Genesis 14:18-20 1^st Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 9:11b-17

This feast had it’s origins in the spirituality of a 13^th Century mystic, Juliana of Liege. The High Middle Ages were an era in which the physical reality of life was both loved and feared. It was an age in which God’s presence seemed palpable to many, and the end of the world seemed near. Anything that linked the physical universe to the spiritual other-world was important. The real sacramental presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was both physical and spiritual, mundane and miraculous, touchable and adorable. The negative side of this reality is that both then and now, the Eucharist was and is too easily reduced to an object, a thing. When this happens, the mysterious sacramental presence of the Risen Christ easily becomes over-controlled, manipulated and over-individualized to a practical exclusion of the rest of the ecclesial body of Christ, the fellowship of the Church. Christ and the Church is forgotten. Me and Jesus become an exclusive and erroneous club. Jesus didn’t merely save me; he saved us. It’s never merely my salvation; it is our salvation. The Greek word for Eucharist was a verb before it became a noun. That is, Eucharist must be a disposition of our fellowship, an attitude and a reality in the thankful assembly before it is consecrated bread and wine. Without God’s people bringing forth genuine eucharistic gratitude, the physical eucharistic object is diminished in effectiveness, even trivialized. We sinners can effectively tie Christ’s high priestly hands. We ought to perceive and teach this when we catechize small children and catechumens about the Mystery of the Eucharist. The most positive side of this mystery is that the genuine sacramental presence of the Risen Christ is so easily accessible, even to the worst and most misguided of us sinners. Remember that at the Last Supper Judas Iscariot had eaten and drunk at Jesus’ direction and had his feet washed (cf. John 13) even though he had already conspired and decided to betray Jesus! That ought not surprise us since Jesus even forgave, saved and freed the adulterous woman in John 8:2-11, and forgave his executioners while he was still hanging on the cross, along with welcoming the Good Thief into Paradise (cf. Luke 23:34-43). It was this engaging presence of Jesus in the lives of sinners which bestowed salvation upon them. Those sinners saved by his presence were not mere pawns in life’s game; they were actively engaged with Jesus as Savior. In modern parlance, that was his job! Their full, conscious and actively engaged relationships with him brought them ultimately to the good news, i.e., they became beneficiaries of his gracious forgiveness, they stood (or hung) in his saving presence and were gifted to appreciate his profound and personal love for them. Salvation is not merely power to save from Hell. It is the power to free from hopeless and pointless life, and to instill thoughtful appreciation of and engagement in life even as messy as it might be. Neither can anyone can presume to defend or save Jesus Christ; only those who have reduced his presence to a small, controllable object fall into that silliness. That life is worth living (if you remember the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen) allows the saved believers to perceive Christ’s real presence among us in life today, here and now! “Where ever two or three gather in my name, there am I in their midst.”

The Genesis remembrance of the legendary Melchizedek, a priest-king from the city of Salem (aka Jerusalem), was the first professional religious leader in the age of the Patriarchs to relate to the God of Abram. He blessed Abram (later called Abraham) for his success in correcting the injustice perpetrated by some rebellious kings who had captured his (i.e., Abram’s) nephew, Lot, and his family, who themselves had been living in Sodom. Abram freed Lot and company, and restored the pillaged people and goods of Sodom to the King of Sodom. Hence he acted justly, as he would do frequently. St. Paul will write of Abraham two millennia later, “It was credited to him as justice” because Abraham was the very personification of justice frequently (though not completely) throughout his long life. This first, great blessing prayer in scripture was bestowed on Abraham by that primitive priest who’s god (El Elyon or “God Most High”) would eventually be seen as the same as that of Moses (YHWH or “I AM”). Today’s text was chosen chiefly because of the reference to bread and wine in the narrative which were mere gifts of refreshment for Abram. The message from Melchizedek was that God’s power had been bestowed upon and would remain with Abram. His was a power to save and to free! This theme of “salvation and freedom” by God’s power through God’s constant presence would be among the principal themes of divine revelation, including the foundation of both the Covenant with Moses and the New Covenant with Christ. It is a principal, if very unappreciated, theme in the Book of Numbers, where “God tabernacles in the midst of his people.” That saving, divine presence would be among the principal themes of God’s Word over the next four thousand years. It is still ours today!

Today’s second reading was used as the second reading on Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It is Paul’s traditional account of what Jesus did at the Last Supper. It is the oldest surviving written account of Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist. Note what believers are really doing whenever (“as often as”) we eat and drink of the Eucharist: we give witness to the Risen Christ! In today’s (bad) news media reports, hardly a week goes by without some religious extremist claiming to seek “martyrdom” by causing death and destruction to self and others. That is a perverted and genuinely sick perception of the word “martyr” which ought to be ridiculed and condemned by all reasonable and intelligent people, both religious and not so religious. A genuine “martyr” is a witness to the truth – the life-giving, constructive, good-news, edifying truth! To receive holy communion, therefore, means one has embraced the Gospel message and is conscientiously and actively trying to give effective and good example of Gospel fellowship and life. Thus, all communicants are martyrs in the best sense of both words. The real presence of the Risen Christ nourishes and refreshes martyrs.

The Lucan Gospel narrative of Jesus feeding the multitude from a young boy’s five loaves and two fish is a parallel to the same event related in all four canonical Gospels. The wonder-working qualities of this miracle made this event of Jesus’ ministry so memorable. From it, the missionaries of the 16^th Century onward realized that before they could effectively preach the Gospel message to people in cultures foreign from that of Christianity, they had to first provide for their basic human needs so that the hearers’ attention would not be on their own painful neediness (hunger and want), but on their innate yearning for the real good news. One can speculate that Jesus knew well just how short were (and are still today) the human attention span and memory once hunger and other needs intervene. In the Lucan memory, Jesus fed the crowds after he had taught them of God’s kingdom and after he had cured their sick. In the Gospels’ memory narrative, Jesus satisfied the crowds’ hunger. When we reflect on the Eucharist, we say Christ’s presence satisfies our spiritual hunger. But, satiation wears off, whether physical or spiritual. In sacramental terms, Christ’s presence is most properly a weekly effort at active participation in the liturgical eucharistic fellowship. To be in that fellowship, in communion, we must be engaged full-time in embracing and living the Gospel message. Among the various “real presences of Christ” the Church holds that he is really present first in the assembly of believers: “Where two or three are gathered in my [Jesus’] name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). Secondly, Christ is really present in and as the very Word of God when proclaimed: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1) et al. Hence, excellent lectors and homilists are absolutely necessary for Christ to be present and effective. And thirdly, Christ is publically really present for the Baptized in the liturgical encounter of each of the Sacraments of which Eucharist is the most frequently celebrated. Note that Eucharist, even simple Communion Services, must always include a proclamation of God’s Word from sacred scripture. Each of the other six Sacraments is supposed to follow a proclamation of the Word. The Sacraments are always Sacred public Liturgy; never merely private prayer.

When reflecting on the sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ, make ever effort to appreciate the Eucharist in active rather than passive terms. Participating in Mass as fully as one is able is a dimension of Gospel fellowship which makes eucharistic faith so profound and mysterious while being in the here and now of our messy lives. Take and eat! Take and drink! Don’t merely look and see! When we dine with Christ and his disciples, we have a relationship which is founded on Holy Wisdom, hospitality and good health. Such is what the living Gospel fellowship within the Church is all about in the 21^st Christian Century! To avoid Gospel fellowship is to avoid Christ. To embrace fellowship is to seek Christ’s real presence!