The BODY & BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST
June 6, 2010
Gen 14:18-20
1 Cor 11:23-26
Luke 9:11b-17
http://www.usccb.org/nab/061007.shtml
It is exciting to live in Iowa the year before a presidential election. I have been invited to many coffees, lunches and dinners with the next president of the most powerful country in the world.
Whenever I receive an invitational call, or there is an RSVP number to call, I always ask what is on the menu! It is not that I am trying to be difficult, or want to be a smart butt; I just want them to tell me that it is not about WHAT we are eating, but with whom we are eating. It is about connecting. It is about building relationships.
The feast of the Body & Blood of Jesus follows immediately the feast of the Holy Trinity. The Trinity is all about relationship: three person, but one God. Moreover, we are made in the image and likeness of that God.
To understand the feeding of the 5,000, let us look at its context in the Gospel of Luke. Chapter 9 begins with Jesus sending the twelve “to proclaim the kingdom of God” and to heal the sick (9:1-2). This is an extension of Jesus’ own mission.
After they go out, Luke reports Herod's curiosity about Jesus: “who is this about whom I hear such things?” (9:9). Then the Twelve return and Jesus again “spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God” (9:11). This is where today's gospel begins.
The feeding of the 5,000, then, is both a partial answer to Herod's question about the identity of Jesus, and is another way in which Jesus, the Teacher, explains the kingdom.
Healing is a visible sign that the kingdom is, indeed, being established is that demons are cast out (9:1) and illness is cured. The two aspects go together: evil diminishes life and enslaves people; God's reign restore life and liberates them from evil.
The context of the kingdom heightens the significance of the miraculous feeding.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus had promised the poor, “the kingdom of God is yours,” and said to the hungry, “you will he satisfied” (6:21-22; at the end of the feeding, “they were satisfied,” 9:17).
In the kingdom, the poor are gathered in and hunger is satisfied. Moreover, there is a super-abundance of food, a sign of the heavenly banquet (see 13:23-30).
While the gospel clearly points to the Eucharistic aspects of the miracle (he took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread; 9:16; compare Jesus' actions at the Last Supper, 22:19), the context (preaching, healing, feeding, abundance) indicates that in Jesus' ministry, the kingdom of God is being established and identifies the Eucharist with the banquet in God's kingdom.
What does all this mean for us at Saint Patrick. As with the first disciples, this event, this feast, demands that we see the connection between the Real Presence of Jesus in the elements of bread and wine, AND our mission to heal, bring and end to evil and feed the hungry.
To look at this feast as a celebration of Jesus present in Sacrament is to miss Jesus the teacher inviting us to be part of the kingdom, to continue His mission in the world.
Every look at the newspaper, every time we hear the news, we are confronted with the evil present in the world, in our lives. To come here to give thanks (Eucharist) and break bread without committing ourselves to preaching, healing, and feeding, is to make a sham of this feast and minimize our Catholic belief in the Real Presence.
And that is why we come here humbly each Lord’s day. We know that by ourselves we cannot change, either ourselves or our world. It is only in union with one another, in Communion with the whole Church throughout the world, and especially with the guidance of the Holy Spirit that conversion and transformation will occur.
St. Augustine wrote of this marvelous mystery: We must BE the body of Christ AT the table, in order to make present the body of Christ ON the table. Then he says: we are to become what we have eaten.
To that I would add, and then we must continue the mission of Christ IN the world.
Rev. Everett Hemann
RevEv@SaintPatrickcf.org
This homily is a bit more exegetical than my usual style. In preparing, one of the resources I used Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities Year C - 2007, p. 149. Joyce Ann Zimmerman, C.PP.S, Thomas A. Greisen, Kathleen Harmon, S.N.D. de N., Thomas L. Leclerc, M.S.
I was fascinated by Zimmermann’s analysis of the feeding story and felt compelled to share it with our parish. Below is a quote from one of my favorite liturgical saints.
What is heaven's most precious possession? I will show you it here on earth.
I do not show you angels or archangels, heaven or the heaven of heavens, but I show you the very Lord of all these. Do you not see how you gaze, here on earth, upon what is most precious of all?
You not only gaze on it, but touch it as well. You not only touch it, but even eat it, and take it away with you to your homes.
It is essential therefore when you wish to receive this sacrament to cleanse your soul from sin and to prepare your mind.
- St. John Chrysostum (Homilies on the First Letter to the Corinthians 24, 4: PG 61, 204-205)