On 18th October 2026, Corpus Christi celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Shrine’s Consecration. Although built in 1874, it took until 1956 for the debt to be paid off and the church to finally be consecrated. A Pontifical Sung Mass was celebrated by His Eminence, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, to mark the anniversary.
My brothers and sisters,
In October 1956, I was approaching my eleventh birthday, and I’d just started in secondary school, which, as you remember, can be quite a frightening time in life. Having been at the top of a primary school, you’re suddenly the youngest and the most disposable of all.
Now perhaps some of you, I don’t know, might have been here on that day which we’re celebrating today, the consecration of the church in October 1956. I thank Father Alan and those who were with him for giving us in the Mass booklet pointers, examples of the music, and explanations about that consecration of the church these seventy years ago.
Now the opening prayer of the Mass, the Collect, has in it two phrases which I think can guide our reflection this morning. First is that this place, this church, is to be “a place of pure worship for the Lord”. And the second phrase which followed was that it is to be “for us the fullness of redemption”.
So they’re the two things: pure worship of the Lord, and finding here the fullness of redemption.
On our first, I would like to take this opportunity of saluting the great care in all the actions of worship that take place here, that helps to make this pure worship. And how fittingly enriched this shrine has become, and for that I thank again Father Alan Robinson and all of you who support his utter dedication in transforming this and establishing it as our Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament.
Prayer here will always be enriched and become pure worship of the Lord. And that, of course, is our first duty. The first duty of our lives is to offer the best worship we can to the Lord our God.
Then the second phrase is: is for us to be a place of the fullness of redemption. And I think it’s the three readings that we’ve heard that help us to understand that phrase more fully. It’s open for us in the readings.
So the first reading, from the prophet Ezekiel, with that wonderful image of the water flowing from the south side of the temple, purifying, bringing growth. It’s an image, as you know, that is repeated in the Book of Revelation, especially that last phrase in the Book of Revelation, that this water brings healing for the nations.
It is, in fact, the last scriptural image, I think, of Pope Leo’s latest encyclical about the glory of humanity, the Magnifica Humanitas. He says all of this is for the healing of the nations.
So we come here to receive again this water, this grace for our healing. For some it might be the prayer of healing from real debilitating illness. For many it might be the healing that we need just to recover equanimity, to find again the right balance in our life, so that we may journey on day by day in fruitfulness.
And then we can look at the Gospel, the reading from St Luke about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, who was loathed because he was a tax collector and wealthy because he was a corrupt tax collector. Nobody liked Zacchaeus, and yet here he is. He finds a welcome in the person of Jesus, and in that welcome a call to conversion.
And that, too, is part of the fullness of redemption, a lesson that is extended to us, that in God’s temple there is a welcome for all, and the call to repentance: turn again to make a fresh start. So this, too, along with healing, is part of the fullness of redemption for which we come Sunday by Sunday, day by day to the temple of the Lord.
Then the middle reading, the second reading, may be the most powerful of all. From the Book of Revelation, so important, tells us that the fullness of redemption awaits us in heaven, in the new Jerusalem, that which is promised and held here before us.
And we’re told that in that new Jerusalem one of its main characteristics is beauty. So, too, the beauty of the church is an important part of our understanding what is being offered here, what we are entering each time we come into a church such as this.
Heaven is marked by a continual song of praise which we echo in the Sanctus, in the Gloria, as far as we know echoing with our own voices the voices of the angels and saints who cry continually in heaven, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
So the horizon of heaven is opened for us here, and in that horizon we hear that tears are wiped away and death shall be no more, or in the summary phrase, for former things have passed away. That is the promise of fullness of redemption that we can fill our hearts in this place today.
So this is what we celebrate in the anniversary of the consecration of a church, this church in particular, the healing touch of God, the welcome for all, the possibility of a new start, and the great promise of life eternal.
Here today, this morning, all of this is focused on the celebration of the Mass, the sacrifice of Calvary, by which this fullness of redemption is accomplished in our flesh, in the flesh of Jesus. We can share with him, and so, too, he shares that redemption with us.
And that work of Calvary is, of course, made continually present in the Blessed Sacrament.
So we pray that this shrine may continue to flourish and for many years to come be a place of pure worship and of the fullness of redemption.
Amen.
