“I remember my First Communion day very well. It was a lovely Sunday in March 1936, sixty-nine years ago. It was a sunny day, the church looked beautiful, there was music…But at the heart of my joyful and beautiful memories is this one: I understood that Jesus had entered my heart, he had actually visited me. And with Jesus, God himself was with me. And I realized that this is a gift of love that is truly worth more than all the other things that life can give. So on that day I was really filled with great joy, because Jesus came to me, and I realized that a new stage in my life was beginning, I was nine years old, and that it was henceforth important to stay faithful to that encounter, to that communion. I promised the Lord as best I could: “I always want to stay with you,” and I prayed to him, “But above all, stay with me.” So I went on living my life like that; thanks be to God, the Lord has always taken me by the hand and guided me, even in difficult situations.”
Pope Benedict XVI, quoted in The Eucharist: Spiritual Thoughts Series, (Washington, DC: USCCB, p 16.)
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. What are your thoughts and prayers on this day? What memories do you have of your First Communion? What memories do you have of experiencing God Present in the mass, in the Eucharist, in the Church?
I Corinthians 11:23-26
We have this description of the mass from around 56 AD—less than 25 years after Jesus’ death. They are the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew (26:26-29), Mark (14:22-25), and Luke (22:14-22). They are the words we use today at every mass: “This is my body, offered up for you; this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Remembrance—such a key word. Remembrance here is used as the Hebrews used it for Passover: as you remember, the event becomes real. It is an event outside of time. The words of Jesus quoted from Scripture are the words of Jesus in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. The self-giving of Jesus on the altar in your parish is the self-giving of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday. Every mass is an act of Eternal Life. Jesus, the Christ, becomes present and atones, loves, gives, accepts.
God comes. At every mass.
Unbloody sacrifice? Yes, but no less giving. Jesus comes—to be in our midst, to enter our bodies, to live in our hearts. Sometimes I think, “Does Jesus also say ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’ when he comes to mass with me? Do I ? Do I know what we are doing? Do I realize? God comes and puts himself into my body so that he may better live in my heart and I may better be him living in Central Kentucky, USA.
Luke 9:11b-17 and Genesis 14:18-20
These two readings remind me of another constant in the mass, in the Eucharist. It remembers Jesus washing feet on Holy Thursday, of taking time to do his best to prepare his disciples for what was coming. It is the human Jesus/human disciple role: offer what you have; let God bless it.
The brief passage from Genesis happens early in Abram’s journeys. He has come from Ur to Canaan. He has separated from his nephew Lot, because their herds and flocks together require too much from the land. Lot, then, gets himself mixed up in a local war. He gets captured and sends word to Abram to come help him out. Abram then assembles a small militia of 318 men, rescues Lot and his family, and returns goods of Melchizedek that had been carried away by those who had invaded Salem, his kingdom.
The verses today come from what happens then. Melchizedek blesses Abram. Abram offers bread and wine, then gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything. This prefigures the Eucharist. Some scholars see it as reversing the “not right praise” Cain offered to God from the very beginning. Abram gives of himself (in the battle), returns to the authority Melchizedek, offering a peace offering of bread and wine. Melchizedek, who is both king and priest, accepts the offering.
Interestingly, in the next verses, God makes his covenant with Abram. (Genesis 15) The Lord is never outdone in generosity.
In the Gospel, a boy offers his five loaves and two fish. Jesus then prefigures the Eucharist and feeds the 5000.
This is the other side of Corpus Christi: it isn’t supposed to just be Jesus who gives himself up to the Father. We, too, are to offer our loaves and fishes, our tithes, our hearts on the altar. At every mass we are to join Jesus in self-giving.
It happens at the offertory. Someone brings the bread and wine (and maybe the financial offering) forward. The priest lifts them up FOR ALL OF US and blesses God. Then we say some wonderful words:
“May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his Holy Church.”
Our job at that moment is to offer ourselves, too. We join Christ on the altar. Mass is not a spectator sport. We are meant to offer our five loaves and two fish—whatever they may be on a particular day: letting go of the argument we had in the car on the way to church, accepting our aches and pains with a smile, the care we give our work, the struggles we have loving.
We give what we can.
It is in that sense, some minutes later, we receive God as we receive the Host, for God has become bread, that we might also become bread for the world.
Deep Thoughts
Praying for Trinity Sunday I learned that who God is, three persons of one loving substance, is the foundation Truth in the “hierarchy of Truths” of our faith. This week I join that deeper understanding with musings about worship of God Present in the Eucharist combined with musings about how Jesus’ words “Follow me” apply to me as I join the five loaves and two fishes of my ordinary life into the Mystery of Eucharist.
It is like I am on a hilltop on a clear summer night far from lights of any town. I see what looks like an infinite panorama of stars all around. I am so very small. God’s covenant with Abram comes to mind: “So shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:5) And I recognize that I–just like you and St. Paul and other followers of Jesus through the centuries–I can join in that galaxy of dots of light in the night sky as one who joins my heart to the heart of Jesus as he goes on saving the world today in every mass, in every person who gives the five loaves and two fish of the day to join him.
Prayer: (From the 13th century)
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds conceal me.
Do not permit me to be parted from you.
From the evil foe protect me.
At the hour of my death call me.
And bid me come to you,
to praise you with all your saints
for ever and ever.
Amen.
