The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus 6/23/25

1st rdg Gen14:18-20 Melchizedek / bread and wine / delivered from your foes
psalm 110 You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek

2nd rdg 1 Cor 11:23-25 this is my body for you, do this in remembrance of me
gospel Lk 9:11b – 17 5 loaves, 2 fish, leftovers fill 12 baskets

With this rich group of texts the church celebrates the gift God gives us in the Eucharist today. That God is generous in feeding and nourishing his people is a theme that comes to us again and again in God’s incredible work of salvation. That Jesus wishes to feed us his body and blood is spoken of in our second reading today and in a number of places in scripture. What these passages do is alert us to the broader implications of this desire God has to love us in such an extraordinary way – entrusting to us who are being fed, a participation in Jesus’ mission. As a tapestry has two sides, one with the beautiful image we enjoy, the other with an amazing network of multicolored threads which the artist’s hands have carefully guided through the material in just the right way to create what we see, we know the artist’s hands have systematically tied knots to connect and secure these threads so that we can enjoy the image they have created. Our scriptures today give us many individually wonderful threads that tie together to convey something of the richness of the Eucharist. We focus on the gift God gives us for our nourishment and sustenance on our journey home to God. Fully appreciating the gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord is so much more than identifying each thread and the connections that have been made. This remarkable gift exceeds our full comprehension. Yet it is of benefit to examine the aspects of this gift as our scriptures today invite us, and, appreciating the connections, we are helped to understand the term communion – to be joined with – that we use daily to refer to the gift of the Eucharist. Jesus joins himself to us and is the connection we have with one another if we live a deep and vibrant faith.

Melchizedek as priest offering bread and wine in our first reading all the way back in Genesis, is referred to today in the New Testament, bringing us to an awareness not of ministerial priesthood but that priesthood into which we are all baptized. Communion means to be joined with – Jesus joining himself to us, we joining ourselves to him. Bread and wine are necessary, needed. Bread and wine are transformed to convey more than physical sustenance. How many people are spiritually hungry today? How many will say there’s more than enough for me to eat to keep my body moving. But there is another hunger in me. A hunger for more than Macdonald’s or pizza or Doritos.

Our hunger for God is not something God ignores or to which God says – gee, hope y’all can figure something out. The Incarnation is a manifestation of God’s concern. Jesus comes and we remember how he was compassionate to the many who had come to learn from him. But he doesn’t simply say let me give. When they were nervous that he was offering to feed so many Jesus asks them – what do you have? Five loaves and two fish for so many? And yet the act manifests the generosity of God to those who are generous, to those in need, to the hungry – both those with physical hunger and those with spiritual hunger.

Of note is that the gospel chosen is not a Last Supper account. It isn’t a passage with the words “this is my body” and “this is my blood”. But it conveys the way God gets involved with the people God loves, so they are strengthened, fed. And the complementing texts make us reflect as Ronald Rolheiser does in his book Our One Great Act of Fidelity, that the God who becomes one of us acts in our behalf, eliminating that God’s love for us is an idea and making sure we know that God’s love for us is expressed in action. One chapter of Rolheiser’s book is entitled the ‘radical, shocking, raw, physical character of the Eucharist’.

The human instinct for self-preservation is strong, avoidance of any pain is a quite natural reflex and our cultural conditioning to pursue what is pleasant and enjoyable is very real. Jesus involves himself in the lives of people needing healing teaching, advocacy, and he suffers, dying in our behalf. But before he dies, he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it saying this is my body, and shares it saying do this in remembrance of me. He takes wine and blesses it saying this is my blood, and he shares it saying do this in remembrance of me. Jesus’ own humility and suffering challenge our disposition to think that our lives will be trial free. We will be broken open as one spiritual author tells us so that God can plant in us his seed to bring forth new life. The wheat is ground to make the flour that becomes the bread that becomes Jesus’ body. The grapes are crushed that become the wine that God transforms into Jesus’ blood. The Latin phrase – benedicat, fregit et dedit – is translated – he blessed, broke and shared. This Eucharistic activity is telling us something essential for embracing the life of faith to which God is calling us. Sharing is preceded by being broken, having been preceded by blessing, this is true of the Eucharistic bread that becomes Jesus’ body and true of us called to become the Body of Christ.

Allow a comment regarding another aspect of our privilege in receiving the Eucharist. Ancient texts bring us the awareness that early Christians had of the Eucharist as a remedy. This medicinal understanding of Eucharist, if you will, can have the sense of praying Christ the healer will bring a person who is physically ill to good health, but I am thinking more of moral or spiritual maladies. And I am saying that too strong an emphasis on the worthy reception of the Eucharist may deter those in need of this spiritual remedy from availing themselves of it. God gives because of need. That hasn’t changed. We must be careful in discouraging people who need God’s love from receiving this gift. It’s a great challenge for those called to the pastoral care of God’s flock. Yet this Solemnity reminds us of God’s desire to be available as food to all his children. Again and again in the gospels Jesus demonstrates what he teaches – you don’t send a doctor to people who are well. A healthy spiritual person needs a healthy spiritual diet.

And so may we approach to be nourished with Jesus’ own body and blood today aware of our hunger, our need, our unworthiness and more of God’s determination to feed and strengthen us. He who is our life is inviting us to be fed with the food that will bring us to live forever with him.