SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD (2025)
Readings:
Genesis 14:18-20
Psalms 110:1-4
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11-17
It was a privilege, and something very special, when Mom and Dad allowed us to help feed our baby sister, Cheryl. It was just as special when we were allowed to help feed our nieces or nephew. In some ways, you were participating in one of the most fundamental actions of life, whether it happens in a handsome high chair, at the kitchen table, or in nests high above the ground. Nurturing and nourishing the young is what keeps future generations growing. Every so often I will see the eagle or an osprey fly over the house with a fish in its talons, and while I have a twinge of regret for the fish, I realize this is all part of the circle of life.
The blessing of the mysterious king, Melchizedek, in today’s first reading from Genesis, might seem a little odd at first glance, but Abram was no doubt delighted when he brought out the bread and wine (the staples of a people who didn’t share the focus we have on water) and blessed Abram “by God most high who delivered Abram’s foes into his hands.”
Our second reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is the earliest account of the Last Supper in the New Testament (Paul’s letters pre-date the gospels), and it involves equating the blessed bread with His “body, that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” “Remembrance,” used in this way, is not just to remember, it is ‘to make present.’ Make present the ‘body of the Lord,” the body that is surrendered to the ignominy of the Cross, is made present by the ‘faithful’ reception of communion in our bodies, and we do that by proclaiming, and living, the “love” which is at the center of the Paschal mystery. “When we eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again,” as we proclaim in the Memorial Acclamation.
Our gospel reading from Luke completes our food discourses celebrating this solemnity with the miraculous feeding of the multitude. “The day was drawing to a close,” and the Twelve were characteristically worried about the practicality of feeding such a large group. Their solution was just to tell them to go home, but Jesus’ sensitivity did not want that to happen, and so Jesus laid the burden of getting some food on them: “Give them some food yourselves.” You can just imagine them looking blankly at one another, and then stating, we only have “five loaves and two fish.” They could never afford to buy food for “five-thousand (just the “men”) people, and so Jesus takes complete control of the situation, calming the disciples down and telling the people to be seated. Jesus takes the meager offering, and He does what He will do on the last night He will be with His disciples: He takes the loaves and fish, and “looking up to heaven, He blesses them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.” The Eucharistic overtone is unmistakable!
Not only does Jesus feed the crowd, but there is an over abundance of food – there is enough for take home! The “abundance” at any given Eucharist is not to be found in people’s full stomachs, but it is to be found in the abundantly diverse and overwhelming gifts that will be shared with others as a result of their communion with the Lord. I would like to think that those thousands went home that day talking about the miraculous way in which this Jesus of Nazareth fed them, and in doing so it led others to the source of all goodness, who is truly able to provide for their needs. I have stated, and stated often, if the Eucharists that we are privileged to celebrate don’t change our lives for the better, then there is something wrong with the devotion with which we celebrate that which can become overly familiar to us. Jesus feeds us as a loving parent feeds their children, in the hopes that the miracle of digestion will one day cause their child to be a source of good for the world. The rubrics of the Mass are of no use unless they change us for the better. As the Collect (Opening Prayer) says at the beginning of today’s Mass: “O God, who in this wonderful sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption,” and that we might share those fruits with everyone we meet.
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