The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Deuteronomy shows that God’s graciousness is not to be squandered. The people are told to remember the past in order to act in a certain way in the present. Though the time of their sojourn in the wilderness is over, there are still lessons that they must learn from it. Moses directs the people to remember how God delivered them from bondage, guided them through the wilderness, miraculously gave them water, and provided them with mysterious food. The trials in the wilderness did not so much test their obedience to the commandments as their total dependence on God.

Paul’s discourse on the Eucharist not only identifies the symbolic potential of the substances of bread and wine, but it also describes actions that are rich in symbolism. It is by sharing the cup that is blessed that one participates in the blood of Christ. Eating food with another establishes a bond of companionship, a bond that includes mutual obligations. Paul further insists that breaking bread together may form us into a community, but sharing eucharistic bread forms us into the body of Christ. The acts of blessing the cup and breaking the bread have profound significance for salvation and the life of the church.

Jesus identifies his flesh as the bread of heaven, thus giving manna a new meaning. His flesh and blood are the source of life for those who partake of them. In other words, eternal life comes from feeding on Jesus, not simply from believing in him. He insists that it is not something that believers merely hope to enjoy in the future. Rather, those who share in this meal already possess eternal life. Furthermore, just as we and whatever we eat and drink become one, so Jesus and those who feed on him form an intimate union. In a mutually intimate way, they abide in him and he abides in them. Jesus does not merely visit them, but he dwells with them permanently.

Jan 10 2025

Tastes of Beauty in the Body of Christ

She was young. But she remembers that dry day like it was yesterday. “This is ridiculous. How can he give us his flesh to eat?” She listens to the shouting. She sits outside the synagogue. As a woman, she’s not permitted to enter. But she can hear them clearly. This is Jesus of Nazareth they are yelling at; Jesus, whose love has transformed her; Jesus, whose words burn like a fire inside of her. Can they not see what he is offering? “Bread of Life—who does he think he is? We know his father from Nazareth. He’s a carpenter’s son.” The door opens and the leaders stomp their feet into the dust of the dry ground and walk away.

She wants to shout after them in the distance, “You never really heard him,” but again she hears voices at the doorway, not so loud, but irritated: “This saying is hard; who can accept it? The Bread of Life! How can he say he is the Bread of Life?” Those who had walked closely with him began to walk away also. She knew these ones. She had eaten with them. They were his own. “We will no longer go with him . . . I am going home.” She is grief-stricken. She shouts, “How can you leave him? His words are Spirit and life!” “Ah, woman, you are young. Go home also.”

The door opens a third time and he comes out, full of sorrow. “Will you also leave me?” Peter says the words she will remember all her life. She has told them to her children and her children’s children. Now as her community is struggling with betrayal and desertion, she shares what Peter said: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Rain began to fall on the dry soil, watering the earth.

Consider/Discuss

Is this teaching of Jesus too hard? Doubt tastes like dust in the mouth. Faith refreshes like the rain. As many walk away, how can we express what Jesus in the Eucharist means to us? How can we describe the taste of glory that comes as we open our hands to receive him?
We believe that the Eucharist is the sacrament of unity in the Church. Yet like this unnamed young woman of the first century, some sit at the peripheries, some voices are not heard, some are rendered invisible. How can we be more conscientious in our sharing, our koinonia, in bringing in those at the edges, to solidify the Body of Christ?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you are the Bread of Life. We have tasted your manna. We have been touched by your presence. You unite us so that together we can abide in you. At the same time, we grieve for those who walk away. We love them. How can they go? Even the angels weep.

Holy Spirit, bubble up within us so that we bring your life to the world in which we live.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Israel has finally arrived on the threshold of the Promised Land. Through the years, they struggled to trust that the God who delivered them from bondage can take care of them and provide for all their needs. This has been, and will continue to be, an important challenge, since distrust leads to the worship of other gods. Moses thus reminds the people of all God has done for them, providing them with food and water, and not just any food, but manna, a special food created by God for them. Through the trials, God has been teaching them that they can and must rely on God, who provides all they need for the journey.

Paul’s rhetorical questions regarding the blood and body of Christ occur within the context of an admonition to the Corinthians to avoid buying meat known to have been offered to pagan gods. Eating meat from such sacrifices, even if one does not believe that the gods are real, constitutes a “participation” with them. Just as ancient Israel could have no relationship with any gods but the God of the covenant, so Christians may not “participate” with anyone but Christ. They do this in the sharing of the cup of blessing and the breaking of the bread. This common participation creates a single body, whose members are responsible for each other and therefore should show proper concern for each other.

Jesus’ claim to be “the living bread that came down from heaven” occurs within a scene that begins with a question about believing that Jesus has been sent by God. The crowd has asked for a sign (“What can you do?” [6:30]), like the sign of the manna given in the desert. Jesus responds that he himself is the true bread from heaven. Just as the manna nourished the people, Jesus says, so he, who is the true bread from heaven, will nourish those who can accept it. When they eat Jesus’ flesh they will be receiving him, establishing or strengthening a mutual indwelling. Through this mutual “abiding” Jesus shares his own eternal life with the recipient.

Dec 16 2024

A Meal Rich in Blessing

While the first reading sounds like an ancient forerunner of the Mass, even including a collection, what it really presents is a post-battle victory dinner, hosted by Melchizedek, with Abram giving the king and priest some of the spoils won in battle. Even so, the heart of this reading is Melchizedek blessing God over bread and wine and asking a blessing for Abram.

We then hear Paul speak about his handing on the tradition he received, recounting the meal Jesus shared at the Last Supper before he was handed over to suffer and die. Bread was broken and named his body; the cup of wine was shared as a sign of the new covenant to be enacted through the shedding of his blood. In doing this throughout future generations, the community would pro

claim Christ’s saving death until his return.

The multitude Jesus once fed with a few blessed loaves and fish now has become the people of God, a people of faith, also having suffered through the centuries, ever hungry for the living bread and thirsty for the saving cup, anticipating the banquet we shall share in the kingdom.

This meal continues to make Christ present as priest, as sacrificial offering, and as food that nourishes his body, the Church. Whenever we participate, we join with Christ, our head, and with all who have preceded us, giving praise and thanks for all blessings to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Consider/Discuss

What does the presence of Christ in the Eucharist mean for community life?
How does this meal that nourishes us relate to the hunger in today’s world?

Responding to the Word

We give you thanks, loving God, for the nourishment and strength we continue to receive in this sacrament of the Eucharist. Keep us aware that we live in a world hungry for food that strengthens the body and food that nourishes the spirit. Impel us to respond to the needs of your hungry children.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Names play a very important role in the first story. The name Melchizedek comes from the Hebrew words for “my king” and “righteous.” Salem is probably a shortened form of the name Jerusalem, the Jebusite city that was ultimately captured by David and made the capital of his kingdom. The words pronounced by Melchizedek are both a blessing for Abram and an exclamation of praise of God Most High. Abram then offers a tenth of his goods to Melchizedek. Thus, the story introduces us to the importance of the city of Jerusalem with its king and its cultic life.

In describing his version of the Last Supper, Paul used technical and formulaic language: what he received, he now hands down. He did not receive the tradition in direct revelation from the Lord, but by word of mouth, the usual way a religious heritage is transmitted. Jesus’ sharing of the blessed bread and cup was a prophetic symbolic action that anticipated his death. In the memorial celebration, the past, the present, and the future are brought together: the past in the commemoration of his death; the present in the ritual of remembrance itself; the future in his parousía, his coming again.

The eucharistic overtones in the feeding of the multitude are obvious: he blessed . . . he broke . . . he gave to eat. It is difficult to know whether the historical Jesus actually spoke these words, and if so, whether it was done with an eye to his last supper, which was itself a foreshadowing of the final messianic banquet. However, we can be certain that the Gospel writer wanted these connections to be made. This feeding account might also allude to the final meal in the reign of God. The apostles are actually the ones through whom the crowds experience the munificence of Jesus. The author of the Gospel shows that Jesus provides for his people through the agency of the church. The many-leveled meaning of the story rests on the miraculous abundance that God provides through Jesus.