CLEAN WHITE CORPORAL
IN THE eucharistic celebration, the presiding priest places the sacred vessels on a corporal, a square linen cloth. The chalice and paten contain the consecrated bread and wine, the flesh and blood of Christ who is truly present in every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When I open the corporal on the altar during the Preparation of Gifts, I recall the sword of sorrow that pierced the Blessed Virgin’s soul.
IN MISERY, Mary watched the soldiers hammer then pry the nails from the cross. Lest her son’s lifeless body be further profaned, she caught Jesus in her arms and covered his nakedness with her garments. This is why I intend that no fragment of the Blessed Sacrament touch the floor of the sanctuary and be trampled underfoot inadvertently. It is the clean white corporal, do you see, that permits me to capture the smallest fraction of the living Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and thus preserve it from possible sacrilege.
TAKING A lesson from the Arimethean, I carry the corporal to secluded ground after Mass is over and commit any fragments to the earth. It is my way of venerating the Blessed Virgin Mary who beheld the Lamb of God in the twilight of Good Friday. She loved her son no less in death than in life. She loved her son no less for taking away the sins of the world than for the miracle of his birth under the light of a star.