Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
"This is the bread that came down from heaven"
Dt 8: 2-3, 14B-16A
1 Cor 10: 16 - 17
Jn 6: 51-58
The Word for Sunday: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061817.cfm
If there
is any food which has been a universal experience for all humanity over the
past thousands of years, I think it would be bread. In some way, shape and form countless
cultures have formed in some manner a food that we refer to as bread. From the ancient Egyptians to our own day of
various forms of “designer” bread filled with all sorts of grains and seeds and
other fruits and berries, we all enjoy this universal source of food, gluten free or not.
One local well known bakery even sells bread named “Super Food” which is filled with all sorts of healthy grains in a very delicious combination. (It's great toasted by the way.) Yet, a long way in flavor and effect though, from the bread we reflect on today and this bread has far more benefits than even the most powerful of “super foods.”
One local well known bakery even sells bread named “Super Food” which is filled with all sorts of healthy grains in a very delicious combination. (It's great toasted by the way.) Yet, a long way in flavor and effect though, from the bread we reflect on today and this bread has far more benefits than even the most powerful of “super foods.”
If we look
carefully at our readings on this beautiful feast of the Body and Blood of
Christ we will hear of bread. The first
reading from Deuteronomy begins with Moses address to the people and the word,
“Remember.” Later we hear this
emphasized with the phrase, “Do not forget.”
Moses reminds the people of the super food God gave them in the desert;
the “manna” bread like substance which appeared on the desert floor in a time
of their great hunger. This bread became
a sign for the people and Moses reminds them that God provided for them in
their need not just because they were hungry but to test their faith and
loyalty. To, “. . . find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments
. . . in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live . . .” This test of their personal connection with
the Lord who would save and sustain them was all part of their formation and
their understanding of who God was for them. Since that event, the Jews have
seen that moment of manna as a sign of God’s faithfulness and care for them.
This bread became a sign of life that God had given.
If we move
to the Gospel we see the one who comes among us to say: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this
bread will live forever; . . .” Jesus
makes himself to be bread – food for life, eternal life. Like the manna from
heaven, this living bread is beyond just food that sustains but is rather a
super food. Every time, then, as Moses
spoke to his people in the desert, we “remember” what God has done for us
through his Son who gave us himself to be food, super food: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him . . .”
This is a
great sacramental mystery – the Eucharist – which we Catholics truly believe to
not a symbol, some sort of reminder or recall of a meal eaten with Jesus 20 centuries
ago like one might remember a birthday party or family picnic. But this IS a Person and every time
we consume, literally eat and drink, this Person, we share in his risen
life. So, no we are not cannibals as the
early Christians were unfairly labeled by pagan Roman Emperors and suspicious
other non-Christians. In the mysterious
work of God, we encounter the risen Lord truly present to us in a substantive
way behind the signs of bread and wine.
If that isn’t “super food” what would be more than that?
This theme
of food and bread runs through our readings this Sunday and is one that not
only is easy to wrap our heads around but remains a challenge to logic and
reason. Only through eyes of faith can
we believe this to be true.
The Mass
then is this great meal which levels out the diversity among us. Walls are torn down, differences make no
difference, and we gather together as one family in the Lord who becomes that
food from heaven for our journey through this life. The unity the Eucharist creates among us is
meant to not stop in Church. While
everything is fine for an hour, where do we go afterwards? Maybe an even more essential question may be,
why do we come?
While the
obligation to attend Mass each weekend and Holy day is a serious one for all
Catholics, really why do you come? Is it
only out of obligation to sooth our guilt?
Or do I come to seek a deeper life as a Catholic Christian? Do I come to simply catch up on the news of
the week by seeing friends or I love the music or I want to be seen as a good
Catholic?
One of the
best reasons might be to come because I am hungry and I need to be fed. We begin the Mass with the sign of the cross
and then right off the bat, we express our hunger for forgiveness and
mercy. We “recall our sins.” That is either a downer, to begin so
negatively as we stress where we have strayed or it is an expression of our
need for God – our hunger before him. We
carry that farther as we express “Lord have mercy.” Lord, I am hungry and need to be fed by your
mercy. Only then can we enter this great
mystery of God’s mercy for us.
To satisfy
hunger we eat food and we drink. As the
Mass moves we now are fed by the word of God – the Scriptures. It was the word of God to the ancient
Hebrews, the sacred Torah that fed them now and continues to be the focal point
of their worship. Those five books of the Sacred Law of God remain an essential
reminder of God’s Covenant with his people.
Then, Jesus
came as God’s word made flesh. The
scriptures feed us as His sacred word. Not a new Word but a living word beyond
the Old. What God says brings confidence and hope. This is a time to remember
what God did and we are given confidence that he continues to do for us today. So, the word is a living word, not just a book
of ancient history.
We move
then to more food - from the living word on paper to the living word of person.
Bread and wine come first as a symbol and then become sign. It is the symbol of our lives, offered to the
Father to be changed. So, when the
priest raises the bread and wine in prayer: “Blessed are you Lord God of all creation . . .” he offers at the
same time the people gathered and himself. And as the priest calls upon the
Holy Spirit what was once only a symbol now becomes a sign. A true sign of God’s presence as we remember
the words spoken by his Word among us: This
is my Body . . . This is my Blood. What
was given as bread is now transformed into super food for us – the very life
and presence of the risen one come to us as living bread.
So we come
because we are hungry for Christ himself and we need to be fed with Word and
Sacrament. Yet, the danger might be to turn
the Mass into a private devotion. Let me
just sit or kneel here in peace and when it’s over, I’m gone. However, this is not a meal for one or a
private table. This is food for all who
are hungry.
Ultimately,
one of the greatest expressions of the implication of the Eucharist was given
by Jesus himself at the Last Supper according to John – he washed the feet of
his Apostles. As he was about to lay
down his life for those he loved, he washes their feet as a sign they will
never forget and to imitate. No great
fanfare, no marching bands, no inspiring choir just the act of a slave as God
humbled himself in a stark action that surely made an indelible impression on
those gathered that night. “As I have done so you must do . . .”
Called to
lay our lives, to sacrifice for the common good and for the good of others, we
live out the meaning of this super food.
Jesus doesn’t come for me but for us in a way that brings about a bond
of unity with him and with others through this bread from heaven.
While the
theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas in particular in the 14th century,
coined the term: “Transubstantiation” to explain the real presence of Christ in
the Eucharist if it only remains on a shelf of books in some theological text,
then we miss the whole point of Jesus’ example.
The “full, active and conscious participation” the Second Vatican
Council called for in the celebration of Mass goes well beyond the walls of the
Church – to the world outside. I should
hunger to be fully, consciously and actively involved in the life of Christ
himself.
So “do not
forget” but let us remember this great act of divine love and with humble hearts,
share in the super food which has the power to change us to conform more to his
own example.
“Go and
announce the Gospel of the Lord”
“It is not to remain in a golden
ciborium that he comes
down each day from heaven,
but to find another heaven,
the heaven of our soul in which he
takes delight.”
St.
Therese of Liseux
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