Corpus Christi Mass: “Let us return to Him with sincere love”
Leo XIV’s first day in Spain left us images that will stay in our memory: the warm welcome from authorities and citizens; the surprise the King prepared for the Pope, with the El Escorial Boys’ Choir; the youth vigil on the Castellana, massive and rich in content and in adoring expressions of faith. The second day of the apostolic visit opened with the Eucharistic celebration of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. New, extraordinary and unforgettable images that we will treasure for when we need to remember that faith must also be expressed in public.
And beyond all this, the Holy Father’s aim on this apostolic journey (and not only this one): to put Christ at the centre. Proposing the Christian humanism that gives meaning to the Church’s mission, Leo XIV unpacks the theological and anthropological content of the Incarnation: God becomes man and humanity returns to the original state in which it was created.
Christ at the centre of life
In his homily at Cibeles, the Holy Father left us some ideas that should surely
be explored further in our personal and community meditation: the sanctification of time through the feasts of the liturgical calendar; the honour due to the symbols, images and expressions of popular piety; every Christian’s duty to celebrate the mysteries of Christ and to bring him into every area of personal, ecclesial and social life; understanding our faith not as something private but as something that reaches outward and drives us to build a new world; understanding traditions as a foundation for moving forward rather than a mere sentimental treasure to be guarded; and the celebration of the Eucharist as a humble and friendly sign of faithfulness to Christ.
However, I think we should hold on to one message that includes all the others: a piety that is «a school that teaches us to kneel before God and before our neighbour, because no one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother; a school that teaches us the gratitude of love that becomes a gift, so that it may flow among us and break the chains of all selfishness; a school in which we learn that God is a real presence and that we too are called to be present in the situations and challenges of society, not to run away, but to commit ourselves personally to building the common good.»
Dignity
From the moment God created man and later re-created him through the Incarnation, humanity has a dignity that must not only be respected but raised to the point where God cannot be understood without man, nor man without God. An inseparable pair that we so often forget when we confuse love with philanthropy or interiority with sentimentality.
Divinity and humanity were bound together forever, not only in Christ but, thanks to him, in us too. Kneeling before God is the norm; kneeling before our neighbour, strange as it may seem and however hard it is in practice and in theory, is not idolatry. On the contrary, it is adoring that same God in the one who shares the same human nature with Christ.
Love
That is why Leo XIV’s call to return to Christ with sincere love takes on even greater meaning. Only
through love, that is, through Christ himself, can we discover or rediscover (as the case may be) Christ. Whatever the paradox of the beginning, the journey and the end always being the same Christ, what matters is sincere love, which is only sincere if it is directed to God and to our neighbour.
We need to deepen our faith and express it in love of neighbour, but for that it is essential to spend time with Christ regularly through the Eucharist, the sacrament in which humanity and divinity truly become tangible.
