Hocus Pocus

Learning how to imitate God's originality

11/01/2022

1 Jn 3:1-3 Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Do you know where the phrase “hocus pocus” comes from? We all know that sometimes magicians say “hocus pocus” before they pull a bunny rabbit out of a hat. But hocus pocus originally came from the Catholic Mass. Many years ago the priest said Mass in Latin. And when he said the most important words over the bread and wine (the words of consecration) to change them into Jesus’ Body and Blood, he said this: “Hoc est enim Corpus meum.” Can you hear the words “hocus pocus” in those Latin words? In fact, at Mass today, during the Eucharistic Prayer, I will pray that part in Latin, kind of going “old school” at Mass today.

I mention hocus pocus today because it illustrates that nothing we do is ever original. It is always borrowed, or copied, or derivative of the only One who is truly and always Original. Can you guess who alone and always is Original? God is. Why? Well, because the word original comes from the word origin and God is the Origin of all that is good and holy; indeed, God is the origin of all that exists.

The best we can do, therefore, is copy him in what we do, and try to be closer and closer to the Original, the Real McCoy. In a sense, we are all plagiarists, someone who copies someone else's original work. In other words, Isaac Newton, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Aristotle, Michaelangelo, Tom Brady, Ariana Grande, no matter how great their masterpiece of literature or science, music or art, or sport, they are all simply saying in effect “hocus pocus” and imitating what God the Son, Jesus said originally, “Hoc est enim Corpus meum.” Everything we have or do or become is borrowed from Him who is the Origin of all.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. One of the first steps (and perhaps the last step, too) of becoming a saint is to recognize that everything they accomplish in holiness is an attempt to copy Jesus, the Original Saint. Some saints are martyrs who shed their blood, like Jesus original did on the Cross. Some saints are great teachers, like Jesus was the original Teacher in his Sermon on the Mount. Other saints loved and served the poor, like Jesus originally loved and served the poor, and multiplied bread to feed five thousand. Other saints gave up their family and possession and did penance, like Jesus originally gave up the glory of heaven to become a poor Baby in Bethlehem.

This imitation of Christ is why St. John said in the second reading today: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.” In other words, just like small children like to imitate their parents wearing their clothes, and talking like them, and acting all grown up, so the saints do what Jesus did in his earthly life.

But the saints imitate Jesus’ originality the best. Why? Because they do not say “hocus pocus” but rather Jesus’ own words, “Hoc est enin Corpus meum" which means "This is my body." In other words, the saints come closest to the originality of Christ because they make their bodies like Christ's Body in the Eucharist, which is given for the world.

What is the take-home message for us today? I think there are two take-aways. First, realize that whatever we do, no matter how great or earth-shattering we think it is, it is always a copy of the Original which is God and his glory. In sports or science or spirituality, we are all plagiarists and God alone is uniquely and universally Original. Secondly, the best way to come close to the originality of God is to imitate the saints, who in turn, imitate Jesus. The saints copy Christ the closest - they make their bodies like his Body in the Eucharist - and that closeness to Christ is what we celebrate on the Solemnity of All Saints.

The next time you hear the phrase hocus pocus, you will know where it comes from: the words of consecration at the Mass. The real magic, however, is not when a magician pulls a bunny rabbit out of his hat, but when Jesus turns sinners into saints.

Praised be Jesus Christ!