By Anthony Barich
NOT so long ago, public Catholic processions for feast days were a staple of Catholic life: giving a public witness to the faith while praying and celebrating a feast day, which gives vitality to one’s life.
Rural settings were particularly popular, as Catholics lined isolated highways with banners emblazoned with images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary or a particular saint.
While a number of parishes bravely processed around their local churches on the feast of Corpus Christi last year, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are attempting to re-establish a tradition that dates back centuries – the concept of pilgrimage – in the bush.
The Corpus Christi Procession is a public witness to the Real, Substantial Presence of The Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread. While their annual Corpus Christi pilgrimage through Toodyay has featured for at least the past decade, the Franciscans, in the spirit of their inspiration St Maximilian Kolbe – who was known, apart for his martyrdom in Auschwitz, for promoting the Gospel through modern media – are trying with renewed fervour to publicly thank God for the gift of His presence in the Blessed Sacrament, which is received at Mass.
Giving thanks is central to the theology of the Eucharist, as the Greek word Eucharistia means ‘to give thanks’.
The invitations of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters is, says 32 year old organiser Friar Gabriel FI, to show, in a “very concrete way, gratitude for God’s Gift par-excellence – His very own Presence which resides night and day in the Most Blessed Sacrament whether people visit Him or not”.
“The gratitude for the gift should in some way, at least, be proportionate to the greatness of the gift. And the gift by nature is infinite because it is God Himself,” Friar Gabriel FI said.
The Toodyay Annual Corpus Christi Mass and Procession is on June 6, with Mass at 10.30am at the church adjacent to Our Lady Help of Christians Franciscan Friary at 36 Stirling Terrace. Participants will then process through Toodyay’s main thoroughfare, giving public witness to the faith, singing and praying.
Friar Gabriel FI, a former professional skateboarder in the US, said that, as the ‘Church militant’ – a term used often by Franciscan St Maximilian Kolbe – the baptised are called to challenge each other to “come out of our comfort zones where we hide for most of the year, and expose ourselves to either receiving admiration or ridicule, in clement or inclement weather”.
It is the Franciscan Friars’ desire for priests, Religious and lay people not to fear the reproaches of men who “might think less of us”, keeping in mind the words of Christ Himself: Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in Heaven (Matthew 10:32-33)”.
And again in Luke’s Gospel, Christ said: “You are the ones who have stood faithfully by me in my trials; and I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father has conferred on me so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom…” ( Luke 22:28).
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ST FRANCIS ON CORPUS CHRISTI
“Let the whole of mankind tremble
the whole world shake
and the heavens exult
when Christ, the Son of the living God, is on the altar
in the hands of a priest.
O admirable heights and sublime lowliness!
O sublime humility!
O humble sublimity!
That the Lord of the universe,
God and the Son of God,
so humbles Himself
that for our salvation
He hides Himself under the little form of bread!
Look, brothers, at the humility of God
and pour out your hearts before Him!
Humble yourselves, as well,
that you may be exalted by Him.
Therefore,
hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves
so that He Who gives Himself totally to you
may receive you totally.”
– St Francis of Assisi (D 1226)