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| the procession of people behind the Monstrance |
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| one shrine in Ave. Heroinas |
Thursday, June 7th was the Feast of Corpus
Christi in Bolivia. In the United States,
it is celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. The liturgical calendar shows that there are
seven Sundays of Easter, followed by the next three Sundays that are
solemnities: Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and The Body and Blood of Christ. [1] In Latin America, the Feast of Corpus Christi
is celebrated not on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday, but on the Thursday that follows Trinity Sunday. The feast day reminds Catholics of the institution
of the Eucharist and their belief in the real presence of Christ in the elements of Communion.
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| another shrine |
I had participated in most of the processions during Holy Week this year. On
Thursday night during Holy Week, Catholics in the city make a pilgrimage to all
the churches in Cochabamba, a flood of people moving from one church to
another, stopping to pray at each altar. On Friday during Holy Week, a funeral
procession in memory of Jesus’ death on Good Friday, takes place. One of our
friends informed Joel and me that this re-enactment seemed so real, almost as
if one could actually experience Jesus’ death on Good Friday. Of
course, Jesus did not have a funeral procession years ago. He was hurriedly
placed in the tomb on a Friday afternoon, the anointing of the body to be carried
out the following Sunday.
The procession of Corpus Christ reminds me of the Bolivian
Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, when the faithful walk from shrine to
shrine (fifteen in all). In this ritual, we walked from one house to another in
our neighborhood, where the families had created shrines for each station of
the Cross.
In the city at Corpus Christi, different churches have set
up shrines throughout the city. The
procession stops at each shrine, where the liturgy is read, the Lord’s Prayer
and a Hail Mary are recited, a song is sung, and the people move on.
I joined the procession
when it was moving through Heroinas, one of the main streets in the city. I marveled at the simplicity of the procession,
the people following the Monstrance of the Host, beneath a white and gold
protective canopy. In the procession was a band, playing solemn music, children
from different Catholic schools, in uniform, and of course, at the head of the
procession, Bishop Tito, and as many priests from the archdiocese as one could
imagine—at the end of the procession, the Maryknoll priests, some of whom had
come from far away, out in the countryside. Sometimes the music from the loudspeaker
overlapped with the music of the choirs, and sometimes the brass band, with
percussion, of course, began its music too soon. It was not choreographed
perfectly, but its simplicity was pleasing.
The people were solemn, and there was no sign of street vendors hawking
cotton candy, buñuelos, or plastic toys. In a culture where color, lights, loud music,
and dance usually hold sway, this procession was subdued, stately, reverent.
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| as the crowd circled back to the Cathedral we passed the floral designs of the Eucharist |
[1] A solemnity is the highest ranking feast day in the liturgical calendar of the Roman
Catholic Church, commemorating an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary,
or another important saint. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening
before the actual feast day. So what event is being commemorated in Corpus
Christi? It is the feast day that commemorates the institution of the Eucharist,
even though this institution is part of the Easter Triduum (the three days
before Easter—Holy Thursday,when the Eucharist was instituted by Christ--, Good
Friday, and the Holy Saturday vigil before Easter). Church
history states that this solemnity was established to set aside one day for the
Eucharist itself, since Holy Thursday Mass commemorates Christ’s giving a new
commandment (that Christians love one another just as Christ has loved the
early disciples), the institution of foot washing, and the agony in Gethsemane.
