Together we are journeying through life. We travel in our lives, many here have made long journeys to be in Manchester. We travel forward through time. We travel as pilgrims with no abiding city, we seek the one that is to come.
Through the night of doubt and sorrow onward goes the pilgrim band, singing songs of expectation, marching to the promised land.
In The Bible St Paul tells us we are one body for we all eat of the one bread.
We are one body united in the Mass, a sign of unity, a bond of love. We journey on into the different places of our lives with a living and loving faith. We are walking the one path of God, the path into God’s eternity. We are bound together by God’s love, the God who here feeds us, nurtures us, nourishes us, and loves us. Together as sisters and brothers, we live in faith together, we move together, we journey through life together.
Mass today, Corpus Christi, has a special feature – the outdoor Procession. We carry the sacrament, the bread of life in procession out of the church door and into the world. We process together proclaiming we are one in our faith and in our joy. We journey together to God’s heavenly city, our eternal rest. With eyes set on Jesus Christ the pioneer of our journey we process through life to God.
Our Corpus Christi procession is a sign of our life journey, it is a sign of our faith, our hope to God. And yet, God the end of our journey, who inspires us and calls us on, is also with us, in the journey, among us, in each of us, and today, moving with us in the Blessed Sacrament. This is a day of great celebration, of joy, as we go out of Church today looking journeying together, comforted and encouraged by Christ with us.
So let us walk in Christian faith, today and forever. Let us walk in Christian faith in all the streets of our life. When life is smooth, when life is rough, we journey in hope and faith. Christ is near, among us, the end and the strength is with us.
Today in God’s creation, in God’s love, a procession moves through the paths and streets of our world. It will arrive at its end, its goal. Already, on this blessed feast, in fact, heaven and earth join together and celebrate one blessed hope and feast.
This is a summary of the sermon, given by Fr Ian, at Corpus Christi at St Chrysostom’s this year.
