The Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) (A) (June 22 2014)
A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)
B. Reflection & Dialogue: The Message of the Eucharist Today
A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings
First Reading (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16). He fed them with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known.
The forty-years wandering in the wilderness is central to Israel’s religious tradition. There are many accounts and retellings of it in both the Old and New Testaments. The period could be looked on in a variety of ways, one being as an idealized time when no false gods came between Israel and her communion with her God. This is how it is often presented in the prophetic writings. Noteworthy memories of this desert period are the hunger and thirst experienced by the people of Israel and God’s remedy for these through the manna and the water from the rock. In the biblical literature this desert period could be presented in a variety of ways. One of these is t hat given in this present liturgical reading: God’s relationship with his people during the desert wanderings was intended to humble them, to test them and see whether they were really faithful in their hearts to God, and prepared to keep his commandments. This reading lays stress on the manna, given them as food, but given with the purpose of having them understand that one does not live on bread alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord. That which comes from the mouth of mortals or of God is the word, and God’s word means his commandments and every other divine word what will come through the prophets and other divine messengers. Jesus will use this Scripture text in his answer to Satan in another wilderness.
For Israel there was a real danger that they would forget all that God had done for them, in freeing them from bondage and in the miraculous food and drink of the desert period, once they ad left behind them the trials of the desert and settled in the rich land of Palestine, experiencing new-found prosperity. In verses omitted before the final paragraph of today’s reading this danger is spelled out in some detail. In the final paragraph of today’s reading God plead with Israel not to allow this to happen. His care for them during the trials of the desert wanderings should not be forgotten, with the saving gifts of the manna and the water from thr rock.
Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 147). O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Second Reading (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). That there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body.
This is a very brief and concise reading, with a deep message that is possibly best understood if placed in the overall context of the letter from which it is taken. This reading comes towards the end of a long passage in which Paul is warning the Church at Corinth of the danger of being unfaithful to their Christian calling. He gives them the example of athletes and runners in a race, who must exercise self-control in all things, if they were to win the prize, which then was bur a perishable wreath. The Corinthian Christians were well aware of Israel’s early history, of the exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea under Moses, the gifts of the water and the manna in the wilderness – for Christians all figures of baptism into Christ, of baptism and the Eucharist. They would also have known of the sins of Israel during the desert wanderings, the murmurings, the idolatry and the licentious behaviour, and of how God punished them severely for all these. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that all happened to Israel during the Exodus and desert period – the good and the bad – served as an example for later Christian believers, as a warning to those who believe they were standing to watch out and not to fall. Apparently some of the Corinthian believers, converts from paganism, continued to attend pagan religious meals, part of which included sacrifices or oblations to their gods.
After these considerations we can turn to the brief and concise reading of today’s liturgy, which presumably in the first instance was intended to give the Corinthian community
guiding principles to help them assess their situation. The pleonasm “cup of blessing (or: “blessing-cup”) that we bless” is due to the technical term “cup of blessing”, used in the Jewish Passover liturgy, and from there by Jesus at the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. “That we bless” in the original Jewish context would mean “with which we give thanks”. It recalls the words of Mark, at the institution account: “Then he (Jesus) took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it, and he said to them: ‘This is my blood’” (Mark 24:23-24). From the Jewish liturgy and the Last Supper it passed over into the Christian Eucharist. The “blessing cup” at the Eucharist was the cup of wine with which the congregation gave thanks. All believers would accept that this was a communion with the blood of Christ. The text also stresses that the Eucharistic bread is a communion with the body of Christ, and that there is only one bread or loaf. This one loaf, one bread, is a sacramental sign of the unity of all Christians in Christ and with one another. The communion with Christ, for the Corinthians and for all believers, is an indication that this communion must be total, and rules out any other incompatible communion, as was the case in Corinth, whether by idolatry or immoral behaviour. The reading is dense with meaning for all; generations, and us today, on the call of the Eucharistic communion with Christ for union with others through the necessary social involvement.
Gospel (John 6:51-58). My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
This reading is the end section of long discourse of Christ on himself as the Bread of Life, the New Manna that has come down from heaven to give life to the world. In the first part of the discourse Jesus is speaking of himself as the Bread of Life in his person and teaching. This end section, read today, speaks of Jesus in the Eucharist, as his body to be eaten and his blood to be drunk. The bread he gives is his flesh for the life of the world. In the fourth Gospel, from which this text is taken, Jesus lays great stress on the union and unity of himself with the Father, and of believers in him with himself and the Father. Echoes of that same doctrine are also found here. As the living Father sent Jesus into the world and Jesus lives because of the Father (or: draws life from the Father), so also those who eat him sacramentally in the Eucharist will draw life from him (or live because of him). The Eucharist is the pledge of eternal life. This reading stresses the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but such expressions as “eating his flesh” and “drinking his blood” are to be understood sacramentally.
