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Diocesan Pilgrimage to Knock

4 June 2024

Diocesan Pilgrimage to Knock – Year B, 02.06.24

Basilica of Our Lady of Knock @ 3.00pm

Introduction:

We have arrived to this wonderful International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine at Knock. Thank you for making the journey from your parish. Our diocese is a family of 56 parishes covering seven counties.

Hands up those here from counties Carlow, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Wicklow, Kilkenny and finally Wexford? We have many allegiances when it comes to culture and sport but we have one faith, one belief, one identity which unites us and none more so than on this Feast of the Body & Blood of Christ.

Corpus Christi celebrates the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist and in His body, all of us who are the Church. Our scripture readings focus a lot on biblical symbolism – bread, wine, Passover, sacrifice. Mark’s gospel brings us back to the early gospel in our Palm Sunday liturgy, know better as the short gospel before the longer Passion Narrative, the gospel that prepares the scene for Passover.

Like then and now we are welcomed in our unworthiness. We are simply His body, broken, shared, poured out and sent and so we pray … I confess …

May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Homily:

Among the great names of contemporary Irish sacred music composers is Bernard Sexton who penned a beautiful hymn which was sung at the Closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in 2018, entitled ‘The Last Supper’ with its refrain:

‘Jesus took the bread he broke
Jesus shared the bread he broke
and said
“Do this, do this in memory of me”’

It wasn’t surprising that Sexton would compose such a melody having composed the hymn that became the anthem for the International Eucharistic Congress earlier in Dublin in 2012, ‘Though We are Many’. Both hymns have much to say about Corpus Christi.

Corpus Christi is the Body and Blood of Christ. Mark’s gospel refers to Jesus taking “some bread”[1]. Sometimes we talk about the ‘Bread of Life’, indeed it’s a phrase taken from John’s gospel where Jesus said “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again”[2], but sometimes I wonder might ‘bread’ limit what we are trying to capture, to describe?

I saw during the week where the founder of Brennan’s Bread has died, Joseph Brennan, Lord rest him, who founded the iconic company in 1972. We all know its famous tagline “Today’s Bread, Today!” There is nothing as bad as stale bread, as bread gone blue moulded, as bread that we forgot to take out of the freezer!

‘Jesus took the bread he broke
Jesus shared the bread he broke
and said
“Do this, do this in memory of me”’

The Eucharist isn’t just ‘Today’s Bread Today’ it is there to sustain us for tomorrow and the day after and every day after that. And perhaps that’s why the phrase ‘Bread of Life’ doesn’t do it for me, doesn’t encompass all that Corpus Christi entails. Bread risks limiting what Eucharist means.

The Feast of Corpus Christi came about in the twelfth century when many Catholics simply never received communion at all but felt close to Christ through the act of adoration. Laws would be introduced reminding Catholics that they were to receive at least once a year at Easter. Vatican II taught that receiving the Risen Lord in Holy Communion was the more faithful part of our tradition and was in itself the more complete act and encouraged much more frequent reception, as we know today.

‘Jesus took the bread he broke
Jesus shared the bread he broke
and said
“Do this, do this in memory of me”’

Knock is Ireland’s International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine, honoured with such a status by Pope Francis in 2021. In his message for that day Pope Francis prayed: “May the Eucharistic mystery which unites us in communion with the Risen Lord and with one another always be the rock on which to live out faithfully our vocation to be ‘missionary disciples’, like the Virgin Mary ...”[3]. We don’t always look on Our Lady as Missionary, and yet that is what she is. Here in Knock she was a silent missionary, whose silence on that August day in 1879 spoke volumes.

The witnesses, so beautifully captured here in the Basilica, were the ones to speak, and we in turn 145 years later are also expected to speak of our faith and our belief in the Eucharist. When you visit the Apparition Chapel, like me, you might be very struck by the image of the lamb on the altar.

Those who keep sheep at home, know all about the birthing of lambs. Nothing more delicate than a lamb at birth. Sometimes it takes a small splash of water on the head, or a tickling of their tiny nostril with a little straw gives the lamb the burst of life it needs. Often they require to be swung upside down to get any fluid residue out of their lungs. Lambs are tender and need all the care we can afford to give them. Jesus chose the image of a lamb to allow us to understand the sacrifice that is offered on the altar every day. A sacrifice that is done in memory of Him.

‘Jesus took the bread he broke
Jesus shared the bread he broke
and said
“Do this, do this in memory of me”’

The breadman called to us at home twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. Johnny White would drive down the lane to our farm house and as young children we ran out to be the first to collect the three white loaves and one sliced pan, in the hope that Johnny might throw in an iced bun or a sugary donut. No wonder we have high sugar levels in our blood! Johnny is long since gone to his eternal reward. The breadman no longer calls and has no reason to call.

This feast is not about bread, even the loaves that have a long expiry date, it’s about Jesus and his heart pulsating out of love for every one of us. When we receive Him, that’s exactly what we are doing. We are back to that lamb on the altar, taking part in the sacrifice that privileges us to do this in memory of Him. But the Eucharistic mystery calls us not only to be in communion with Him, but also with one another. And sometimes that’s the bigger call.

He gives us Himself and invites us to give ourselves to one another. This evening as we travel home from this Shrine, may we remind ourselves that Jesus is at the heart of our lives and at the heart of every one of our 56 parish communities in the 7 counties, indeed the 117 faith communities that identify with a particular church, all of which make up our diocese. May we be in communion with Him, and in communion with one another.

‘Jesus took the bread he broke
Jesus shared the bread he broke
and said
“Do this, do this in memory of me”’