They All Ate

They All Ate 

Corpus Christi 2013 C

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty."  They did so and made them all sit down.  Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.  They all ate and were satisfied.  And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.  Luke 9:14-17

Piety

The multiplication of the loaves and fishes gives us insight into Eucharist. The presence of Christ in our world knows no limit. We are called into the fullness of Christ by the Eucharist of our lives. Piety is our hunger for the Lord. Eucharist is our chief spiritual food. We become what we eat. Our food becomes a filling out of who we are. Our spiritual food of Eucharist not only takes Christ into ourselves, but It also takes us into Christ. We grow in our Christ life by Eucharist. We are challenged by our Christ life to be food for others. This happens by offering our time and our efforts to feed the needs of our world even as Christ has fed us by being our spiritual food,  We all notice how two old people, husband and wife, become extensions of each other. It is not only that they can complete each other’s sentences. Often enough they come to look like brothers and sister. Their love for each other makes them into completions of each other. Eucharist is the Sacrament of Christ’s love for us and we by our piety become the Sacrament of Christ’s love for each other. Eucharist converts what we do into life-giving energy of the kingdom of God.

Study

Our study allows us to appreciate all the different ways one can approach the Supper of our Lord. The reverence we bring to our communicating in some ways imitates the ritual of a State Diner with all its formality. It should be much more like the experience of family and community.  It is hard to imagine the Last Supper of Christ outside the love and the affection he had for his apostles. Some of us look as if we are bored at Eucharist. Some look like they are getting a tiring task finished Some look as if they would prefer to be anywhere else. Few take on the reverence that is expressed by love of another. How we open our hearts to a prayer that includes the union of our mind, body and heart with what we are doing is what study of our approach to Eucharist can bring us.

Action

The prayers of the Mass are  prayed as a preparation for the moment of reception. The approach to the moment of our personal Eucharist needs to be unrushed. We are not zombies going to receive our God–fix. We are brothers and sister of Christ who create by our union in the reception of Eucharist the oneness of the kingdom of God. Eucharist is so much more than a leftover. It needs to be actively made into a central moment of the day. It is our God meal which turns our life into not only extensions of Christ, but the reality of Christ among us. Eucharist should be our taste of heaven in the ordinariness of our lives. We should be the body of Christ to our world.