What Does Corpus Christi Have to Do with the USCCA?
- Jun 7
- 3 min read
By Huili (Kathy) Stout, USCCA Membership & Administrative Coordinator
Sunday, June 7th, 2026, is the Feast of Corpus Christi, also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (基督圣体圣血节). The importance of this Feast, commemorating the sacrifice of Christ as celebrated and received in the Mass, is expressed in many ways by the Church. In our time, it can particularly remind us of the Eucharist being the sacrament of Christian unity and of peace, both interior and in the universe.
One of my favorite things to do during Mass is to people-watch while everyone is lining up to receive the Eucharist. This is the moment that the Body of Christ manifests itself to me in vivid, touching details. The communicants are rich and poor, young and old, married and single, healthy and sick. Some couples hold hands while approaching together. Sometimes a daughter holds an elderly mother by the arm. Some are pushed along in a wheelchair. Babies sleeping on their mom’s chest, a large family with a whole train of kids, or young adults whom I have watched grow up and are now miniature images of their parents. Our parish also has a group of hearing-impaired parishioners, who enjoy a dedicated front row with their own sign-language interpreter. So many people in various kinds of personal and social conditions gather together, all of them walking with a gentle, quiet peace. Watching them at Mass, I can feel my heart soften, my inner divisions melting away, and a smile unfurling from the depth of my being to embrace each and every one.
It is the Body of Christ that makes the Church. This happy occasion of Corpus Christi is a great opportunity to share a momentous change that is about to take place in the structure of the USCCA. Since its founding in 1989, we have been a small organization led by a working Board of Directors. As we wrestle with many challenges, including the post-Vatican II change in the manner and activities of evangelization, the decline of American religious orders, which used to be our main supporters, the aging of current Board members, and the need to create more efficient channels of dialogue, it is clear that the USCCA will benefit from an infusion of new energy. Toward that end, we have decided that the best way to “enlarge our tent” (Pope Francis) is to create a membership structure whereby more people can join our fold and participate in our mission. We intend to pray and work for robust growth in the constitutive cells of this small body of Christ at the USCCA.
In the coming days and months, you will see a concerted effort to recruit new members for the USCCA. We will invite everyone to come and see who has an interest in Chinese Catholicism and Chinese culture. Perhaps you have been our friend all along, but we will ask you to take a further step. Let us become one community, one body of Christ, nourished by the same sacrificial food of Christ, motivated by the same vision for peace, friendship, and dialogue. Let us accompany each other as co-pilgrims on the way, learn from each other, and energize each other by our mutual presence. Together, we can make the USCCA a concrete manifestation of the Body of Christ, a “sacrament” of unity and diversity, of peace and harmony in our communities and across the distance between China and the U.S.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Kathy Stout is a facilitator of the USCCA Book Circle and a member of the USCCA Board. She received her Ph.D. in theology from the University of Dayton, and she has taught classes on theology and religious studies as well as Daoism, Buddhism, and Chinese traditions in general at UD and the University of Oklahoma.
----------------------
The USCCA is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Your donations are tax-deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law. The success of our work depends upon the generosity of people like you.
Comments