THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI) CYCLE C – 2013

      

       Since last Sunday we are again in "ordinary time". 

      The liturgy of this solemnity presents to us this wonderful and adorable mystery under different images.   

FIRST READING   Genesis 14:18-20

Ø  Chapter 14 of the book of Genesis explains how and why Abram makes war against four kings who have captured his nephew Lot and taken all his possessions. 

Ø  When Abram comes back victorious the Melchizedek, King of Salem, comes to meet him

Ø  Melchizedec  blesses Abram and offers to God bread and wine as a sacrifice. 

Ø  The name of Salem means "peace." Salem will become Jerusalem. 

Ø  The name of Melchizedec means "king of justice."

Ø  The Christian community will see in Melchizedec, King of Salem, a figure of Jesus    (Hebrews 7:1-3):

v  We do not know the origin of this king.  

v  He offers bread and wine as a sacrifice to God.  

v  He blesses Abram   

v  He continues to be priest for ever  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps  110

You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedec 

The Lord said to my Lord

"Sit at my right hand

till I make your enemies your footstool." 

The scepter of your power the Lord will stretch forth from Zion

"Rule in the midst of your enemies." 

 «Yours is princely power in the day of your birth

in holy splendor

before the daystar, like the dew

I have begotten you.» 

The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent

"You are a priest forever,

according to the order of Melchizedec."    

§  This psalm sings the kingship   and the priesthood of "the Lord" mentioned in the first verse.    

§  In the words "I have begotten you," the Church acknowledges the voice of the Father telling his son "Today I have begotten you..."     

§  It is the day of eternity, forever. The Father continues to repeat these words to his incarnate son Jesus.    

SECOND READING  1 Cor 11:23-26

      Paul hands on to his community what he himself has received from the tradition of the Christian community.   

      This text is the center of today's celebration, Paul tells us that in the night of his passion, the Lord gave himself to us under the signs of bread and wine.     

      Bread and wine, food and drink that rejoice the human heart.  

      The Lord:

ü  takes the bread   

ü  pronounces the thanksgiving prayer over the bread   and says

ü  This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  

ü  He does the same with the cup: This cup is the New Covenant in my blood  

ü  Do this in remembrance of me.    

ü  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.    

      The New Covenant takes us back to the first Covenant on Mount Sinai, when God made a covenant of love with his people.    

      This New Covenant is sealed with the blood of Christ, the first covenant was sealed with the blood of animals. The first covenant was a shadow of the true covenant which Christ has made.  

      Jeremiah  (Jer 31,31-34) had announced this new covenant, which would not be written on stone but on the heart of every human being who accepts Jesus.    

      The Lord says that every time we break the bread and drink from the cup, we proclaim his  redemptive death until the end of times.  

      In the New Covenant there are not many sacrifices, there is only one sacrifice Christ's. He makes present his sacrifice on every altar on which the Eucharist is celebrated as the memorial of his love and his giving himself into our hands.

      Through the Eucharist of his body and blood the Lord calls and invites us to do as he has done, strengthened by the Eucharistic  Bread and Wine.     

      We have done this, we do it and we will continue to do it. 

      What does "in remebrance of me" means? He transforms us into himself everytime that we eat his body and drink his blood. United to him, made one with him, we learn progressively to die to ourselves and to live for the good of  others. 

      This bread and wine invite us to make real in our life the values of Jesus. 

GOSPEL  Lk 9:11b-17

v  Jesus is teaching the people, he speaks to them of the Kingdom, which he makes real and present healing and teaching. 

v  The day draws to a close, and the crowd continue to listen to him, fascinated by the words of this young man Jesus from Nazareth. He does not speak like their teachers, he speaks with love, tenderness and respect for every one. He speaks of a kingdom where God will be god, where we will love each other. 

v  The disciples ask him to send the people to the villages so they may eat.  

v  Jesus gives a surprising answer to them "Give them some food yourselves." 

v  But how can we give food to such a crowd with only 5 loaves and 2 fish.  

v  Or where can we have enough money to buy food for all.     

v  Jesus makes his 12 friends his collaborators in what he is about to do.  

v  They will see how they will have enough bread to feed them all. Jesus  gives thanks and blesses the bread and they distribute it.  

v  They all eat and at the end the apostles  picked up the leftover fragments and they filled 12 baskets

v  What a wonderful sign of the Kingdom, of the messianic times prophesized by Isaiah, when there will be plenty of food and drink for all.  This sign of the bread reminds us of the sign of the water changed into wine at Cana. In both instances there is a superabundance, more than what is needed. This is a sign of the Kingdom.  

v  The community of the followers of Jesus, the Church, has seen in  the multiplication of the loaves a sign of the Eucharist, the bread given to us through the centuries, the bread for the journey, the bread which is Jesus himself killed and given to us on the cross to ratify the new covenant with his blood.  The bread which makes us like Jesus, so we may be able to do the same works  he did, to have his same values.    

v  THANK YOU LORD!!!  

Panis angelicus fit panis hominum; Dat panis caelicus figuris terminum: O res mirabilis! manducat Dominum Pauper, servus, et humilis.

Bread of Angels, made the bread of men; The Bread of heaven puts an end to all symbols: A thing wonderful! The Lord becomes our food: poor, a servant, and humble.

 

                        CLARETIAN CORNER  

Since then our Lord has given me the grace to have him ever present, and to have very intimate communication with Hid Divine Majesty, especially with the Most Holy Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Blessed sacrament. There were so many tokens of love shown by our Lord to this miserable sinner that many times I was obliged to exclaim: “enough, Lord enough! You either widen my heart or put an end to these attentions of love. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 12. 

Thoroughly convinced that to be a good missionary it is both useful and essential to have love, I have searched for this hidden treasure and would sell everything in order to find it. I studied the means to acquire it and discovered the following: (1) keeping the commandments of God's law, (2) practicing the evangelical counsels, (3) corresponding faithfully with divine inspirations, (4) making one's meditation well.

5.Asking and begging for love continuously and incessantly, without flagging or growing tired of asking for it, however late it seems in coming.  Praying to Jesus and Mary and, above all, asking our Father who is in heaven, through the merits of Jesus and Mary, in the sure hope that that good Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Autobiography 442-443. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

CLARET, Antonio María , Autobiografía.

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía

PAGOLA, José, Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C. 2012.  

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras, Año C, 2006

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo. 2010.