Gn
14:18-20
In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine,
and being a priest of God Most High,
he blessed Abram with these words:
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
the creator of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your foes into your hand."
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Responsorial
Psalm
Ps 110:1, 2,
3, 4
R. (4b)You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool."
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from
"Rule in the midst of your enemies."
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
"Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you."
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
"You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
Reading II
1
Cor 11:23-26
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Gospel
Lk 9:11b-17
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the
and he healed those who needed to be cured.
As the day was drawing to a close,
the Twelve approached him and said,
"Dismiss the crowd
so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms
and find lodging and provisions;
for we are in a deserted place here."
He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."
They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have,
unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."
Now the men there numbered about five thousand.
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.
In today’s First Reading, Abraham
shares a table with the High Priest Melchizedek, whose name means “Zedek [a
god] is my king.” The city of
In the Second Reading, Paul is
actually addressing a problem of division within the community of
Today’s Gospel Reading begins with a summary of Jesus’ ministry: he proclaimed the kingdom and healed the sick. The story immediately focuses on food, a very common theme for Luke. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus regularly shares the table with sinners. In today’s reading, Luke expands his theme to suggest that God fulfills his promise of feeding his hungering creation (Isaiah 25:5-6). Jesus’ actions and words are similar to the institution of the Eucharist found in 22:19 and in the story of Emmaus (24:30): “blessed, broke, and gave”. After feeding the multitude, Luke links the feeding to Jesus’ prediction of his passion and his instruction that each of us carry our cross daily (neither of these is contained in today’s Gospel reading). For Luke, and for Paul, to participate in the Eucharist is to share in Christ’s mission, fidelity and death symbolized by the cross.
Today’s liturgy reflects another great mystery of faith. The most Holy body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which we receive in the form of humble bread and wine transcends every human ability to comprehend or rationally explain. Our human mind is incapable of understanding this gift of love and that is why it must be seen and understood through faith.
As I have explained in the past, the Eucharist is first of all a banquet that unites all of creation into one family where God is Father and Christ is the first among many brothers and sisters. In it we remember the mystery of koinonia (community) that God has made reality in the person of Christ in history (yesterday) and becomes reality today. The Eucharist is also the memorial of Christ’s one and only eternal sacrifice on the cross that becomes present for us in the “hear and now”. It is a sacrifice that is, above everything else, the greatest sign of God’s love for us. In and through the Eucharist can begin to understand that to become great we must first become the least and that we can only reach our full potential and realization by giving ourselves entirely to God and one another just as Christ humbled and gave himself entirely for each of us.
But these things only describe what the Eucharist represent and
not what it truly is. In this
greatest of all the Sacraments is contained all the treasure of the Church
itself because in the Eucharist is Christ himself – his divinity, his
humanity, his entire presence. The Sacramental Jesus who patiently waits for us
on the altar is our reason for worshiping in
Christ comes to us in an eloquent silence, penetrating the depths of our soul to listen as we speak from the depths of our heart. Yet in his silence is contained every word ever spoken by God and in him everything is revealed. In his Eucharistic silence Christ gives us the example the entire Church is to follow, that is diakonia (service). The Church (and we must remember that we ourselves are the Church) must first listen to the needs of others, especially those who traditionally do not have a voice or power to have their voice heard, the poor, the weak and marginalized, the forgotten, in order to respond with faith, hope and love in the same manner of Christ. And, when we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we must be transformed, we must become Christ-like. We must see everyone through the eyes of Christ.
New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Cassuto, U., “A Commentary on the Book of Genesis”; Murphy-O'Connor, J., "St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology"; Theissen, G., "The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth"; Fitzmyer, J. A., “TheGospel According to Luke”; LaVerdiere, E., “Luke”; Maddox, R., “The Purpose of Luke-Acts”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary".
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa