The Body and Blood of Christ C

The Body and Blood of Christ C

Genesis 14:18-20. Psalm 109:1-4. Rv.4. 1Cor 11:23-26.

Melchizedek brought bread and wine.

The Lord’s revelation to my Master: sit on my right.

This is my body which is for you. This cup is the new Covenant in my blood.

He took the five loaves, blessed and broke them and handed them to his disciples. 

Luke 9:11-17

But the crowds got to know and they went after him. He made them welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing. ¹² It was late afternoon when the Twelve came up to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here.' ¹³ He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people.' ¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.' ¹⁵ They did so and made them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. ¹⁷ They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps left over were collected they filled twelve baskets.                                                                                  

The poor rich man

We were not born then, nor did we live in Palestine, nonetheless we can share in the life and death of Jesus. The manner is different, the reality the same. Jesus lives in our midst. We can hear him, share in his Death and Resurrection and meet him as ‘Lord and God.’ We can minister to him as anyone in the Gospels. It is not enough to learn our faith we must experience it.  The Eucharist is a case in point. The Corinthians would come together but did not celebrate the Eucharist. They forgot the reality. Our great enemy is routine. We celebrate the Eucharist so often and so many times without realizing what we are doing. In every Mass we remember the Last Supper and Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection. In the Mass Jesus who died and rose to glory for us is present. Do you realize this? We listen to him speaking to us as did the disciples. Or is it a myth? Jesus comes to us as living food which can transform us into him. Is it theology or reality?

If we come with living faith we can experience the Good Physician in every Mass however simply celebrated. We need to come prepared. How many of us come to Mass without preparation. We ‘pop into Mass’. If we are to hear Jesus speaking to us we need to read and pray over the readings before Mass. No one throws seeds without preparing the ground beforehand. If our hearts are not ready, the Word will not produce a harvest. Readers so often do not realize the responsibility they have when they proclaim God’s Word. Through the lack of preparation and a faith-filled proclamation they deprive God’s people of their food. Each reader is called to touch the hearts of the hearers, as God would, if he proclaimed the Word himself. Do our hearts burn within us as we hear the homily? Do we have a sense of being a community gathered around the Lord, as did the disciples at the Last Supper? Do we expect to receive the Holy Spirit in power in every celebration and experience the rivers of living water flowing from our hearts now Jesus is glorified? (John7:37). After receiving Jesus in Holy Communion do we experience an ongoing transformation into his Body? Or do we simply forget what has happened and continue as usual?

We may blame the banality of our celebrations of the Eucharist on the different ministers. There is some truth in this. A liturgy which is full of faith, in which the ministers perform their ministry well, is a source of grace and healing. Nonetheless ultimately it depends on how we come to share in the presence of our ‘Lord and God’. Do you come ready and anxious to meet the healing Lord?  Are you poor when you should be rich?

Father, may we realize the presence of Jesus in the Mass and through his food become the presence of Jesus.