How wonderful it is for people to be good and to be together and even to be happily eating.
That’s a nice thing to happen, if it does. That is, where and when all are glad to be sitting down to share something nice together. Like a special meal. I still have happy memories of my high school graduation meal with my immediate family. I chose the Italian Inn in Landover Hills for a spaghetti and meatball extravaganza. We had a nice time. And it fit Mom and Dad’s budget! (I didn’t ask to go to downtown DC’s 4 Seasons restaurant ☺ )
That is the scene in the Good News for today—no, not the 4 Seasons or Italian Inn—but people happily eating, and it’s on a hillside even! Jesus multiplies fish and bread for thousands to be fed, and no kitchen or cooks are even needed. It just suddenly appears. The gospel says that the people were arranged out there to sit in groups of fifty for their meal provided by Jesus. It was a good day. Firstly, they got special words of teaching from Jesus and secondly, they got a surprise meal. It says that all ate their fill. I like that gospel description of how it says: “they had their fill,” and that “leftovers were collected in many wicker baskets” for a future serving to someone, so as to not waste anything.
A number of days ago I went out with about 50 Filipino parishioners to eat lunch. We went to the Aspen Hill shopping center restaurant called “The Silver Fountain.” There were large numbers of other people at this restaurant but the staff there had no trouble accommodating all the folks, and their restaurant has “lazy susans” to help serve the food. No, not lazy waitresses named Susan—but there round turntable surfaces to spin and pass all the food dishes to all seated eaters. It was not my first time there, and I know how they serve so much food, that there are always left overs to take away. Just like in the story of Jesus and his supply. But I don’t think they called them doggie bags back in Jesus’ day—for carting home leftovers. I still don’t get that term! Do people all have dogs at home that love Asian food?! I think not.
Anyway, the atmosphere in a restaurant like that is usually pretty jovial (jolly) with people having a good time eating. I think the scene, even it were outdoors, was a jovial one in this Gospel story. Happy shouts of “mmm, I like this fish!” and “this is the best bread I ever tasted, and even served warm! How can it be?? Everybody must have felt united or together that day with Jesus. Or, maybe a few didn’t even get it that Jesus had done a miracle of multiplying loaves and fishes—but indeed He did—and soon all had caught on to that fact. There were a few wows among them—or whatever the word for wow was back then.
At Mass, I guess not everyone in the Lord’s House gets it that it is a miracle moment either. Little circles of flat bread turned into Christ’ Body! Simple wine in cups or chalices turned into Christ’ Blood. Yes, it’s a meal unlike any other, because it has the power of giving Christ to us, and even to bring His unity. It also is a meal that I call the “bread of fidelity or faith” because those who come up to eat it are professing that they are full followers of Jesus Christ. Eating Holy Communion says something: It says: I belong to Jesus Christ–and He is come into me.
One does not go casually to Holy Eucharist. It is meant to be as a sacred action. It if were that a parish had too much of a ho-hum attitude—then it’d be a scandal—because this is a Sacrament that can give you eternal life. It’s not like having some animal crackers or snacking on Ritz crackers. A newcomer should come in to a Catholic Mass and see some awe and reverence for the Holy Communion time. Like we were handing out diamonds in the front.
Yet Jesus also did not make it to be like offering only something that was for the rich or privileged—it was to be common enough like unleavened bread. Bread of Life for an average person or poor person, or even a rich one. Yet the value of Holy Communion is offered as a gift of God in equal measure to its communicants. Jesus to you—each of you. Fairly. Generously.
There is a religious meaning going back centuries with this kind of covenant bread sharing. For people back to Moses’ time, it recalls the life-saving manna bread they got from God to survive in the Exodus. Now in modern times, it is the Bread of Life for you to get back Home to God to Glory. Also, as we heard, the act of sharing bread and wine took place with Melchizedek and Abraham in a covenant act, that was filled with meaning for unity, thanksgiving, mutual faith in One True God, and a sign of the holy pact and of their sharing a “holy land” now. In modern times, we share of being in a holy gathering in the Church, who live in a holy pact with God, and do so intending unity, thanksgiving and a shared mutual faith of same teachings and practice. We call it liturgy and we call it being Catholics.
I love being at Mass, or even the Holy Hour of Adoration—as I was Friday night for three hours with people in our parish. Do you love the Eucharist, too? At Mass? At Holy Hours?
We had 376 parish Sunday Masses in your past year here. We had 168 hours of Adoration last year in the parish, mostly on Fridays and first Thursdays at Riderwood. Are you participating well in these gathering with the Real Presence of Jesus? Do you realize how special it is to do so? I wonder back at those many hundreds of people on the hillside who were with Jesus there. Did it matter to them how they were that close to the Son of God on earth?
Here is a children’s song from Psalm 133 that I think expresses what Eucharist can mean.
BEHOLD HOW GOOD AND PLEASANT IT IS FOR PEOPLE TO LIVE TOGETHER (sing twice)
IN UNITY TO LIVE IN UNITY LA LA LA LA—LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!
IN UNITY TO LIVE IN UNITY LA LA LA LA—LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!
1 2 3 IN THE TRINITY 1 2 3 HOLY TRINITY
1 FOR THE FATHER 2 FOR THE SON 3 FOR THE SPIRIT THREE IN ONE!
1 FOR THE FATHER 2 FOR THE SON 3 FOR THE SPIRIT THREE IN ONE!
WE’RE LIVING IN THE LORD AND WE’VE JUST BEGUN!
LIVING IN THE LORD, WE’VE JUST BEGUN! ###
BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST SUNDAY READINGS
From Genesis 14
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. ###.
From the Gospel
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured… Then he said to his disciples, “Have them (the crowd) sit down in groups of about 50. “They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,
and looking up to heaven, he (Jesus) said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. ###
Final Notes—Catholic Trivia. It’s the Catholic Feast Day that was once called “Corpus Christi”—meaning Body of Christ. Now it has an
upgraded name called “The Body and Blood of Christ Feast”—referring to the two ways one can receive Jesus as Sacrament—in His Body, the Eucharistic Host, and in His Blood, the Cup of consecrated wine. Trivia quip. Do you know there is a city in Texas where missionaries went to spread the Catholic faith? The area is named as Corpus Christi. Do you know the name of the cathedral there? (Yes, it’s Corpus Christi Cathedral, shone at right.) Its roots go back to the pre-Civil War days of the USA. I looked up how the first real liturgical musician many years ago there was a Maryland woman playing a melodeon—quite an experience and sight on the frontier. Corpus Christi Cathedral is a Holy Site for the Jubilee Year of Hope. So, if one were to go to California, as I did in recent months to a certain city, and be in a similar place named for the Eucharist by early missionaries—then where would you be? Hint—if some of you get it right, then you can all get “A’s” for your smarts.
My favorite Psalm –used in my First Mass as a priest. Psalm 116: 12-13, 17-18
Our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ. How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name. A thanksgiving sacrifice I make; I will call on the Lord’s name. My vows to the Lord I will fulfill before all his people.