Weekly HOMILY for June 6, 2010: "Give Them Something to Eat Yourselves"

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
June 6, 2010

“Give Them Something to Eat Yourselves”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


“Aren’t They All Our Children”

This past week, I recalled a newspaper article that I read about fifteen years ago.

A reporter was in Sarajevo covering the Balkan War. He reported on his experience of seeing a little girl get shot by a sniper.

Immediately another man and the reporter ran to the little girl. Together they got this six-year-old into the reporter’s car and started racing to the hospital.

The reporter was driving and in the back seat the other man cradled the child in his arms. He pleaded, “Hurry, my child is still alive.”

A moment later, he said again, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing.” After a few more minutes, he said again, “Hurry, my child is still warm.”

Finally, he moaned, “Hurry, Oh dear God, my child is getting cold.” When they finally arrived at the hospital, the little girl was pronounced dead.

The unknown man turned to the reporter and said, “This is terrible. Now I must go and tell her father that his daughter is dead.”

The reporter was stunned and said to the grieving man, “But I thought she was your child.” The man responded, “No, but aren’t they all our children?”


The Body of Christ

What a touching, poignant story!

It helps us to appreciate what today’s liturgy is all about. There are two essential aspects to this celebration that honors of the Body and Blood of Christ.

On the one hand, we are celebrating the sacramental Body of Christ. Our faith assures us that this is special, unique, sacred food.

We believe that Jesus is really present here and that we receive him in this bread and wine. We believe that Jesus nourishes and strengthens us for the journey of life with this sacramental food.

On the other hand, we are also celebrating the living Body of Christ. In a way, the idea is simple.

We who eat the sacramental Body are to become the living, visible Body of Christ in our families, our community and our world. Since Christ is our food, we are challenged to be the real presence of Christ especially to those who are hungry and undernourished in our world.

And we need to see one another – indeed all persons – as part of this living Body of Christ.

That man in Sarajevo understood this so clearly when he cared for that little girl as his own child and said, “Aren’t they all our children?” Yes, they are!


The Word of God

Today’s Scripture readings beautifully express both of these dimensions of the Body of Christ.

Saint Paul recalls what Jesus gave us at the Last Supper. Jesus takes bread and says, “This is my body,” and then he takes wine and says, “This is my blood.”

Jesus gives us his sacramental Body and Blood in the bread and wine. Then, in today’s Gospel story, we hear of the feeding of the five thousand.

Notice the words that Luke uses to describe this miracle. “Jesus took the bread…blessed it…broke it…and gave it...”

The exact same words used at the Last Supper! The Gospel writer carefully uses these same words to help us realize the connection between the sacramental body and the living body of Christ.

He wants us to realize that Jesus’ sacramental body must lead us to be his living Body.

We live in a world where 13,600 people will die of hunger today every day and where over a billion of the world’s people – about one of every six people in the world – are undernourished.

We need to heed Jesus’ response when the disciples ask him to send the hungry people away: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” We need to be his living Body.


Conclusion

And so, both dimensions of the Body of Christ are essential.

Without the sacramental Body of Christ, we will lack the motivation, energy, and purpose to continue being the living Body of Christ.

And without our becoming the living Body of Christ for one another, our sharing in the sacramental Body can become merely self-centered.

That is the full message of today’s celebration. That is the two-fold invitation of this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

“Give them something to eat yourselves,” Jesus tells us.