Corpus Christi (C)
(Genesis 14:18-20;
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9:11-17)
In our first reading from the book of Genesis we heard of
Melchizedek, the mysterious priest-king of Jerusalem, whom the Psalmist (Ps. 110)
would later refer to as a priest-for-ever of God Most High. This great figure, Melchizedek – whose name
means King of righteousness – came to meet Abraham and his men as they were
returning victorious from battle with Chedolaomar, the former overlord of the
land. Abraham and his 300 strong force
of warriors were exhausted after the battle, and Melchizedek arrived with bread
and wine to refresh them.
Let us just stop here for a moment and wonder at the wisdom
of our God! Our psalm reading today --
based on ancient traditions going back perhaps a thousand and more years before
it was composed some 400 years before Jesus – puts Melchizedek before us as a
King of Righteousness, a Priest of God Most High, bringing bread and wine to meet
the battle weary Abraham and his exhausted men.
Since Abraham is our father in faith, as St. Paul tells us and as we say
in the canon of the Mass, who cannot recognize that here Melchizedek
foreshadows Jesus? For Jesus comes to
meet us, children of Abraham, wearied and wounded in our battle not merely with
flesh and blood but, much more importantly, with Satan’s baleful power over
the world and our very selves.
Jesus once took upon Himself our load of sin and death and,
by rising from the dead, destroyed Satan’s dominion and power over us, before
ascending to heaven in His own now glorious Body of flesh and blood and thereby
opening up heavens portals to human kind once more. Now,
Jesus comes to us offering a share in His victory and in His triumph through
our faithful partaking of His bread and wine become the sacrament of His own most
precious Body and Blood, the only food fit for the spiritual refreshment and
eternal nourishment of all, who, like Abraham our father in faith, are answering
God's call to journey towards a newly-promised and heavenly homeland.
People of God, my brothers and sisters in Christ, there we
can catch a glimpse of God’s all-embracing
wisdom and wondrous beauty; enough surely to encourage us to lovingly trust His
great goodness and gratefully praise His most holy Name.
Next we are told that:
Melchizedek blessed Abram, with
these words: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and
earth. And blessed be God Most High, who
delivered your enemies into your hand".
With such words we have some indication of the nature and
purpose of our Eucharist; and we are helped in such an appreciation by taking
note of the difference between Jesus’ fulfilment and that which Melchizedek had
originally foreshadowed. Melchizedek was, we are told, a priest of God
most High; a very mysterious figure indeed, but one who could not fail to do
what all priests of ancient times were appointed and expected to do: bring
God’s blessing down upon mankind in need.
Such priests were also channels for ascending gifts of praise and
sacrifice for God from men … but those gifts being offered up were not always
expressions of pure praise and heart-felt thanksgiving, many being ultimately made
simply to facilitate the bestowal of further targeted blessings from God.
When the time of fulfilment came, none could have imagined
that the ultimate Priest of God most High would be His very own Son, made man;
whereas Melchizedek had been a merely functional link between God and man,
Jesus, on the other hand, is an infinitely Personal link uniting God and man in
His very Self; and the reciprocal love between Jesus and His Father would
always, and in everything, be the originating source, definitive model, and eternal
fulfilment of every blessing received and expressed by men:
Glory to God in the
Highest and on earth peace to people of good will.
Such is the Christian fulfilment of the original prophetic
words of Melchizedek:
Blessed be Abram by God Most
High, the Creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High Who delivered
your foes into your hand.
Glory to God in the
Highest and on earth peace to people of good will.
Such is Jesus' purpose present in Holy Communion: to give
glory to His Father by bestowing blessing and -- through His Spirit -- salvation
upon His disciples.
Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, it is our first duty on
receiving Communion to join wholeheartedly with Jesus in giving praise and
glory to God the Father Who, through the death and resurrection of His beloved
and only-begotten Son, has saved us from death’s thraldom, and wills to protect
and preserve us from the ever-recurring insidious power and poisonous presence of
sin by His Eucharistic Gift of the Holy Spirit:
If, by the Spirit, you put to
death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For you have received the Spirit of adoption through Whom we cry out,
“Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with
Him. (Romans 8:13-17)
In our response to Jesus' second purpose for our reception
of Holy Communion, ‘peace to people of good will’, we must bear in mind the
teaching of St. Paul who tells us:
Those who have faith are blessed
along with Abraham, the man of faith;
(God) redeemed us in order that
the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus,
so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians
3: 9, 14)
Notice that teaching of St. Paul, People of God: reception
of the Eucharist only bears fruit on the basis of our faith; Jesus' purpose can
only come to its fulfilment through our co-operating faith.
Jesus still provides food for His People through the
unfailing faith of His immaculate Spouse, our Mother Church; but His demand for
our personal and individual contribution still remains too, and the
contribution each of us has to bring to the Eucharistic Table is our own faith in Jesus; a faith not simply to
be presumed in adults but repeatedly, actively, renewed and deepened, if the food
He gives us is to be absorbed and become spiritually fruitful in our lives.
God has redeemed us through Christ Jesus; from Whom, by
faith and the Eucharist, we receive His promise of the Spirit Who will guide
Mother Church into all truth, and form all of us, her children, into an abiding
and ever-closer oneness with, and ever-surer likeness to, Jesus our Lord and
Saviour, for the glory of the Father.
However, we too often think of ‘being one with Jesus’ in an
exclusive sense: extending our individual
commitment to Him in all situations; intensifying our personal aspirations towards, and deepening our personal love for, Him at all times. But there is more than that required,
because Jesus prayed repeatedly and most explicitly that we should all
enter into a true oneness-of-disciples,
into the Church His Body, the fullness and crowning glory of which He Himself
is, as its Head. Only as living members
in and of that oneness, in that whole which is His Body because He is its Head, can we become, individually and
personally, one with, like ‘unto’, Jesus.
I do not ask for these only but
for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one,
just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in us, so
that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given
to them, that they may be one even as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that
they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and
loved them even as You loved Me. (John:17:20-23)
Our awareness of belonging to, and being in, the Church one
with our brothers and sisters all over the world, should occupy a most serious
part and be given most serious expression in our catholic living, as many
people from very different backgrounds can show us. How often do you hear of those who have
received blessings of all sorts committing themselves to great personal efforts
to show their gratitude for what they have received? Why should terrorists, fanatics and radicals,
be the only ones to claim bonds with brethren suffering the world over? Have
not we Catholics and Christians thousands, indeed millions of co-members of the
Body of Christ suffering deprivation and want, trials and persecutions, because
of their – and our – faith?
On receiving Holy Communion, therefore, first of all be most
eager and ready to give sincere thanks, glory, praise and honour, to our
heavenly Father. Then, renewing your
faith in Jesus’ presence and the Father’s goodness, welcome the Spirit whom
Jesus bestows; for though Jesus' own Eucharistic Presence in us passes
quickly, He comes, however, to bestow the abiding Spirit to remain with us in
all the circumstances of our subsequent life.
Welcome, therefore, open your heart to, both Jesus and His Gift; and
pray that the Spirit may abide in you and rule in your life so that you may be radically
re-formed in the likeness of Jesus for the glory of the Father in heaven.
Finally, never forget Mother Church. As we
heard in the Gospel reading:
(Jesus) gave (what He had
blessed) to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were
satisfied.
It is still the same today: we are satisfied with heavenly
food from the table prepared by Mother Church.
The food is, indeed, from Jesus, but It is given and presented to us, as
Jesus willed and established, through the priests of His Church. Jesus has promised that He will never forget
His Church; and so, although children here on earth do easily and all too
frequently forget to give thanks to and for those nearest and dearest to them,
we who, as children of Mother Church, are disciples of Jesus aspiring to become
true children of the heavenly Father, must never fail to thank God for Mother
Church, and to ask His continued blessing on her, and on her world-wide family,
whenever we receive God’s food from her table at the Eucharist sacrifice.
