In a chapel on the outskirts of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August of 1945, a Jesuit priest originally from Spain celebrated Mass. Spread out before him were wounded bodies: over one hundred people wounded and burned in the explosion of the atomic bomb days before. The priest, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., and the Jesuit novices whom he was sent to Japan to lead, had converted the chapel into a makeshift field hospital. Arrupe had been a top medical student before entering religious life and he did what he could to treat the wounded. Many survived.

He later described celebrating the Eucharist, consecrating and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in that chapel, as one of the most powerful experiences of the Mass he ever had. As the Body of Christ who suffered and rose for us was on the altar, the suffering body of Christ in the people he came to save was laid out before the altar. Many of the survivors who were not Christians asked later to be baptized.

Fr. Arrupe remembered: “In spite of it all, I do not think I ever said Mass with such devotion. I can never forget that terrible feeling I experienced when I turned toward them and saw this sight from the altar. I could not move. I stayed there as if I was paralyzed, my arms outstretched, contemplating this human tragedy.”

Last November, the official cause for the canonization (process to be declared a Saint of the Church) was opened for Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

Jesus, as we celebrate today the feast of your great gift to us of your real presence, your Body and Blood in the Eucharist, help us who receive you in our bodies to recognize you truly present in our brothers and sisters – those closest to us and similar to us, and those far away and very different than us. Draw us closer and closer to you, that we might be more and more one body united in your love.

Servant of God Pedro Arrupe… pray for us!

A very blessed feast of Corpus Christi,
Fr. Phil Hurley, S.J.
Pastor