The Most Holy Body And Blood Of Our Lord Jesus
LUKE9:llb-17
The festive celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ, traditionally called "Corpus Christie (Latin for "Body of Christ"), originated as follows. In 1246, the bishop of the Diocese of Liege, (today in Belgium), established this feast for his diocese. His action was a response to a plea by a Sister Julianna. In 1208 she had experienced a vision through which she understood that Jesus was saddened by the absence of a specific liturgical feast in honor of his presence in the Eucharist. Her vision set off a campaign by consecrated women for a feast honoring the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Some clergy were not enthusiastic. Others promoted the establishment of such a feast.
The move to establish this feast seemed doomed by Julianna's death in 1258, but her confessors kept the movement alive in Liege. Jacques Panteleon, archdeacon of Liege, became Pope Urban IV in 1261. He adopted the feast for the universal Church. The liturgical texts that were used in Liege, Belgium, were replaced by new texts assembled by St. Thomas Aquinas. At least part of this liturgy is Aquinas' composition. Most notable is the Sequence of the Mass, the Lauda Sion. It summarizes in poetry the teachings of the Church on the origin, the meaning, and the honoring of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The words are accompanied by heroic melodies. The well known hymn, Ecce Panis Angelorum, is a part of this Sequence. Originally there was no procession nor exposition of the Blessed Sacrament attached to the feast. Gradually the triumphant procession with the Blessed Sacrament in exposition became a major part of the celebration. In recent years we have seen a restoration of the procession in the Diocese ofEvansville.
The gospel reading of Cycle C for this feast is Jesus' feeding five thousand in the wilderness with a few fish and five loaves of bread. The context: Jesus' disciples had just returned from a mission of preaching and healing. Jesus led them out into the country (the "wilderness") to rest from the crowds. The crowds discovered their whereabouts and followed them. Jesus made time for the people. He "welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured the sick." Evening approached. The disciples Cthe Twelve") had had enough of crowds. They urged Jesus to send them away for lodging and food. Jesus' surprising response, "You give them something to eat." They had among themselves two fish and five loaves of bread, "unless we go and buy food for all these."
The expressions Luke uses to narrate the rest of the story indicates that the feeding of the multitude echoes what Jesus did at the Last Supper and how the Church was already celebrating Eucharist in the last third of the first Christian century. The action of Jesus, and the action of the Church after Jesus, came to be called "the Breaking of the Bread." In Luke's story Jesus uses the very words which he used in Luke's version of the "Words of Institution" at the Last Supper. "He took, blessed, broke, gave," words which are still central to our various Eucharistic Prayers of the Mass. Jesus' command to the disciples, "You give them something to eat," was first fulfilled when the Twelve distributed the food to the five thousand. It is fulfilled today when the Church through its ordinary and extraordinary ministers distributes the Sacred Food and Drink to countless millions.
Old Testament background to Luke's story. In 2 Kings 4:42-44., the prophet Elisha, (9th century B.C.), miraculously feeds one hundred men with an inadequate supply of "barley bread and fresh ears of grain." Elisha, like Jesus, orders his servant to set the food before the men. The servant objects that there is not enough. Elisha commands, "Give to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left/" The influence of this Old Testament story is seen in Luke's conclusion to his own story, "And all ate and were satisfied, and they took up what was left over, twelve baskets of broken pieces." What is Luke's intention here? The broken pieces left over symbolize "the Breaking of the Bread," which the Church was commanded by the Lord to do through these words at the Last Supper, "Do this in remembrance of me."
GENESIS 14:18-20
Abraham returns victoriously from a fight with a coalition of local chieftans, encounters Melchizedek, king ofSalem (Jerusalem) and "priest of the Most High God." Melchizedek offers bread and wine, blesses Abraham, and Abraham offers him a tenth (tithe) of everything. The note that Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek allowed the author of the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews to evolve Melchizedek into the originator of a priesthood superior to the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. Jesus is the high priest of this superior priesthood. Therefore our priests, who also offer bread and wine, are ordained "according to the order of Melchizedek."
1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26
This reading is the oldest description, about the year 54, of what Jesus did at the Last Supper. Paul claims to have received this description thru a revelation from Jesus himself, "1 received from the Lord what I also handed on to you."
