The Catholic tradition teaches that there are three Thursday that shine more than the sun: Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi and the Ascension. However, the solemnity of the body and blood of Christ is celebrated in many dioceses the following Sunday. This is not the case of the Archdiocese of Toledo, primada of Spain, or the Archdiocese of Seville, which today have taken to the streets in solemn procession.
Corpus Christi en Toledo
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
The Archbishop of Toledo, Mons. Francisco Cerro, during the Homily at Mass Prior to one of the best -known Corpus processions in the world, he highlighted “the wonder that is to walk a god on the street, a God so close that hope always returns us.”
The primacy of Spain shared that the Eucharist is astonishment, welcome and charity.
“That God wanted to come to live my life so that I live yours. That is the Eucharistic astonishment. The Eucharistic astonishment in our own life is to discover that God who has not wanted to lose the joy of human being, the joy of being human,” he said in the first place.
In addition, he recalled that God, Jesus Christ, “was born as a woman, has lived in Nazareth, has worked, has known scarcity, poverty, miseries, has also known the betrayal of friends and has died and has risen. And he has stayed forever with us in the Eucharist.”
Regarding the reception, Mons. Cerro stated that “the Eucharist is the remedy to our loneliness.” “It is true that God said in Genesis’ It is not good for man to be alone.
In this regard, he recalled that San Bernardo de Claraval taught “that man is never less than when he is alone with God.”
The prelate pointed out, finally, that the Eucharist is charity because it invites “to look at the world with the bowels of mercy”, despite wars, corruption and that “there are many people who believe that everything is already lost.”
Corpus Christi en Sevilla
For his side, from Seville, Mons. José Ángel Saiz Meneses explained In his homily that the Corpus Christi “is like a projection of Holy Thursday, but with the festive and public character of a profession of joyful faith.”
The archbishop also shared that the certainty that in the Eucharist “the Lord is real, true and substantially present” is a “truth of faith cannot be diluted or relativized.”
Therefore, he added: “There is nothing more effective to grow in Christian life, to mature in faith, to advance by the path of personal sanctification, than the fervent participation in the frequent and fruitful Eucharist.”
Mons. Sáiz also recalled that “there is no true Eucharistic cult without fraternal charity,” so that “we cannot commune with Christ and be indifferent to its most injured members,” considering that “there are many forms of poverty”, material and spiritual.
“Today we ask the Lord to not allow us to settle in the routine and conformism, that it does not allow our conscience to be anesthetized before the poorest and needy, not to let us celebrate the Eucharist without shaking our conscience and without advancing in the conversion of the heart, which when going out with him in custody, we also go out with open hands, with the heart available, with the life offered,” he said.
The Prelate also considered that, in the face of the best known cruel conflicts (Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Iran) and before other “no old -silent” wars that happen in families, in the works and, “in short, in hearts”, we must remember that “the Eucharist is a school of peace.”
“Peace is not just a desire, it is a task. Being Eucharistic men and women is being peace builders,” added the Hispanic archbishop, before sharing a desire: “That each one of us is a living custody, which leads Christ to others. That our streets become a temple today. That our lives are the altarpiece where Christ wants to stay.”
Cardinal Cobo: “Faith cannot be lived locked up”
Advanceing to the celebration that takes place this Sunday in other dioceses, the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, called in a carta To transform the procession that will travel the streets of the Spanish capital next Sunday into “a prophetic gesture of unity and a song of hope.”
It is, because “walking together to bring hope to our streets and tell our city, not only as a parish in our neighborhood but as a diocesan church, that God is in the midst of his people and that it is he who feeds our hope.”
“Faith cannot be lived locked up,” emphasizes the purple, who insists that “we need to go together to give a unique message and be a sign of Christ in the midst of this wide plural city and thirsty for meaning.”
“We cannot live an anonymous or isolated faith. Our neighbors need the voice of each community, but a voice attached to Christ. The Eucharist pushes us to unity, fraternity and, of course, to the commitment to those who suffer the most,” he adds.
Nicolás de Cárdenas
Born in 1980, I am a Spanish and journalist’s husband and father with more than 20 years of experience in print and digital media, specialized in socio -political and religious information. I have worked more than 10 years in defense of human rights and I have accreditations in journalism and comprehensive communication. Since July 2022, I am a correspondent for ACI Press and Ewtn News in Spain, covering international events of the Catholic Church.