CORPUS CHRISTI   - CICLO C – 2022

      Already back in ordinary time. Last Sunday we have celebrated the Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity.

      The liturgy presents this adorable mystery through different signs and images.

      The readings go from the most distant antiquity to the life of the first Christian communities, passing through the gospel of the loaves and fishes.  

FIRST READING   Gn 14:18-20

Ø  Before today’s text, the author narrates the fight of Abram with the kings that had attacked and kidnapped Lot with all his possessions. 

Ø  Abram recovered all and when he returned, the King of Salem, Melchizedek, came to meet him. 

Ø  This King blesses him and offers a sacrifice to God.     

Ø  Salem was the city of this King, and this name means peace, thus Salem is the city of peace. Later,  this city will become Jerusalem.       

Ø  The name of Melchizedek means “King of justice”.   

Ø  This King will become for the Christian community an image of Jesus. (Hebrew 7:1-3):

v  We do not know the origin of this King .   

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

v  He blesses Abram

v  He continues to be a priest forever.   

RESPONSORIAL Ps 110

R (4b)  You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
            till I make your enemies your footstool."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
            "Rule in the midst of your enemies."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
"Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
            before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
            "You are a priest forever, according to the order of  Melchizedek."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek. 

§  This psalm sings the kingship and the priesthood of this “Lord” whom we meet in the first verse.     

§  In these words, “today I beget you…” the Church acknowledges the voice of the Father who says to his Son “Today I have begotten you.”   

§  It is the “today” of eternity, always. It is the Word that the Father continues to repeat to his incarnate Son, Jesus.    

SECOND READING  1 Cor 11:23-26

      Paul transmit to his community what he has received.   

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

      Bread and wine, food that sustains and drink that gives joy to the human heart.   

      The Lord:

ü  Takes the bread

ü  He Pronounces the thanksgiving over the bread   

ü  He breaks it

ü  This is my body, given for you. Do this in memory of me.   

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

ü  Do this in memory of me  

ü  Because anytime you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you will proclaim the death of the Lord until he returns.     

      The New Covenant takes us to the first Covenant on 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.  It was the shadow of the true covenant that Christ would make.   

      Jeremiah (Jer 31,31-34) had announced this new covenant, which would not be written on stone tablets, but on flesh stones, on the heart of every man and woman who welcomes and accepts Christ as his or her Lord. 

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

      There are not several sacrifice, there is only one sacrifice of Christ which that is made present on each altar where we celebrate the Eucharist remembering his love and his surrender for love, inviting us to do the same, strengthened by the Bread and  the Wine of the Eucharist.  We have done this; we continue to do it until his return.   

      What is the meaning of “… in memory of me?”  Continually the Lord transforms us in himself when we eat his body and drink his blood. United to him, made one with him, we learn to die  to our own self to live for him and for the others.   

    This Bread and this Wine invite us to live the values of Jesus, they invite us to give our life out of love for the brothers and sisters of Jesus, for all. 

Sequence

The shorter form of the sequence begins here.

Lo! the angel’s food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
            see the children’s bread from heaven,
            which on dogs may not be spent.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
            Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
            manna to the fathers sent.

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
            You refresh us, you defend us,
            Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.

You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
            Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
            Where the heavenly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia 

GOSPEL Lk 9:11b-17

v  Luke describes this scene of the multiplication like the meal of the last Supper.   

v  Jesus is teaching the crowds, he speaks to them about the Kingdom, he heals the sick, making present the kingdom of which he speaks.    

v  As the day was drawing to a close, the crowds keep listening in owe, this man Jesus of Nazareth has captivated them, he speaks with tenderness of a kingdom where God will be God, where we will love each other.   

v  The disciples ask him to dismiss the people so they could go and find food to eat.  

v  Jesús says to them something surprising “Given them some food yourselves.” 

v  He will say these words to us through history, give food to those who need it, as he will say in the parable of the Samaritan man “go and do likewise.”   

v  But, how can we give food to so many people with only five loaves and two fishes? How can we feed the hungry human race? 

v  Where do we have so much money to buy food for all.   

v  Jesus enters in action and invites his twelve friends to collaborate  

v  They will see how the bread does not end, and how through their hands there is enough for all.   

v  Not only this, but there were leftovers, and there is more bread tan when they began.   

v  Maybe our problem is that we give the food ourselves and, not as collaborators of Jesus.  

v  What a beautiful sign of the overabundance of the kingdom, of the messianic times, as the prophet Isaiah had announced!  Sign of the Kingdom which brings to our minds the overabundance of the wine at the weeding at Cana. Signs of these Kingdom where nobody lacks anything, where all are submerged in the joy of the feast which never ends.    

v  The community of the disciples, the Church, has seen in this sign of the loaves the anticipation of the Eucharist, the bread given to us, the bread for the journey, the bread which is Jesus dead, given on the cross and risen to ratify the new covenant in his blood.  

v  The bread which transforms us in Jesus so that we can do the same Works, forgetting ourselves and giving ourselves through a  generous and unconditional love for every brother or sister who needs us.

CLARETIAN CORNER 

United to her Lord as his bride, she lived more and more focused on Him. Her religious experience acquires, if possible, an even more Christocentric direction. She puts all her efforts in “pleasing Jesus.”  

As a result of her profession, she composed a "portrait of Jesus and Teresita" that supposes both a contemplative attitude and a great ascetic effort to resemble her Lord. The spousal union was called to be fulfilled in a complete assimilation to Jesus and identification with Him. This spousal donation of the profession brought for the Servant of God a brief period of peace.

  "By the mercy of God, since I have professed, peace reigns in my heart and a great joy invades everything in me as I remember the consecration, I have made of myself to God our Lord. That had not stopped the feelings of dryness, distractions, annoyance, and sadness, but in all these moments, Jesus and Mary have supported me in such a way that I have even been able to smile, even when tears poked into my eyes. Blessed be God!"

 (Positio p. 90-91). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONGREGATIO DE CAUSIS SANCTORUM, MARIAE TERESIAE, POSITIO SUPER VIRTUTIBUS. Roma 1994

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.