Catechism Links[1]
CCC 790, 1003, 1322-1419: The Holy Eucharist
CCC 805, 950, 2181-2182, 2637, 2845: The Eucharist and the communion of believers
CCC 1212, 1275, 1436, 2837: The Eucharist as spiritual food
In other regions: Eleventh Sunday
in Ordinary Time
 |
| “The Institution of the Eucharist” by Joos van Wassenhove, 1473-75 |
Readings and Commentary:[4]
Reading 1: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
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."
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
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 Exodus
16; 4-16). Jesus also quoted
this passage “not by bread alone does one live” (see Matthew
4:4). Beyond manna, Moses
also recalls the saraph staff (see Numbers
21; 5-9), and water drawn from
the rock at Horeb (see Exodus
17; 2-6).
CCC: Dt 8:3 1334, 2835
-------------------------------------------
Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps
147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
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.
-------------------------------------------
Reading II: 1
Corinthians 10:16-17
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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on 1
Cor 10:16-17
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.
CCC: 1 Cor
10:16-17 1329, 1331, 1396; 1 Cor 10:16 1334; 1
Cor 10:17 1621
-------------------------------------------
Gospel: John
6:51-58
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."
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on Jn 6:51-58
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
-------------------------------------------
Reflection:
Heavenly
Father, we humbly pray that those suffering from the coronavirus be returned
quickly to full health by the power of your Son’s healing presence, and those
in fear be calmed through the Holy Spirit.
In
Christ’s name we pray. – Amen.
Christ’s love for us,
demonstrated countless times throughout his earthly ministry, is a profound
expression of God’s mercy. God feeds us, feeds our faith, as he has done from
the beginning. He fed our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden, gave the
Hebrews manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16) as he led them to a land of “milk and honey” (Exodus 3:17).
Through the prophets he prefigured Christ’s own role with Elisha feeding one
hundred men with twenty loaves of barley bread (2 Kings 4:42-44).
Jesus' gift of himself
in the Eucharist was announced most clearly and straightforwardly in St. John’s
Gospel. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke
forewarn us of this mystery with the feeding of the multitudes and Luke
specifically as the resurrected Jesus dines with the disciples on the road to
Emmaus. Christ feeds us with has
spiritual gifts and expresses his own love for us in doing so.
“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.
In this strange year where
many of us will not be able to receive the Blessed Sacrament or celebrate as a
community in our houses of worship, we must be prepared to receive spiritual
communion in prayer:
My Jesus,
I believe
that You
are present
in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You
above all things,
and I
desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I
cannot at this moment
receive You
sacramentally,
come at
least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and
unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
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.
[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 republication 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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