Father Kenneth VanHaverbeke

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Diocese of Wichita

Homily Notes and references:  Corpus Christi 2010

In the beginning…

• God created Adam
  •  
    • The etymology of the word Adam connects it with Adamah, "ground or soil," and with Adom, "red." This suggests that Adam was formed from red soil or clay.
    • Breathed into the clay-imbued (saturated) with divinity!

 In the beginning…

• God walked with Adam and Eve
  • We could “see” God
• God and Man were one
• God was God/Divine;  Man was man/human
• Humans because of the harmony of spirit and flesh, had control over the body

After the Fall

• We could no longer see God, but only saw ourselves, our nakedness, our needs!
• They see God, each other, and the natural world differently
  • God:  They become afraid of
  • Each other:  they lust and use each other
    • The control over the body by the spirit is destroyed
  • Natural world:  seen as an adversary 
• Death enters the world 
  • Romans 8:12: For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that^[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
  • Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned

The Eucharist

• Only in seeing what Christ has done for us, given to us, can we realize what we have lost (Catholic Catechism #385)

 The Eucharist:

•  
  • • Element of Bread and Wine
    • Holy Spirit hovers over them – epiclesis
      • Spirit hovered over the waters at creation
      • Spirit hovered over Mary at the Incarnation
    • The priest bows slightly
      • Breathes into the elements of bread and wine
    • The matter becomes alive!
    • We receive this Matter, and we become One with God again
    • But we suffer from concupiscence
      • By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free
      • If we didn’t, we could see God here, now, now in veiled, sacramental form!

In the beginning – Now through the Eucharist

• God do not abandon us to the power of death, but gave us the means to over come sin!
• The Eucharist, the sacraments is that means!

For further reading:

•  
  1. Catholic Catechism paragraphs # 385- 421

•  
  1. Saint Thomas Quinas, Opusculum 57, in festo Corporis Christi, lect. 1-4 found at http://www.4marks.com/articles/details.html?article_id=4136;entity_ref=article-4136

•  
  1. The Holy Father Benedict XVI Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis found at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis_en.html

"Patience and submission are the only way

to gain the blessings of Heaven." 

Mother Seton