EUCHARIST AND MISSION – ‘GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT YOURSELVES’

20160529 EUCHARIST AND MISSION – ‘GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT YOURSELVES’

Genesis 14 : 18-20

18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High.

19 He pronounced this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High for putting your enemies into your clutches.

20 And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

1 Cor 11:23-26

23 For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,

24 and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.'

25 And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.'

26 Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.

Luke 9 :11-17

11 But the crowds got to know and they went after him. He made them welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing.

12 It was late afternoon when the Twelve came up to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here.'

13 He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people.'

14 For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.'

15 They did so and made them all sit down.

16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd.

17 They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps left over were collected they filled twelve baskets.

EUCHARIST AND MISSION – ‘GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT YOURSELVES’

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ GENESIS 14:18-20; 1 COR 11:23-26; LUKE 9:11-17  ]

The Church today celebrates the source and summit of the Church’s liturgy and spirituality, namely, the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.  In the Eucharist, we celebrate the sacrificial offering of Christ at the cross and His real presence in the bread and wine.

In the gospel, we have the story of the multiplication of loaves.  Although scholars differ in their explanations as to how this miracle took place, whether it was a literal miracle in that the loaves kept on multiplying by themselves, or whether it was Jesus’ generous sharing of the five loaves and two fish that inspired the crowd to share what they brought with those who had less or none, is not of vital importance.  All agree that the miracle did happen.  But what is of significance is that the miracle anticipated the Eucharist that Jesus wanted to leave behind as a legacy or a memorial to the Church.

Why did Jesus give us the Eucharist as a memorial?  The Eucharist is the way in which we participate in the paschal mystery, that is, His passion, death and resurrection.  The Lord’s Supper is therefore not simply a social gathering, but it is the memorial of the redeeming sacrifice of Christ. Hence, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s spirituality and mission.

Whoever takes part in the Eucharist; St Paul said, unites himself to the mystery of the death of the Lord and becomes His herald: “Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.”  There is thus a very close relation between Eucharist and Mission, between celebrating the Eucharist and proclaiming Christ.  To enter into communion with Him in the Eucharist means at the same time, to become missionaries of the event that the ritual realizes by rendering it contemporary at all time, until the Lord returns.

Indeed, it is clear that the mission of Jesus accomplished at His death and resurrection would be continued even after His death.  For this to be possible, the Lord wants us to continue the work that He has begun.  In telling the disciples, “You give them something to eat”, Jesus shows the profound connection existing between the Eucharist and this universal mission of the Church.  At the Last Supper, Jesus offered Himself not only for His disciples, but for all.

Christ, “the living bread which came down from heaven” (Jn 6:51) is the only one who can satisfy man’s hunger at all times and in all parts of the earth. The world is hungering for spiritual food.  Like the multitude in the desert, they are hungry not only for justice and material well-being, but most of all, the food that truly satisfies.  Jesus comes to offer Himself as the food for humanity.  The Eucharist is bread broken for the world in two senses.  The Eucharist gives food for the mind in the Word of God.  The Eucharist gives food for the body when believers sacramentally unite themselves to the Bread of life.

Those who eat the body of Christ will be satisfied.  This is what the miracle of the loaves wants to underscore.  There is no other solution that can solve the problems of our time if not for Christ Himself who comes to us in the Eucharist. This explains why the Church gives so much emphasis to the Eucharist.  It is the heart of the Church’s celebration, the expression of who we are as Church and what we are called to do as well.

However, the gospel makes it clear that He does not want to do it alone and so He involves the disciples: “And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd” (Luke 9:16). The early Church, drawing from this example of Jesus, recognized that He wanted the Church through the ordained ministers to make His Body and Blood available for humanity.

However, we cannot offer ourselves as we would like.  Most of us are not yet ready to die for Jesus.  That is why Pope Emeritus Benedict in His first encyclical says, “Christian charity exceeds our natural capacity for love!”  As Christians, it is not enough to love, but “Christian love must take the form of Christ-like self-giving.  If not such giving would not be truly worthy of the human person created in God’s image and likeness.” But we need not worry.  All we have to do is to bring the little we have and the Lord will transform them for us.  God does much with little.   This is the miracle of the Eucharist.  It is in order that we too will take up the mission of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom that He fed His disciples and believers His Body and Blood.  For until and unless they are nourished at His table, they cannot become living instruments of His presence of love, mercy and peace!

We must therefore avoid falling into a materialistic conception of the Eucharist, like the people during the time of Jesus in John’s gospel.  The Eucharist is true food and drink, but at the same time it is very different from every other food and drink.  The Eucharist is truly the Body of Christ, His flesh and blood.  Only because it is His true presence, partaking of the Eucharist will transform us into the body of Christ.  But what is awesome is that the difference between material food and His body is what Augustine said, “You will not change me into yourself as you would food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.”  We transform ordinary food into our own bodies but the food of the Eucharist transforms us into the body of Christ.  We become what we eat.  True worship is for living, not simply a ritualistic exercise.

Yes, we cannot love unconditionally like God in an agape manner, unless, as Pope Emeritus Benedict in his encyclical “God is Love” reminds us, Christ is the source of true charity.   Christian charity and social work must be seen and flow from the fruits of Christ’s love.  In this way we come to see that love finds its greatest fulfilment in the gift of self.

The heart of Christian charity is the sacrificial love of Christ, and every form of individual and organized charity in the Church must always find its point of reference in Him, the source of charity. What greater way to love and service if not through the Eucharist, the source of divine love.   For in the Eucharist, the union between God and man is sealed.  Through the Eucharist, we are drawn into Jesus’ act of self-oblation and the very dynamic of His self-giving.

Yes, today, like Jesus, we are called to make ourselves as a self-offering to others by becoming bread for others. We proclaim His death by dying to ourselves and dying for God and for the world.  This is what it means to truly participate in the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross celebrated at every Eucharist.

The sequence for today’s Mass reminds us of a reality: the Eucharist is food for the living only.  We must therefore approach the Eucharist with reverence and love.  We must show our love for Him through a sincere and contrite heart.  If the Eucharist has not transformed our lives or failed to change us, it has nothing to do with the lack of the power of the Eucharist, but rather a lack of sincere and lively faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  Only when we know what we are doing, who we are receiving and what we are receiving, can the reception of the Eucharist transform us into a sacrificial, loving and grateful people.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved