Corpus Christi
Our Lady of Pompeii
June 2, 2024
100 Years
Today we have gathered to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Pompeii Parish, and to give thanks to God for the blessings of these 100 years. We give thanks for the good work that has been done here in this parish, and for the lives of faith that were formed and sustained in this parish community. As I mentioned at the beginning of Mass, our celebration is bittersweet because we are aware that this parish will be completing its mission here – although it will carry out its mission in a new way as Our Lady of Pompeii merges with the community of Our Lady of Fatima.
As Christians, all the events of our life must be seen in the light of Christ, the light by which we see light, the One through whom we can understand the true meaning of all things. So, I would like to reflect on our celebration today – the blessings of the past and the promise of the future – in light of the feast the Church celebrates today: the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Origins and Meaning of the Feast of Corpus Christi
So to begin, what is this Feast? The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, arose in the Middle Ages at the prompting of a Belgian nun named Juliana of Liege, a woman with a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament who petitioned the Church for a special feast day dedicated to the Mystery of the Eucharist. Now, it helped the cause of Juliana of Liege that a local cleric, Jacques Pantaleon, went on to become the Pope, taking the name Pope Urban IV. It also helped that this feast acquired one of most enduring “soundtracks” in the history of Church music, a series of hymns written for the occasion by none other than the Dominican, Saint Thomas Aquinas. In these beautiful texts which we still use today, “Pange Lignua” and “O Salutaris”, this great doctor of the faith helps us understand more clearly and love more deeply this rich treasure that is before us: the Eucharist.
And that is the purpose of this feast. Like any feast, Corpus Christi holds up for the faithful an event in the life of Christ or a particular truth of the faith, so that we might be once again reminded of the great treasures we have received. This is particularly true of this Feast Day. While we celebrate the Eucharist together every Sunday, and while we solemnly commemorate that institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, this feast helps us to focus intently on the Reality present here in the tabernacle, and the Reality made present on the Altar, namely, that mere bread and wine are transformed in their very substance into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Risen Lord Jesus. The sacrifice of the Christ is made present here on the Altar, so that we might tap into the stream of grace that flows from the pierced side of Christ as he is offered to the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Corpus Christi and the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady Pompeii
So what does this have to do with the anniversary that we celebrate today? What does it have to do with the road ahead for our Church throughout the city of Baltimore? Let me offer this: As you know, Baltimore in the 1920’s was home to a growing population of Italian immigrants. Those immigrants, like my grandfather, experienced a great deal of hardship as they sought to make a home in this new land. They came to this country often fleeing poverty and seeking to make a new life for their family in this country. They brought with them their language, their culture, especially their food, but more than anything else, they brought their Faith.
So among the highest priorities of these newly arrived immigrants was finding a community, but not just any community, not just a group of people to share life with or to receive support from – important as that was. Most of all, this was about finding a community in which they could find Christ and find him in the Eucharist. Thus it was that in the 1920’s, Fr. Luigi Scialdone, C.M., and the Vincentian Fathers established this parish to be a place for outreach to immigrants – yes, a place of education for the young, and yes, a place to preserve culture and language of Italy, but most of all to be a place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass would be offered, and God’s People could receive Christ’s Most Holy Body and Blood.
Over this past century, this parish community has had its ups and downs, its moments of triumph and its moments of hardship, but one constant has remained: the Presence of the Lord received here at the Altar. In recent years, the story of this parish at its founding seems to have come full circle as more recently arrived sisters and brothers have come to this parish, bringing with them their language, Spanish, their culture, and their food – and above all their holy Catholic faith. And this parish has offered to our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters the same treasure offered to those first Italian parishioners: the Bread of Life, the food for the journey, the Eucharist.How grateful I am to the priests of Mato Grosso, especially Fr. Guiliano, Fr. Claudio and Fr. Mateo for all you have done to provide pastoral care here at Our Lady of Pompeii and all you have done to revitalize this community.
En los últimos años, la historia de esta parroquia desde su fundación parece haber cerrado el círculo. como han llegado a esta parroquia hermanas y hermanos más recién llegados, Y esta parroquia ha ofrecido a nuestros hermanos y hermanas de habla hispana el mismo tesoro ofrecido a aquellos primeros feligreses italianos: el Pan de Vida, el alimento para el camino, la Eucaristía. Cuán agradecido estoy a los sacerdotes de Mato Grosso, especialmente al P. Guiliano, P. Claudio, y P. Mateo por todo lo que ha hecho para brindar atención pastoral aquí en Nuestra Señora de Pompeya y todo lo que has hecho para revitalizar esta comunidad.
The Mission Continues
Yet, time marches on. Often it seem that the only constant is change. These past years have been a difficult but also an important time of looking at the changes that have taken place here in our City, at the needs around us, and asking what the Lord is calling us to do here and now. This parish was established to meet a growing need, prompted by a new community coming to this country. This parish was established so that from this church, God’s people might receive his Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. Yes, many things change but one thing remains the same: our mission. The Church is called to make Christ present here and now, and to do so in many ways, but especially in the Holy Eucharist.
Through the Church, Christ is present in our City. This does not change. There are many things on the road ahead that we might not know, and to be sure, the changes ahead will bring with them their share of heartbreak. But this we do know: Christ will be present among us, and he is still calling us to bring him to those around us. For 100 years that work has been done from this place. For 100 years children have been baptized and formed in the faith here in this community, Our Lady of Pompeii. For 100 years sinners seeking the mercy of God have found reconciliation. For 100 years men and women have entered into the covenant of matrimony and formed families in which the Faith is lived. For 100 years, the poor have found the care they need. For 100 years, the newly arrived have found a place of welcome. But most of all for 100 years, priests have stood at this altar and offered the words of Jesus at the Last Supper and through those words in the power of the Holy Spirit, bread and wine have been transformed into the Body of Blood of Christ. For this we give God thanks in the greatest way we know how, in the Eucharist. “What return shall I make to the Lord for all the goodness he has done for me. The cup of salvation I will take up and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”
For 100 years God’s work has been done from this place, for that and for all those who shared in that work, we give God thanks and praise. This work will continue, the mission does on. Today, as we look to the future, we ask God for the grace we need to be his messengers in our city today, here and now. As we come to this Altar to receive his Most Holy Body and Blood, we ask for the grace to become what receive, to be his body, present in the midst of the world. Filled with his grace, and ever aware of his presence, we go forward to do that work together.
Desde hace cien años la obra de Dios se hace desde este lugar, por eso y por todos los que compartieron esa obra, damos gracias y alabanzas a Dios. Este trabajo continuará, la misión continúa. Hoy, mirando hacia el futuro, le pedimos a Dios la gracia que necesitamos para ser sus mensajeros en nuestra ciudad hoy, aquí y ahora. Al acercarnos a este Altar para recibir su Santísimo Cuerpo y Sangre, pedimos la gracia de convertirnos en lo que recibimos, ser su cuerpo, presente en medio del mundo. Lleno de su gracia y siempre consciente de su presencia, Seguiremos adelante para hacer ese trabajo juntos.
Dio ti benedica e ti custodisca nel suo amore!
Que Dios te bendiga y te guarde en su amor!