Corpus Christi
Fr. Anthony Brankin
If you think about it, for hundreds of years, the Prince of this world has been trying to persuade us that there are two realities—two universes—two worlds. One is real and the other is imaginary. He and his minions would have us believe that only this world—this earth, this life—is real. If we can see it or weigh it or put it under a microscope to examine it—only that is real. Conversely, if it is invisible or spiritual or supernatural then that is not real—probably—but even if it is real—even if God does exist, we really don’t have to worry about Him. We can live our lives as if He doesn’t exist. This is called “practical atheism.”
They might admit, the world of faith is a very beautiful world—and it is mirrored in the beauty of our churches and her ceremonies. But for them—the atheists—the world of faith is just some big happy Fantasyland that doesn’t really count, that doesn’t really matter. If there is a heaven—that’s great. If there is hell then we can ignore it. If there is God—well so what? We can believe anything we want as long as our religious ideas don’t change the way we shop or entertain ourselves—or the way we vote or the way we live. Just don’t push all this supernatural stuff on people as if it were real.
Be sober and alert
This is where we get the idea of separation of church and state. The founding fathers said “You can’t have people who believe in invisible things like angels and saints and heaven and hell telling us how to live our lives! Why that is madness. Religion in general and the Catholic religion in particular should have no role to play in the way we live because what these Christians believe is not really real!” So what does this mean for us? We are here at Mass. We do believe. We do want to live good lives here in order to get to heaven. We do believe in hell—and we believe in the church—what more should we do? We must be careful. We must be wary.
We must be watchful for anything in our hearts or our heads that ever should dismiss the supernatural in favor of the natural. We should delight when we hear that all the fishes came to the surface when Saint Anthony preached—to hear him! We should thrill to hear how St. Joseph Cupertino flew into the air—or how Padre Pio had the bleeding wounds of Jesus in his own body, or how the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego and Bernadette and Lucia and Francisco and Jacinta. We must believe that the little white host is changed into Jesus’ very body at the words of the Mass. If we believed all that—and as innocently as children—then there would be no distinctions between the reality of the physical world and the reality of the supernatural world. It would be a real universe of things visible and invisible—and there wouldn’t be an empty seat in this church.
As it is we have allowed them to make us feel—or at least act—as if some of the things in which we believe are not that believable. And that includes the moral teachings of the faith as well. But whenever we begin to feel that way we have to resist and not allow them in. We must resolve to believe all the truths of our Faith—even the smallest ones—even the most supernatural ones—even the moral ones about birth control and gay marriage—yes gay marriage. We must hold most firmly to the beliefs that Catholics would most likely mock us for. We must believe in miracles and Mass and holy water and grace and God’s care for us. We must believe all that the Catholic Church teaches—even though the world says we are mean and wrong and silly. And we must believe in it all—because the smallest belief—as mysterious as it is and as impossible to understand as it is—is the key to believing in God Himself.
Because unless we believe those mysteries and teachings exactly and fully and completely—as being as true and real as anything you can put in a scale and weigh—unless we believe in heaven and hell and angels and saints and miracles and grace—we will—in short order—and before we know it—lose our belief in God. And we will have become—by definition—insane. For the insane person—and the insane society—is the one that does not have a grasp on reality. And if society tells us that the invisible and supernatural universe out there does not exist—when it really does exist—then we are in store for huge problems in this world and damnation perhaps in the next. If we do not believe in the things that God has revealed then we will stop believing in God and we will eventually believe in monsters.