Readings (Year C):
Genesis 14:18 – 20
Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4
1 Corinthians 11:23 – 26
Luke 9:11b – 17
Reflection: Do this in remembrance of me
This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
Looking up to the heaven, he said the blessing, and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied.
As I prayed with today’s readings, I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind.
I first thought of the meme that for years now has been circulating around Facebook and other social media platforms. It has a picture of people gathered around a table, and it says something along the lines of “When you have more than you need build longer tables, not higher walls.”
Now, isn’t that the truth of today’s feast?
We hear about Jesus feeding the multitudes—about offering his own body himself as a eucharistic meal: “This is my body. This is my blood.” He is modeling for us what to do; he is saying: “I am not contained within the walls of the church. I am not contained in a monstrance in the altar. I am contained in you, and I am calling you to go out to the multitudes to be the disciples who are before the crowd, who are within the crowd.” This is what we are to do, so that all the people can eat, be nourished, be satisfied.
In the past few weeks, like so many people, I have been following news about the budget reconciliation in Congress, and about the horrific immigration raids. I’ve been following the news of the protests in Los Angeles and in cities across the country. There’s a theme that I keep coming back to that is connected to this feast. I see all these people going out, who are saying, “If one of us is hungry, if one of us is not fed, we are all hungry, we are all in need of feeding.” And so that’s what this feast is calling us to do.
To say: “This is my body, this is my blood. Eat this bread, drink this cup. This is what I am offering you.”
Go out, share this with the world. The Eucharistic meals, the times that we break bread together, are not just in the church. They are all across the country, any time that we gather together or that we break bread together, any time that we come together in communion and community.
Today, as we celebrate the feast of the body and blood of Christ, I hope that we remember what the great theologian, M. Sean Copeland, says: that the Eucharist is at the heart of our Christian community because eating the bread and drinking the cup involves something much deeper and more extensive than consuming the elements of the ritual meal. There are social as well as sacramental consequences to the Eucharist: All people must become what they have received, must do what they are made to do.
May we become what we have received and may we do what we are made to do. Amen.
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