The Body and Blood of Christ
The apostles returned and reported on what they had
done. Jesus took them away, off by themselves, near
the town called Bethsaida. But the crowds got wind of it
and followed. Jesus graciously welcomed them and
talked to them about the kingdom of God. 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.
There is a fascinating story told of scientists from
NASA interested in experimenting with the energy of
the human body and how the aura might be affected by
prolonged travel in space. They devised a camera that
could perceive the aura. They asked permission of a
dying man in a hospital if they could observe his aura
as death approached. The man consented to the
experiment. While observing the man through a
monitor set up in an adjacent room one day, they were
stunned by a white light that suddenly appeared on the
screen. Without knowing exactly what was taking place
in the hospital room, they observed that the white light
entered the dying man and then filled him with a radiant
light.
When the scientists entered the sick man's room, they
found a priest praying by his bedside. The priest had
brought the dying man Holy Communion. The scientists
were so moved by this miracle that they converted to
Catholicism.
Each Sunday we celebrate the breaking of the bread
and the blessing of the cup. Today so many no longer
believe that the bread and wine that we break and bless
truly become the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Catholic faith
and the faith of the early Christians is so constant in
insisting that what is seen still as bread and wine after
the prayers of the Eucharist are now body and blood,
soul and divinity, Jesus Christ. The readings today are
not going to prove that to us, but they point us in that
direction so that we continue in the faith of the early
followers of Jesus and in the faith of the Catholic
Church.
The second reading, from the First Letter to the
Corinthians, is the oldest written account that we have
of the Eucharist and was always interpreted in a very
realistic way in the early history of the Church. It is only
later that people get uneasy about believing that they
are eating and drinking the body and the blood of the
Lord. Early Christians were often considered cannibals!
And in Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, where Jesus
speaks so plainly about the Eucharist, some of his
followers will no longer follow him because of this
strong teaching.
Today’s Gospel, on the other hand, is a fairly easy
account about the multiplication of the loaves and fish.
Multiplication of loaves and fish seems relatively easy
after looking at the miracle of the change of bread and
wine into body and blood!
The teaching of these readings brings us to consider
again our Catholic faith. We believe that Jesus did work
miracles and continues to do so. We believe that in the
Mass, bread and wine become truly—not just
symbolically—the body and blood of the Lord. Why?
Because Jesus Himself teaches us this. It is His way of
promising to be with us and to be present in our lives.
We all know (either from our own experience or from
knowing others) how difficult married love can be. It is
not always easy for people to be faithful to each other.
Today it is not easy for people to keep any
commitments. It is difficult also for us to really know one
another. We get so distracted by the values of our
world: how does a person look, how are they dressed,
what kind of physical shape they are in, what education
they have had, etc. So today’s readings invite us to look
at reality: who am I? Who is Jesus for me? How is
Jesus present in my life? How does the presence of
Jesus touch my relationships with others?
When we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present,
body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist,
in the bread and wine, our answers to these questions
will be so very different from the person who does not
believe. May our faith be strengthened and may we live
this incredible mystery of God’s love in such a way that
others may believe. Lord Jesus you nourish our minds
with the Bread of Faith, you nourish our spirits with the
bread of hope, you nourish our hearts with the bread of
life…..Come Lord Jesus Amen.