Commentary
Sunday, 6/23/2019, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
God Wants Everything
First Reading Commentary: Genesis 14:18-20
Melchizedek was the king of Salem and a high priest. He was a king of righteousness and described in Genesis as a priest of God Most High. Psalm 110 tells us that he was a priest forever and in fact, priests today are ordained in the order of Melchizedek which means: once a priest, always a priest.
Melchizedek brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram saying, “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.” There are obvious similarities between this and what happens at Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Before I go into that, we should remember that Christ gave the world a new covenant promising the Kingdom of Heaven and He is the King of Kings as well the priest Most High forever.
The first unmistakable similarity is bread and wine being used as the offering when Melchizedek blessed Abram. Christ used unleavened bread and wine at the Last Supper as the offering which would be consecrated into His Body and Blood. He then commanded the disciples to continue making that offering in His memory giving them the power to consecrate bread and wine into His Body and Blood. The celebration of the Eucharist is a reliving of that moment which is why unleavened bread and wine are used at Mass.
There is another similarity which is missed if you are unfamiliar with the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass. This is because while the altar is being prepared, a hymn may be sung by the congregation who in turn will not hear the prayer of the priest during this time. If there is no hymn being sung, the priest may say this prayer out loud and there is a response from the congregation. Remember Melchizedek’s prayer when he blessed Abram and God as you read the prayer of the Preparation of the Gifts at Mass.
Priest: “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”
Congregation: “Blessed be God forever.”
Priest or deacon says quietly while pouring wine and water into the chalice: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
Priest: “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.”
Congregation: “Blessed be God forever.”
This is not the consecration of the bread and wine. That comes later after the priest repeats what Jesus said at the Last Supper.
The book of Genesis tells us that Abram then gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. This is where the practice of tithing begins. But what does it really mean to tithe and what is God really looking for? Some people are very emphatic about saying that one must give ten percent of their earnings in order to tithe properly and they are quick to let you know that they do. To that I say, take a closer look at this Scripture. Abram gave ten percent of everything. His tithe was not limited to money. I also say read Matthew 6:1-4.
Some people are very well off financially and feel that they are doing a lot by donating one hundred dollars or even one thousand dollars to their church in the offering. But there are those who struggle pay check to pay check and can barely keep a roof over their heads. To them, a ten-dollar donation is a lot of money.
So, I repeat the second part of my question, what is God really looking for? The answer is in Luke 20:45-47. In this gospel, a poor widow put two small coins into the offering and Jesus said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest…she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” Was Jesus telling us to turn over everything that we own? No, but He was telling us to give ourselves to God completely and to give from the heart.
God does not care about money because that has no value in heaven. Don’t twist what I just said into meaning that we don’t have to tithe. Wrong! We are expected to support and take care of our church. We are called to give help to those in need by supporting our ministries. When we consider this, we should understand that there is more than one way to tithe.
Giving our time by being active in our church community is a form of tithing that too many of us don’t do but we all should. God wants nothing more than for us to be with Him in heaven. In return, God wants us to give all of ourselves to getting there. That is exactly what a man does when he takes his vows in the Sacrament of Holy Orders and is ordained a priest—He gives all of himself to the Church.
If we approach what we give to our church with that attitude and from the heart, whether our offering be financial or not, we will be tithing the way that God wants us to. And don’t forget my reference to Matthew 6:1-4. God does not want us to make a show about it. God knows if we are tithing the way that He wants us to. We cannot fool God!
We Proclaim Our Belief in Christ
Second Reading Commentary: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Today’s second reading is all about the Last Supper and the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass which is a reliving of the Last Supper.
There is more to the Eucharist than the Body and Blood of Christ. Through the Eucharist, we become one with the Mystical Body—we are united with Christ. The Eucharist is known as Communion because through the Eucharist, “…we are taken up into communion with him and with one another.” CCC 790 When we receive in faith, we are reminded of this communion every time that we receive the Eucharist.
Jesus gave us the Eucharist because it is at the heart of what He did for us. Jesus gave Himself, totally and completely. By celebrating and reliving the Last Supper with the Eucharist, we are able to share in the sacrifice that Jesus made for us with the hope that we too will be resurrected.
Jesus also made Himself one with us. When we celebrate the Eucharist, we make ourselves one with Him. This is a fundamental belief within the Catholic Church and when Jesus instituted the Eucharist, He did not put a time frame of any kind on when we could celebrate the Eucharist. What Jesus did say was, “Do this in memory of me.”
Jesus invites us to be one with Him and for those of us, who believe in the Eucharist, that invitation is also our instruction on how to do it. Because the Eucharist puts us into communion with Christ, it is how we become one with Christ, how we share His Passion and how we will share His Resurrection.
St. Paul told the Corinthians what Jesus said and did with the bread and wine at the Last Supper and shared the celebration of the Eucharist with them. St. Paul told the Corinthians to continue celebrating the Eucharist as Jesus commanded. He said, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”
The practice of proclaiming this mystery at Mass immediately after the conversion of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood is paraphrased from today’s message from Paul. The congregation says, “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.” With this proclamation, we acclaim that we are one with Christ.
God’s Spoiled Children
Gospel Commentary: Luke 9:11b-17
The Feeding of the Five Thousand is one of the few gospels which, is accounted for in all four books of the gospels. There are some differences between the gospels in the way that the story is told but the message is the same. The account is found in Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:34-44, John 6:1-15 and today’s gospel which is Luke 9:11-17. This commentary is based on all four gospels.
Jesus went off to be by Himself after hearing of the death of John the Baptist. But when the crowds heard of this, they followed Him and His heart was moved with pity for them and He cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples asked Jesus to dismiss the crowds so that they could go to the villages and buy food for themselves. Jesus said, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” But the disciples told Jesus that there were only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, “Bring them here to me.”
Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to the people together with as much fish as they wanted. When the people had their fill, the fragments were gathered together and there was enough to fill twelve baskets.
We can compare the events which occurred in this gospel to the Last Supper. This event took place during the time of the Passover and at the Last Supper, Jesus shared the Passover meal with the disciples and fed them by instituting the Eucharist consecrating unleavened bread into His body. The disciples were not only fed by Christ, they were fed with Christ. The people in this gospel were also fed with Christ. The Last Supper was yet to come so no one understood what Jesus was doing. They only knew that a miracle had just taken place.
Catholics understand that when we receive the Eucharist at Mass we are being fed by Christ and with Christ. We are being fed with the Word which became flesh. See John 1:14
This is another case where Christ relives an event from the Old Testament. God sent manna from heaven to feed His people, the Israelites in the desert. Jesus used five loaves and two fish to feed His people in this gospel. There were twelve tribes of the Israelites. There were twelve wicker baskets full of leftovers. You could say that this is symbolic of one basket of over-abundance for each tribe.
But there is a striking difference between the children of Israel in the desert and the five thousand. True, both groups of people were following God but the Israelites were chronic complainers. They complained about everything. The five thousand did not complain. They followed Jesus solely because they wanted to be with Him. Granted, Jesus performed many miracles which made the people want to be with Him, but through Moses, God had performed many miracles for the Israelites and still, they complained. In all four of the gospels about the feeding of the five thousand, the people were not complaining to be fed.
We also cannot ignore the fact that the Israelites were following God because through Moses, He told them to. Jesus did not ask the people to follow Him on this occasion. Remember, Jesus was one hundred percent God but He was also one hundred percent man. Jesus experienced everything that we experience including our feelings and emotions and at that moment, Jesus was hurting.
He had just heard about the death of John the Baptist and had gone off to be alone. But the people wanted to be with Jesus and they pursued Him. Jesus, being the compassionate and loving God that He is, put His feelings and humanity aside. Instead, Jesus was filled with pity for the people.
Did you ever consider yourself as one of God’s spoiled children? You should because all of us are God’s spoiled children! We may not think about it and some of us do not appreciate it but we are all God’s spoiled children. Over and over again, we see this in the bible in both the Old and New Testaments. God overlooks everything, comes to our rescue and provides in abundance.
No matter how bad or how many times we mess up with our sins, as long as we believe and repent with sincerity, God provides with more than we need. That’s God’s way and only He can provide us with what we really need. Somebody say, “Thank you. Amen.”
