Catechism Links[1]
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| “The Institution of the Eucharist” by Joos van Wassenhove, 1473-75 |
Readings and Commentary:[4]
Moses said to the
people:
"Remember how for
forty years now the Lord, your God,
has directed all your
journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by
affliction
and find out whether or
not it was your intention
to keep his
commandments.
He therefore let you be
afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with
manna,
a food unknown to you
and your fathers,
in order to show you
that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that
comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.
"Do not forget the Lord,
your God,
who brought you out of
the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through
the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents
and scorpions,
its parched and
waterless ground;
who brought forth water
for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the
desert with manna,
a food unknown to your
fathers."
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This reading is taken
from the second address of Moses to the Hebrews. This section of the address
can be called “an appeal to remembrance” since Moses is recounting all that God
had done for them since they were led out of Egypt. The focus of these verses
is on the feeding of the people with manna (see Exodus16; 4-16). Jesus also quoted
this passage “…not by bread alone does one live” (see Matthew4:4). Beyond manna, Moses
also recalls the saraph staff (see Numbers21; 5-9), and water drawn from
the rock at Horeb (see Exodus17; 2-6).
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R. (12) Praise the
Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glorify the Lord,
O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened
the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your
children within you.
R. Praise the
Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has granted peace in
your borders;
with the best of wheat
he fills you.
He sends forth his
command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has proclaimed his
word to Jacob,
his statutes and his
ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for
any other nation;
his ordinances he has
not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the
Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Psalm 147 is a hymn of
praise. In these strophes, the singer celebrates God’s gifts to his people, the
gift of faith to the patriarch Jacob, and the gift of His presence in the holy
city Jerusalem. These strophes are from the third section (each section
offering praise for a different gift from God to his special people). This
section focuses on the gift of the Promised Land with Jerusalem as its
spiritual center. We see the call to praise Jerusalem, the Holy City, because
in it was revealed the Word of God and a call to holiness. The Lord is praised
for sending food that sustains the people. The final strophe also rejoices that
the Law was handed on to them through Jacob.
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Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that
we bless,
is it not a
participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a
participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of
bread is one,
we, though many, are one
body,
for we all partake of
the one loaf.
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Although this is part of
a comparison being brought between Christ’s sacrifice and idolatry, what is
given here expresses the unity forged through the Eucharist, the only true
sacrifice. The Blood of Christ and the Body of Christ shared in communion
unites us spiritually and physically and we become that living Body of Christ
on earth, the Church, through Jesus.
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Jesus said to the Jewish
crowds:
"I am the living
bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread
will live forever;
and the bread that I
will give
is my flesh for the life
of the world."
The Jews quarreled among
themselves, saying,
"How can this man
give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say
to you,
unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life
within you.
Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on
the last day.
For my flesh is true
food,
and my blood is true
drink.
Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in
him.
Just as the living
Father sent me
and I have life because
of the Father,
so also the one who
feeds on me
will have life because
of me.
This is the bread that
came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors
who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread
will live forever."
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The “Bread of Life”
discourse continues and the Lord escalates his language. The people who had
come to him because they had been fed with the five barley loaves just cannot
make the leap from bread made from wheat or barley to the Bread of Life offered
as true food and drink for the spirit. Even when he uses Manna as an example of
real food they still do not see that the Son of God offers them his resurrected
body as their meal and they are repulsed – especially because of the language
he uses (Jesus uses the word gnaw not just eat in the original texts.).
CCC: Jn 6 1338; Jn
6:51 728, 1355, 1406, 2837; Jn 6:53-56 2837; Jn
6:53 1384; Jn
6:54 994, 1001, 1406, 1509, 1524; Jn 6:56 787, 1391, 1406; Jn 6:57 1391; Jn
6:58 1509
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Reflection:
“1323 At
the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the
Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate
the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and
so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and
resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a
Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory is given to us.[5]”
This definition from the
Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the “why” of our celebration of the
Eucharist. St. John’s Gospel describes what that meal truly
was. Rather than trying to express this in our own words we once again rely
on the Catechism to do that;
1374 The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species
is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the
perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments
tend."201 In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist
"the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and
substantially contained."202 "This presence is called
'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if
they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense:
that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man,
makes himself wholly and entirely present. 203"[6]
All of this
understanding comes from millennia of prayer, reflection, and reliance on the
Holy Spirit. Faith-filled people throughout our history have gazed in awe
at the Most Holy Sacrament and have been transformed by it as it was
transubstantiated for us. It started as simple bread and wine and through
Christ’s promise becomes the bread from heaven and the blood of our Savior,
poured out for us.
There are those who do
not believe in the miracle that occurs. There are many, even those who
say they take what is written in the Holy Bible literally, who cannot accept
that Jesus, who tells the people “For my flesh is true food,” left us his
remarkable essence to unite us with God.
Today we celebrate the
gift once more. We pray for those who struggle with their faith and are
unable to accept the wondrous gift. Today we find ourselves in awe of the
love of Christ which is beyond all understanding. And today we once more
we approach the Lord’s Table in abject humility; amazed that one so perfect
could embrace us in such a way.
Pax
[1] Catechism
links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, Published
by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29
June 2014
[2]
The picture used today is “The Institution of
the Eucharist” by Joos van Wassenhove, 1473-75
[3] S.S.Commemoratio
[4] The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception
of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the International
Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized
by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church number 1323
[6]
Footnotes within the text of the Catechism of
the Catholic Church refer to the following:
201 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III,73,3c.
202 Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651.
203 Paul VI, MF 39.
203 Paul VI, MF 39.
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