THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
Take and Eat
The most frequent form of contact with the Church is, for almost all Catholics, the Sunday Mass. It is good to ask ourselves today: Why are we here? What are we doing here? Why must it be the Eucharist that brings us together? Because the Eucharist is the Lord himself. It assures us, believers, that the Lord is here, that he is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but in each of us and in our communities. He guarantees to those who believe in him that he is walking with us as our companion in life. Even more, he shows us in the Eucharist how to live like him, give ourselves with him; how with him to break ourselves for one another and to give thanks to God, and to each other too. We join Jesus now in his thanks to the Father.
First Reading: Genesis 14:18-20
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine—he was priest of The High God—and blessed him:
Blessed be Abram by The High God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth.
And blessed be The High God,
who handed your enemies over to you.
Abram gave him a tenth of all the recovered plunder.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said,
This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.
After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:
This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.
What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns.
Gospel: Luke 9:11b-17
Those who needed healing, he healed.
As the day declined, the Twelve said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
“You feed them,” Jesus said.
They said, “We couldn’t scrape up more than five loaves of bread and a couple of fish—unless, of course, you want us to go to town ourselves and buy food for everybody.” (There were more than five thousand people in the crowd.)
But he went ahead and directed his disciples, “Sit them down in groups of about fifty.” They did what he said, and soon had everyone seated. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. After the people had all eaten their fill, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up.
Prayer
God our Father,
you fill the hungry with the food they need
and you do not let the poor go away
with empty hands.
Keep speaking to us the Word of your Son
as the inspiration and guide of our life.
Let Jesus sustain and restore us with his body
and refresh us with his drink of joy,
that we may share ourselves with each other
and become each other’s delight.
Let his bread of life be the pledge
of your unending bliss and happiness.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.