Peace to you!
This weekend the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Upon his return from a victorious battle against other kings, Abram encounters the priest Melchizedek who performs the sacrifice of bread and wine offered to God in thanksgiving for fulfilling the promise of his covenant to Abram. As a gesture of gratitude to God and the priest, Abram gives a tenth of his wealth in temporal goods.
St. Paul informs the Corinthian community that he has handed on to them exactly what he received in celebrating the Eucharist. Beyond the text of what we read today, Paul also demands that those who partake of the Lord’s Supper be properly disposed through personal commitment to conversion, mutual respect and charity toward each other. To participate otherwise, is to sin against Jesus’ commandments to love one another and serve one another.
The action in the Gospel story depicts Jesus and the disciples at work for the sake of the kingdom of God. They are teaching the people about God and giving care to all according to their needs but special care and attention is given for the sick. The feeding of the five thousand with the loaves and the fish is an early scriptural image of the Eucharist. Today we actually have the real and true presence of Christ in the Eucharist: it is his body, blood, soul and divinity; it is not just a symbol.
When we hear the words “Body and Blood of Christ,” we remember (anemnesis) when Jesus instituted the Eucharist with his disciples and we enter more deeply into the New and Everlasting Covenant with Christ and the whole Christian family (past, present, and future) each time we celebrate it. As we celebrate it, we are also strengthened to actively live it. For us, Christ’s sacrifice and gift of the Eucharist is not only an event at Mass; it is not only the real presence of God hidden in the gifts of bread and wine, it is also a living relationship that each one of us has with God and his people. The Eucharist also brings us together as the Body of Christ to be the real and true sign of Christ’s presence in the world. We have an obligation to respect and love each other as the Body of Christ. Imagine what our Catholic family could be like if we regarded each other as a Consecrated Host, a living tabernacle of the real and true presence of Christ. In one of the hymns that we sing at Mass, the words of a prayer of St. Augustine are quoted: “eating your body, drinking your blood, we become what we receive.” I hope and pray that I continue to grow in recognition of the love and goodness of God in the Eucharist, and that I can be more perfectly the Eucharist to other people. God’s blessings to you always! +++ Fr. Peter