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Sermon – Corpus Christi 2026 – 4th/7thJune
"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
The very first journey made by the incarnate Son of God was from Nazareth to Ein Karem, enclosed within the womb of His Blessed Mother. Mary walked along through the hill country of Judea, following the route of the Ark of the Covenant one thousand years before. We call Mary the Ark of the Covenant, because she was the first Eucharistic vessel, carrying Jesus along the road.
The Ark of the Covenant contained a piece of the manna that fell upon the Israelites in the wilderness – “Your fathers ate the manna in the desert” – it housed also the tablets of the Law, and Aaron’s rod that bloomed. Our Lord is the Bread of Life, the giver of the Law, and the High Priest of our Salvation.So everything that we see about the Ark is a shadow and a prophesy of Jesus Himself. On the day of the dedication of the Tabernacle, two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, brought unholy fire into the sanctuary, and were themselves consumed by fire. The Levites carrying the Ark across the River Jordan passed along the riverbed with dry feet, as the Jordan parted before the Ark. Joshua carried the Ark seven times around the city of Jericho, and its walls tumbled down. When the Ark was captured by the Philistines, everywhere that it stayed, the enemies of God were struck down by tumours. Placed in the temple of the Philistine god Dagon, the Ark brought his colossal statue crashing to the ground. The milch cows who pulled the Ark away from the Philistines brought it straight back to the land of Israel, passing their lowing calves without a second glance. When the men of Beth Shemesh presumptuously opened the Ark, seventy of them were struck down by the Lord. When the Ark was being transported to Jerusalem by King David, and reached the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put out his hand to steady the ark, and fell down dead.
If all these things applied to the type and the shadow, how much more terrible and awe-inspiring is the reality: that Sacrament in which our Lord and Saviour dwells among us bodily – made present in His entirety to each of us.
This is what St Paul tells the Corinthians:
"Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep."
When King David eventually brought the Ark to Jerusalem, he leapt and danced before it, sacrificing to the Lord, and distributing food and drink to all the people of Israel. In the Old Covenant the glory of God was concealed – in the gold overlaid acacia wood box, under the mercy seat and the two cherubim, and in the cloud which covered Moses’ encounters with the Lord, or the dedication of the tabernacle and the temple – and when Our Lady travelled through the mountains of Judea, she concealed the secret of God’s presence within her womb. Only John the Baptist, within Elizabeth’s womb, recognized the presence of the Christ, and like David leaping before the Ark, leapt in homage Jesus. Our Lord would travel again, with His parents, into Egypt. According to legendary traditions preserved by Coptic Christians, as the Holy Family passed through the land, pagan idols and statues fell to the ground, and springs rose from the earth. In a more reliable canonical account, St Mark’s Gospel tells how when Jesus crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, into the pagan territory of the Gerasenes, when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, filled with a legion of demons, whom the Lord cast into the herd of swine.
“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” As Our Lord walked towards Jericho, a blind man, Bartimaeus, sitting by the roadside begging, heard these words, and cried out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The Lord gave him his sight and Bartimaeus followed Him, glorifying God, and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Bartimaeus recognized who Jesus is, even though he could not see. The demons on the far side of the Jordan quailed in terror before Him, although He was clothed in His humanity. The idols of Egypt crumbled to dust before a baby. John the Baptist knew him, even before they were born. And we know Him. We know Him, concealed under the appearances of Bread and Wine. We know that in the Eucharist, there is no Bread and Wine. We know that here in our tabernacle, and upon our altar, and given to be present as our very food is the One whose glory rested upon the Ark in mystery, before whom David leapt and danced, and who gave the manna from heaven. The Eucharist is not only the sign, it is the reality. We too must approach with reverence, with faith, with awe – and also with trust and gratitude, because what Moses glimpsed in shadow, we receive in its fulness: The Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Tonight, and again on Sunday, we will take Him on another journey through the streets of York. Many will see Him and will not know Him – but can we not hope that He will cast out evil, touch hearts, turn from sin, inspire conversion and pour out His mercy on all whom He will pass? We can do our simple part by pouring out all the outward tokens of our love – by pointing to the One whom we carry. If the Blessed Sacrament passes you, and you can kneel – kneel down. Above all – be present. Our Lady didn’t send a letter to Elizabeth, she took Jesus to her. David, when exiled from Jerusalem, longed above all to be able to approach the Lord in His sanctuary:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”
“O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.”
When David flees before Absalom, he says to Zadok the priest, “If I find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both (the Ark) and his habitation.”
Just as the Lord makes Himself physically present to us, so we have to respond in the same way. It’s no good generally agreeing with the Catholic religion but not coming to Mass. The actual, bodily celebration of the Holy Mass was the reason why our martyrs laid down their lives. It’s no good vaguely approving of processions, but not taking part in them. David and John the Baptist leapt –and you can walk, and show to the disordered world that in the Eucharist is peace, and mercy, and love.
Our Holy Father Pope Leo, in his encyclical published last week, Magnifica Humanitas, presents the Blessed Sacrament as the antidote to the virtual world of loneliness, in which individuals are reduced to algorithms and human relationships are obliterated by artificial intelligence. The Pope says,
“The spirituality that we need is a Eucharistic spirituality, that is a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love.” In other words, to receive and to worship the Lord in Holy Communion is never a purely individual act – it must be Communion, it must lead us to a shared witness, it must lead us to look outwards and to bring about the Kingdom of God in the world. Pope Leo says,
“It is from this communion that Christian solidarity also arises, since (as Pope Benedict XVI said) “union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself”… In the Eucharist we find a visible manifestation of the reality that we “are the Church of Christ, his members, his body. We are brothers and sisters in him. And in Christ, though many and diverse, we are one: In Illo uno unum.” The Eucharist opens us to justice and sharing, with a preferential concern for those who are burdened by poverty or marginalization. And while new economic and technological networks can generate exclusion, isolation and dependencies, the Church —nourished by the Eucharist — is called to make visible a different paradigm, one that preserves human connections, gives a voice to the invisible and ensures that processes are aimed at respecting people’s dignity.”
Isaiah said, “Truly You are God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.” But here, in the Sacrament of Unity, is the God who manifests Himself, who bursts into our world, whom we will carry onto our streets, who breaks the bonds of slavery and estrangement, who has come to bring Life.
"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
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