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Solemnity of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle C
Genesis 14: 18-20 + Psalm 110: 1-4 + 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 + Luke 9: 11b-17
Holy Spirit Catholic Church: June 19, 2022
The Twelve want to take care of themselves.
Jesus wants them to take care of others.
The Twelve want to send the large crowd away to fend for themselves.
Jesus wants them to share what they have with those who are hungry.
Jesus knows that if the Twelve give away what they have,
they will discover there will be more than enough for them.
Jesus teaches them this truth over and over again,
because the Twelve see the world through the lens of scarcity.
In their eyes, there is never enough.
But Jesus teaches them in word and deed that with God
there is always more than enough.
By giving their five loaves and two fish to Jesus, by entrusting what they have to Him,
the apostles are then able to give away what they have to the hungry crowd.
And, lo and behold, there are 12 wicker baskets full of fragments left over---
one basket for each of them—more than enough for each of them to eat.
By doing so, Jesus teaches his closest companions the spiritual law
of freely receiving leading to freely giving.
Which leads to another spiritual law---you do not find the meaning of life
until you give your life away.
As long as you hold onto it, living from the worldview of scarcity, you will lose your life.
At every celebration of the Eucharist, we give our lives to Jesus,
and he takes our lives and blesses them,
breaking them open for us to see all we have been given,
and then he gives our lives back to us to be given away to others,
to be poured out for others.
He invites us to “do this” in remembrance of Him.
What we do is what Jesus always does: offer his life to his Father in heaven
by giving his life away in love of others on earth.
The verbs used in today’s Gospel—take, break, bless, and give---are Eucharistic words—they are meant to point us to the Last Supper and to every celebration of the Eucharist.
Throughout his life on this earth Jesus acknowledges that his life is not his own
but is a gift given to Him by God to be given away.
Which is why on the night before he dies, he teaches all his followers this saving truth
to imitate---“This is my body given for you.” “This is my blood poured out for you.”
Jesus teaches us by the gift of His body and blood that our lives are not our own,
but rather that our lives are given to us by God at each moment to be given away.
Gratitude then wells up in us, filling us up from the inside.
Filled within, we flow without, gifts pouring forth from us into the world,
our very life given in remembrance of Jesus for the life of the world.
The life freely given becomes the life we seek to freely give away as a blessing.
In Communion with Jesus, we break the bread of our lives and pour out the blood.
Joined to the one sacrifice which makes all sacrifices holy, we begin to understand
that sacrifice is the enterprise of making life holy by contributing to it. Not by drawing back in fear, but stepping forward in trust and gratitude
to share what we have, to give our lives away in love of others.
This is what good earthly fathers do—they sacrifice—
they make their children’s lives holy by contributing to the lives of their children.
Good fathers provide us an image of God’s providence.
They provide not only physical food by putting food on the table.
Good fathers also provide spiritual food---setting an example of faith for their kids
by teaching them what it means to believe in the goodness of our Heavenly Father.
Such Eucharistic Fathers may be tired when they get home from work, but they are never too tired to spend time with their children, to pour out their lives for their kids.
Such human fathers who are nourished by the divine gift of the Eucharist
find the strength to lay down their lives each day for their children.
They even take the risk of their kids not liking them by protecting their children
from the dangers of modern technology. By setting limits. By saying “NO.”
Eucharistic fathers make sacrifices each day for their children’s well-being.
Our Heavenly Father provides the best gift of all--the great gift of His Only Beloved Son.
Then the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gives us a share in His Divine Life
through the great gift of the Eucharist.
So that we can be transformed into Living Tabernacles,
dwelling places of the Divine, the Body of Christ.
So that we can pour out our lives in loving sacrifice of others:
lives that are blessed, broken, and given away to be shared for the life of the world.
We are not here to “get” or “take” communion.
We here to enter into communion with Christ and to become the Body of Christ,
so that our lives can be broken and poured out in service and in love.
This is what we do in memory of Him.
Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi