Have you ever met someone famous?  Have you ever had an encounter with greatness?  I sure many of us have, in fact I am sure that many of us have gone in search of a meeting with someone famous, whether a musician, actor, author, or politician.  There seems to be built into us as human beings a desire to seek out those who we consider to be people of greatness. On February 20, in the year 2000 I had, what I consider, to be an encounter with greatness.

I was visiting Rome on a pilgrimage with a group of Seminarians that I was studying with in Winona, MN.  We had, through a friend of a friend requested a meeting with Pope John Paul II, but as the last few days of our pilgrimage were coming to a close we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were not going to be able to meet with the Pope.  One of our last days in Rome was a Sunday, and so after Mass a priest friend and I went to run some errands. When we arrived back at the North American College where we were staying there was a message waiting for us from the Vatican that said we were to be at the bronze doors later that evening for a meeting with the Pope.  As you can image we were overjoyed and made fast work of ironing our dress clothes and polishing our shoes.  That evening we walked to the Vatican and went to the massive bronze doors that led into the Papal palace.  The Swiss guard pointed us to a priest awaiting our arrival who took us through the papal palace to the meeting hall where we and a group of about a hundred other people who would meet the Pope were also waiting…and wait we did…for what seemed like an eternity. 

The room was bubbling with energy…we were all awaiting the arrival of a powerful world leader, a man full of holiness and joy; we were awaiting our papa…our pope.  Suddenly the door swung open and the hunched over, pain ridden man shuffled in and took his place in his chair.  A group of pilgrims from Poland began singing and clapping…the pope, with a twinkle in his eyes, joined in.  After the singing, the various groups who were present would take turns gathering around him for group photos, without the opportunity to meet him individually.  That made my heart sink; I wanted to have a personal encounter with him. 

As the line got smaller and smaller and we got closer and close to this holy, saintly man the Holy Father’s Secretary, much to my surprise, began to send people up one by one.  As I approached the Holy Father I knelt before him, took his hand and looked straight into his eyes.  As I knelt there in utter awe, unable to say all of the things I wanted to say, he said to me “who is your bishop?”  I responded and said “Bishop Robert Carlson of the Diocese of Sioux Falls South Dakota your Holiness.”  He then responded by gently patting me on the cheek…a gesture of love from a father to a son. 

That was it…that was my brief moment with a man who no doubt will one day be a saint and officially carry the title of “the great.” After my encounter with him I stood in the back of the room and tears began to roll down my cheeks as I realized how awesome that short encounter had been.  Yet that meeting; that encounter with greatness is nothing compared to another, more awesome encounter that I, as well as you, have the opportunity to experience each and every day in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

An encounter with greatness…it’s something that all of us desire.  But if truth be told, our desires for encountering greatness will never be satisfied by meeting a sports figure, a movie star, or even the Pope for that matter.  Our desire to encounter greatness can only be satisfied by encountering greatness himself - God made man in Jesus Christ. That, my friends is why we come to Mass as often as we do.  We come here week after week, and day after day, to have a real…not just symbolic…encounter with God.  We come here to enter into heaven which in the Holy Sacrifice opens up before us.  We come here to meet Jesus Christ made present under what looks like bread and wine, but which, in reality, is indeed the presence of Him who died and rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father.

This presence, which we receive and which unites us into the one body of Christ is meant to bring Christ into our hearts and lives in an extraordinary way so as to remind us that we are called to bring Him into our hearts and lives in the ordinary moments of our daily lives as well.  We, as Catholic Christians, seek to make Christ present not only here, but also in every aspect of our lives no matter how ordinary and mundane they seem to be.  We have the power through prayer and our good works to transform the ordinary and mundane into the extraordinary and mystical. 

Today, throughout the world and here after our 11am Mass, the people of God, after having received the very presence of Christ into themselves, after having been united into one body by Holy Communion will take Christ to the world in a way that the world is not used to.  With clouds of incense, blazing candles, and the ringing of bells we will carry Jesus, the Son of God, through the neighborhood surrounding our parish.  We will make the ordinary task of walking around the neighborhood into an extraordinary encounter with God by bringing him with us.

Pope Benedict, when he was known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote a beautiful and truly moving reflection about the Feast of Corpus Christi, particularly the Corpus Christi procession.  Allow me to share with you a quotation from that meditation.  It is long, but well worth it.  Cardinal Ratzinger said that in the Corpus Christi procession

“We carry the Lord…out into the streets of our cities and towns.  We carry him out into our everyday lives.  These streets are supposed to become his paths.  He should not live alongside of us, locked up in tabernacles, but rather in our midst, in our daily routine.  Wherever we go, he should go; where we live, he should live.  Our world, our daily routine should become his temple.” 

He goes on to say:

“‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock,’ our Lord says in the mysterious book of Revelation.  ‘If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.’  The Feast of Corpus Christi is supposed to make this knocking of our Lord audible to us, who are spiritually hard of hearing.  By means of the procession it knocks loudly on our daily routine and asks:  Open up!  Let me in!  Start to live on me.”

My brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, wants to be part of our daily lives…today he is knocking on the door of our hearts.  Will we allow him in?  Will we allow him into the ordinary moments of our daily lives?  Will we allow him into every nook and cranny of our lives, even those parts that seem very personal and private?  Will we allow him into our work and recreation?  Will we allow him to transform our ordinary, every day lives into extraordinary moments of encounter with God.  I hope so…because it is only through allowing him into our hearts and lives that we will be given admittance into that ultimate, unimaginable encounter with God that lasts forever in Heaven.

My brothers and sisters…he knocks…today, very loudly.  Let him in.