, full of joy, walked behind the Master during the days of His earthly life, naturally expressing to Him their many needs and ailments, as well as the happiness and joy of being with Him. If we see Him pass through the street, exposed in the Monstrance, we will let Him know from the intimacy of our hearts how much He means to us… "Adore Him with reverence and devotion; renew in His presence the sincere offering of your love; tell Him without fear that you love Him; thank Him for this daily proof of mercy so full of tenderness, and foster the desire to approach Communion with confidence. I marvel at this mystery of Love: the Lord seeks my poor heart as a throne, so as not to abandon me unless I turn away from Him."³ On that throne of our heart, Jesus is more joyful than in the most splendid Monstrance.
HCD