What’s with all these feast days?
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, with the consecrated host presented in a monstrance. St. Paul’s Parish, K Street, an Episcopal church in Washington D.C.
Today for many churches is the Feast of Corpus Christi, or a feast for Thanksgiving for Holy Communion. It is a special day to reflect on the Eucharist and the joyful mystery of it being truly Christ’s Body and Blood, spiritually and completely present in the bread and wine. This is what Episcopalians call the “Real Presence.”
Many Christians across the world celebrate this feast, primarily Catholics, Orthodox, and some Episcopalians, usually with a procession and adoration of a consecrated communion wafer in a monstrance. Those who attend this worship service gaze on the consecrated Body as a way to connect to and adore Jesus in a way different from consuming the Eucharist. They worship not the bread, but that it is Jesus himself mysteriously present here. Many people will bow as you might bow before a king, since Jesus is worshiped as the King of Kings. This worship is more of a contemplation, perhaps the way you may sit with a loved one on your porch and just enjoy the love and silence between you.
By Albert Wider - http://www.heiligenlexikon.de and declared to be PD, Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=576642
You might notice that we have, as far as I know, never done a Eucharistic adoration at St. Martin’s. It is a particular kind of piety that not all Episcopalians share. Instead, many kalendars (fancy name for church calendar filled with saints and feasts) including the official Episcopal Church calendar of saints, lists today as the Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda. It is a feast where we remember those Ugandans who were tortured and murdered for their faith by a new king whose reaction to British colonialism caused him to neglect and brutalize his subjects. It is a sad story, and one that is not uncomplicated. In its story we remember how the Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries, and later local priests, worked together for the common goal of the Kingdom of God. In today’s collect, we pray also that we may “share the steadfast faith” of those Christians.
So what’s with all the feasts? And why am I telling you about all of this?
If you’re new to the Episcopal Church, it may seem a bit odd that we have these saints or feast days on a calendar, and that we remember these things on particular days. Why would we focus on one special part of Jesus? What is the point of reading difficult stories about martyrs when I’m not likely to be martyred any time soon?
I like to think of it all like this: all these feasts show us the different parts of how Jesus is good to focus on if you don’t have any ideas about how to love Jesus that day. At the heart of every feast or fast we observe in the church year is a message about how to love Jesus more completely. In these feast days, we celebrate the different dimensions of Jesus and the Gospel story, and we celebrate those whose love of Jesus might inspire and teach us something.
