10th Sunday Ordinary C/ Solemnity Corpus Christi

 

Gen 14:80-20/ Ps 110/ 1 Cor 11:23-26/ Lk 9:11-17
  Introduction
 

          I notice that we have a lot of cuisine. Maybe we have a lot migrants coming from different countries bringing their own delicacies with them. Our food is part of our culture and culture is part of who we are. We can easily identify a person by what he eats. Of course we can guess most people in an Italian restaurant are Italians. And it is easy to guess the people who often visit China Town to eat - the Chinese. Basically we know the people by what they eat. We are what we eat.

  
  Background
 
  1. After the death of Jesus they identify the first Christians by the breaking the bread. Even during persecutions, when they want to see Christians, they look for them in catacombs (cemetery) and they will see them breaking the bread. For them, they are what they eat. If they were eating bread which they taught as the body of Christ, thus they were the Christians. That act of remembering Christ’s Last Suffer became their “trademark,” identifying who they really are. We heard this in the Second reading when Paul reminded the people of Corinth to do it often as possible, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” V.26

  2. In the Gospel today, we heard of the multiplication of the Bread. This miracle probably happened historically because it is written in all the four Gospels. There some parallelisms that we can note: the “Twelve” approached Jesus to dismiss the crowd to find food for themselves. Then at the end of the passage, they kept the leftovers in “Twelve” wicker baskets. Maybe Jesus wanted to give to the “twelve” apostles the decision to distribute left over in the way they wanted to. So it was done, for more than 2,000 years,  the Church had been distributing the Eucharist (the “leftovers”) to all the peoples all over the world and they never run out of supply.

  3. The 5 bread is the symbol for the Eucharist and the fish is the symbol for Christians, (in Greek ICTHUS is fish, which is also the hidden code for identifying a Christian.) Then every Christian has more than enough, we have 5 loaves for every 2 Christians. When Christ gave his body as food our souls and means for our salvation, he gave it in an abundant manner. With the Body and blood of Christ we know that we will never be hungry again.
  
  Reflection:  
 
  1. The Gospel and the First Reading have both “prayer of blessings.” When they bless a person, it was either they praise or thank him. So therefore the “prayer of blessing” was also a “prayer of thanksgiving.” In the first reading when the priest Melchizedek blessed Abram, he received the 10th of Abram income. Ironically the more you give away a blessing the more you receive another blessing. Also true with the Gospel, when the apostles gave up 5 loaves and 2 fish to Christ, they were surprised that they were able to feed five thousand people in return. Blessing when shared to the needy will return back – a hundred fold.

  2. The other question that came to my mind is the grouping into 50’s. Probably the when 5,000 were grouped into 50’s we have 100 groups. And Jesus often uses 100 as a complete number (remember the 99 with 1 lost sheep). If these 100 groups in the parable refer to the Church as complete in itself then the 50’s were the symbol for the small community of churches that was being formed during that time. Thus, since then even until now, if we want to receive the Eucharist we have to belong to a group. Yes we can pray privately to God in the secrecy of our rooms or by watching mass in TV, but you can not receive any Eucharist there. We have to belong to a group, into a community, into a church and celebrate with the Eucharist with them every Sunday and there we can receive the Eucharist together with love.

  3. Nature works slowly little by little everyday. Most often we influenced by someone or something and we are not aware of it. Being an altar boy, I heard lot of sermons and often fall asleep listing to it. (Even now, when I can not sleep in the evening I draw out my previous homilies and read them again, and in less than 3 minutes I’m out.) But for more than 20 years with every Sunday homily since I was a kid, plus the 10 years in the seminary, I can not deny that it had a great effect on me, forming myself quietly. Same in the Eucharist, every Sunday we receive it, we might feel just the same every week, seems ordinary, but we never know we being transformed into it, slowly, little by little, until we become “it.”
  
  Conclusion  
 

        We are what we eat. Sometimes when I feel tired of Filipino food, I would go to Dinners, and try American cuisine hoping perhaps I would become like an American tall and good looking. Same is true in receiving the Eucharist. When we are tired of eating the ordinary bread on the table back home, why not try another “bread delicacy,” the one that was baked and blessed by God. You will be transformed not only into a good looking guys and beautiful women, but we will be transformed to be like Him, prefect in holiness and love.