Mass Readings

First reading	Genesis 14:18 - 20 ©
Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. He pronounced this blessing: ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High for handing over your enemies to you’. And Abram gave him a tithe of everything.

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 109

Second reading	1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26 ©
This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’. In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.

Second reading

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26 ©

This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’. In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.

Gospel	Luke 9:11 - 17 ©
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. It was late afternoon when the Twelve came 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’. 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’ For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, ‘Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty’. They did so and made them all sit down. 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. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps remaining were collected they filled twelve baskets.

Gospel

Luke 9:11 - 17 ©

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.
It was late afternoon when the Twelve came 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’. 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’ For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, ‘Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty’. They did so and made them all sit down. 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. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps remaining were collected they filled twelve baskets.

The Sacrament of Love

Fr. Jack Peterson

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The Sacrament of Love

June 8, 2007

The opportunity to attend a training conference for youth ministry in Arizona came my way some years ago. In the middle of the week, we took a day trip to visit the Grand Canyon. The five hour drive was interrupted by a stop in Sedona to see the red rock formations including Cathedral Rock. They were gorgeous, but I had my mind set on the Grand Canyon.

As we approached Grand Canyon National Park, my expectation level rose dramatically. As soon as we arrived, I got of out the car and practically ran to the overlook. The sun was beginning to set and the colors reflecting off the rocks were mesmerizing. I looked down and the Colorado River looked like a small thread because it was a mile below. The distances to various rock formations in the canyon, including the main wall on the opposite side, were literally dizzying. The grandeur of the whole scene was breathtaking. I remember being overwhelmed by a strong sense that my mind was not able to grasp the fullness of the beauty that I was gazing upon. The beauty was just too marvelous for my mind to process.

I was later struck by some musings about the manager of the local snack shop. I wondered if he comes to the shop everyday, orders his supplies, manages his staff, greets his customers, but in the midst of his daily routine fails to look with awe upon the majesty of the canyon. It can be so easy sometimes to take for granted the beauty of God and His gifts.

This Sunday, the Church celebrates the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The Church gives us the opportunity to stop from the craze of our frantic lives, and ponder with new eyes the most precious gift of the Eucharist, the sacrament of love. The Church invites us to recall the mystery that Christ becomes truly present to us, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist. She invites us to worship Christ, adore Him, enter into communion with Him, and proclaim His goodness to the whole world as we walk in procession with Him through our neighborhoods.

In a sense, the Eucharist is similar to the Grand Canyon. As a mystery, the beauty of the Eucharist is impossible to fully grasp. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, in the moment in which He sacrificed His innocent life for our sins by offering Himself to the Father, descends upon the altars of our Catholic churches. He comes to us to be our nourishment for the journey, to apply His redemptive work to our lives, and to enter into a union of love with His faithful disciples. What a wonderful gift of love.

Our gospel today recounts the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and is similar to my visit to Sedona on the way to the canyon. The miraculous feeding of the crowd is an appropriate prelude to something much more wonderful, the miraculous gift of Christ Himself in the Eucharist. It teaches us that Jesus' desire to nourish His exhausted, hungry flock with bread and fish was a foreshadowing of His desire to spiritually nourish the whole world with His own Body and Blood. The first miracle pointed to a far greater one. Only God can satisfy the soul. In His wisdom and love, the Father crafted an amazing, humble way to do so until the end of time.

May the Church's celebrations this weekend help us, in union with the Holy Spirit, to appreciate with deeper faith the profound mystery and unfathomable love given to us at the Last Supper by our Lord, Jesus Christ. May we never imitate the manager of the local snack shop at the Grand Canyon and fail to stand (or kneel) in awe of the beauty of the Eucharist. May we long to come often and be nourished at the table of God's Word and of his precious Body and Blood.