Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17
This weekend the church celebrates the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi, as it was known in the days of the Latin liturgy.
On all its feast days, the church has a threefold purpose. The first purpose, of course, is to call us to worship almighty God in the sacrifice of the Mass. The second is to be joyful in the specific reality observed by the feast. The third purpose is to teach us.
These objectives the church serves as it calls us to celebrate this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of the Holy Eucharist, the greatest of Christ’s gifts to the church.
The first reading for this weekend is from Genesis. Genesis powerfully and explicitly reveals to us that God is the creator.
In this reading, Genesis also tells us that after creation, after the creation of humans, and indeed after human sin, God did not leave humanity to its own fate.
Instead, God reached out in mercy, sending figures such as Abraham and Melchizedek, mentioned in this reading, to clear the way between God and humankind.
Melchizedek, the king of Salem, better known as Jerusalem, was a man of faith, as was Abraham. In gifts symbolizing their own limitations, but also representing the nourishment needed for life itself, they praised God’s mercy.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians gives us the second reading. It reveals the meaning and reality of the Last Supper, using almost exactly the words found in the synoptic Gospels.
The presence of this story in all these sources shows how important the first Christians regarded the Last Supper. Mentioning the Eucharist in a letter to the ancient Corinthian Christians tells us what the apostle Paul thought vital for them to know.
The words are unambiguous: “Bread … my body … cup … my blood.”
The epistle is valuable in that it gives us this insight into the first Christians’ lives and into how they practiced their faith. It takes us back to the very beginnings of Christianity. No one can say the church is wrong in its teaching regarding the Eucharist, that it has strayed from the oldest Christian understandings.
St. Luke’s Gospel supplies the last reading. A great crowd gathered to hear Jesus. Mealtime came. The apostles had little to give the people, five loaves and two fish.
In the highly symbolic use of numbers in the time of Jesus, when scientific precision was rarely known, five and two meant something paltry and insufficient.
Jesus used gestures also found at the Last Supper, part of Jewish prayers before meals. He then sent the disciples to distribute the food. All had their fill.
Twelve baskets were needed for the leftovers. Twelve meant an overabundance.
Reflection
The church calls us to focus our minds on the Holy Eucharist and our hearts on God.
The first reading reminds us that all through history God has reached out to people to nourish their starving, fatigued souls.
The second reading, from Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, takes us back to the Last Supper, and to the beliefs of the Christians who lived a generation or so after the Last Supper. For them, the reality of the Eucharist was clear. “This is my body.” “My blood.”
Clearly, the Gospel tells us of God’s immense love. It is the great lesson of the feeding of the multitudes.
When our soul hungers, God supplies, not in any rationed sense, but lavishly.
God’s love in nourishing us when we have nothing else still is available, through the Eucharist in the church, just as it was long ago on the hillside when the apostles assisted Jesus in feeding the multitudes.