ALL WE HAVE AND ALL WE NEED!
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Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord – Year C
June 2, 2013
ALL WE HAVE AND ALL WE NEED!
Today is a day of miracles. I know it sounds far fetched,
but I mean it. Everyday when Mass is celebrated counts as a day of miracles.
Bread and wine are changed into Christ’s Body and Blood … that’s for sure! …
sure enough for those who have faith, those who believe, those who take God
seriously, and take Him for His Word.
We all take some things very seriously. There are those of
us who believe everything that mainstream media says, or all that our favorite
celebrity endorses. There, too, are those who believe all survey outfits, or
even any charlatan, “celebutante” or “cewebrity” who happens to be “popular” enough to have a
digital following. I have no problems about whom you believe or follow with
dogged devotion. But I do propose to fellow believers to believe more on what
God teaches us today.
We have no less than God’s Word today to hold on to. And
this is what He says: “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance
of me.” “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you
drink it, in remembrance of me.” (2nd reading).
Just about the only time Melchisedech the priest was
mentioned in the OT is on the occasion when he did something prophetic. He
offered bread and wine, quite unlike the other prophets and other figures then.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread.” He who
was going to offer Himself as the “bread of life” and the “bread come down from
heaven” was born in the house of bread.
Later, when he was gradually revealing himself and his
mission for humanity and the world, he did the miracle that both pointed to the
past and the future, at one and the same time – the miracle of the
multiplication of the loaves! He fed everyone, with only five loaves and two
fishes! The miracle pointed to the past – and alluded to Melchisedech’s
offering of bread and wine. The same miracle pointed to the future – and foreshadowed
the total self-immolation that He did when He died on the cross and shed His
blood, but not before offering Himself first as the Bread of Life, the bread
come down from heaven, at the Last Supper!
In life, in reality, many times we only have “five loaves
and two fishes.” … We don’t have all we want. We may lack in many things and
may not have everything we really pine for. The Lord knows that. The Lord knew
that “all we have” is really those five loaves on many occasions.
Today, feast of his perfect self-offering to us as food that
leads to eternal life, He reminds us, that all we have is all we need. But
there is something we need to do. “Do this in remembrance of me.”
That is, make of your lives a memorial, a testimony, a witness
to the one important thing in life – that having God, having Christ in Word and
Sacrament, in flesh and blood, under the appearances of bread and wine, is all
we might have, but all that we need.
Praised and blest every moment, be the Most Holy and Divine
Sacrament!
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