Readings: Gen 14:18-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11b-17
In the second reading today, St. Paul tells us that he handed over to us what Jesus first gave to him: “the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ’This is by body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after the supper, saying, “’This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”
It is clear from the text that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus. We see this same thing in the Last Supper accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. Yet people doubt whether this could be true. Many suggest Jesus meant these words only symbolically. Looking at the three Gospel accounts as well is the passage from First Corinthians, there is absolutely nothing that even hints at the fact that these words are merely symbolic.
The other two readings today help us to understand the truth of the Holy Eucharist. If some people cannot believe because there is no way billions of people could have received the Body and Blood Jesus, we are shown in the Gospel that five thousand men (one would have to assume the actual number is more than doubled if we include women and children) ate and were filled from five loaves and two fish. More than that, there were twelve baskets of leftovers!
In other words, it is well within the power of our Lord to provide for many. Recall when Moses questioned how the Lord would feed more than a million and a half people in the desert, God asked if he thought it was too difficult for the Lord. An army quartermaster figured out that it would have required a train more than a mile long, with each car filled top to bottom, three times per day to feed that many people. Like the opening of the Red Sea, this was not an issue for God. Recall the words of our Lord and those spoken to our Lady by St. Gabriel, nothing is impossible for God!
If one wonders if bread and wine can be changed into the Person of Jesus, we need only to consider the wedding at Cana where water was turned into wine, up to 180 gallons! This is nothing compared to what has occurred on the altars of the Church for two thousand years, but if God can change 180 gallons of ordinary water into the best wine, is it too difficult for Him to change wine into His own Precious Blood?
We read in the Psalm that the Messiah would be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. This is the priesthood practiced by the Jewish people prior to their rebellion at Mount Sinai when they worshipped the golden calf. Their priesthood was taken away at that point and the priesthood of Aaron, or the Levitical priesthood, was instituted in its place.
Psalm 110 tells us that God is going to restore the original priesthood in the Person of the Messiah. Melchizedek, as we see, offered the sacrifice of bread and wine. In the restoration of this priesthood, Jesus, too, would need to offer bread and wine. This is the gift, or sacrifice, that is offered to God. However, God Who will never be outdone in generosity, not only receives our gift and blesses us for it, but in return, He gives us Himself.
Think of how hurt we would be if we gave someone a gift and the person rejected it. Of course, it would be even more devastating if we prepared a beautiful gift for the Lord and He rejected it. Now the shoe is on the other foot: so many are rejecting the gift of God that is not only beautiful, but it is a gift of pure love and the gift of His very Person. We claim to believe in God, then we reject Him when He offers Himself to us.
Perhaps it is because we think ourselves unworthy of such a gift (which we are, but God makes us worthy). Perhaps we cannot believe that anyone could be so generous. Somehow, we believe that Jesus sacrificed Himself on the Cross for us, but the Eucharist is the fruit of the Cross, the fruit of the Tree of Life. Is it because we are so stingy that we have trouble believing that God is so generous?
In the Messianic restoration of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, the priest offers bread and wine to God on behalf of the people. In turn, God offers the Body and Blood of His Son to the people through the priest. Receive the Gift of God Himself and live!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
