Corpus Christi Catholic Community

The Corpus Christi Logo is one that signifies the community spirit shared within the Parish. The half circle or “ C ” represents Corpus Christi Catholic Community. Being an open circle, it represents our openness as a community for giving and receiving, welcoming and encouraging. The hands represent the people we are, the Body of Christ, who reach inwards to each other and the Eucharist, so as to gather strength and nourishment, in order to let go and reach out to our wider community, hence two hands are shown as touching, but not attached. All of this is in the name of Christ and for His body, Corpus Christi.

22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME- YEAR C

A Message from the Pastor...

Dear Friends,

“My friend, move up higher...”

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Humility’ as: “The quality of being humble; unpretentiousness.” What better setting can there be to describe this elusive quality than at a high powered banquet. In fact the literary convention of having philosophical discussions taking place at table in the Hellenistic world dates from the time of Xenophon and Plato with the ‘Symposium.’ Philosophical conflict over a good meal was not exclusive to the Greek tradition; Jewish literature such as the ‘Letter to Aristeas’ has the philosophers replaced by Jewish teachers and their wisdom is devotion to the Torah. Luke presents Jesus as both philosopher and prophet, and so we often find him at table and engaged in ‘table-fellowship’. The highest expression of this is the Last Supper (22: 14-38).[1]

That the fellow diners with Jesus are Pharisees, indeed the ‘chief Pharisee’ and Scribes and the occasion happens to be a ‘Sabbath day’ all the signs of trouble are flagged. The healing of the man with the dropsy has been edited out of our Gospel today, and so the reason for Jesus’ parabolic teaching of table manners, is somewhat missed. Common sense wisdom like that contained in Proverbs advised “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, “Come up here” than to be put lower in the presence of the prince.” (25:6-7). But Jesus is not interested in the appropriate etiquette for the upwardly mobile, as he is in the frame of mind those who seek exaltation at any cost. The teaching of Jesus is ‘parabolic’ because it ‘parodies’ the good advice of worldly wisdom only to subvert it by the more radical demand of the kingdom. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." The Lukan theme of divine reversal is found throughout his Gospel, especially in the Magnificat “The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.” (Lk 1:53). In the Eucharist we are constantly challenged to render authentic worship to God by our service of the poor and outcast; the desperate and the lonely. The more we do this the more we come to the heavenly Jerusalem, with the “Whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born child’ and a citizen of heaven” (Heb 12:23).

God bless,

Fr George.