BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE, SEE WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BECOME WHAT YOU ARE
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ
Genesis 14: 18-20; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9: 11B-17
Scripture never ceases to amaze me. You can read the same story 100 times, and on the 101st time, you notice something you never did before. It shifts your attention, gives you deeper insight into the passage, and a more profound appreciation and love for our Lord. Case in point, Luke’s retelling of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand”, the “Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish” that we just heard.
So, in the past when I read this passage or preached on it, my focus was on two aspects of the story. First, the compassion and sensitivity of Jesus. Sometimes, because we hear little chucks of the gospels each week, we lose an appreciation for what had transpired immediately before and so it’s difficult to connect the dots. And on hearing this story, we forget that this great miracle happens right after Jesus has received word of the death of John the Baptist. So, despite his own personal grief, Jesus is still moved with concern and compassion for the crowd who gathered that day, all day, to hear him preach. They’re hungry. He has fed their minds, hearts and souls with his word, now he takes care of their physical needs and fills their bellies.
Second, when I’ve read this story in the past, of course my focus was on the magnitude of the miracle itself. Jesus takes the meager supply of five loaves of bread and two fish and multiplies them to feed a crowd of five thousand, not counting women and children. In John’s account of the event, we’re told that they were two small fish. Do you know what type of fish they could have been? Sardines! There are three kinds of fish that inhabit the waters of the Sea of Galilee: carp, tilapia and sardines. And only one of those three fits the description of being a small fish – sardines! It’s mindboggling to think of a crowd of five thousand plus being fed with only two fish; but just think how many SARDINES would have to be multiplied for each to not only have their fill, but for there to be twelve wicker baskets overflowing with the leftovers. A good lesson for us, that when we intercede to God, he never shortchanges us, he always blesses us with more than we have asked for.
But earlier in the week, when I read today’s gospel as I started to prepare my homily, two things jumped off the page at me that I really never paid much attention to in the past. One was Jesus’ his instructions to the Apostles after they alert him to the need of the crowd: “Give them some food yourselves.” And the second was the description of Jesus’ gestures as he performed the miracle: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples.” Does the latter sound familiar? It should, for they are the same four actions of Jesus at the Last Supper that we recall at every mass: he TOOK the bread, BLESSED it, BROKE it and GAVE it to his disciples. Hence the connection between the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is explicit.
Listen to what St. Augustine said in a homily he preached sometime in the 4th or 5th century on the Eucharist: Here is “one of the deep truths of Christian faith: through our participation in the sacraments (particularly baptism and Eucharist), we are transformed into the Body of Christ, given for the world.” St. Augustine went on to say, "Believe what you see, see what you believe and become what you are: the Body of Christ." When we say "Amen", we are saying "Yes! I believe this is the Body and Blood of Christ and yes I will be the Body of Christ to others."
And so, what did Jesus mean when he told his Apostles to “give them some food yourselves?" That we who have eaten must become what we have partaken of; we must BECOME Eucharist. And how do we do that? We do that when we allow ourselves to become bread; bread that has been chosen, blessed, broken and given.
Jesus took the bread. At our baptism, we were taken, chosen, called by name. In the Old Testament, God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” And at the Last Supper, Jesus reminded his Apostles, “It was not you who have chosen me; it is I who have chosen you.” The same is true for us. As Christ took the bread, we are taken by God. That means we are chosen and are precious in God’s eyes - Chosen by God and selected for a unique role to play in God's Kingdom.
He took the bread and blessed it. We are blessed by God. We have all been blessed in some way or another, to some degree or another. Some have been blessed with great families and friends, good jobs, keen intelligence, incredibly good looks, good health, fantastic personalities. But beyond these, we have been blessed with generous hearts, personal warmth, intense compassion, merciful spirits, and deep faith. All of these blessings and more have been given not to be hoarded, but to be shared.
Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it. We are all broken people. We are broken in so many ways, in our bodies and in our hearts, in our homes and in our world. We might feel like our brokenness is a sign that we are cursed, but when we listen to the voice that calls us “beloved” it becomes possible to see our brokenness as an opportunity to grow and learn and to deepen the blessing that God has given us. In other words, as we begin to allow the blessing to touch our brokenness we realize that what was once intolerable is now a challenge, what was once rejection becomes a way to deeper communion, and what seemed like punishment is simply a gentle pruning. And by coping through our brokenness, we can become more sensitive, more compassionate, to the brokenness of others.
Christ took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples. We are given. If we truly know and live our lives as people who are chosen by God, blessed, and broken, then we can give of ourselves. Jesus said, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit”. When we bear fruit, we are helping others bear fruit. Each of our lives is a gift to those close to us: family, friends, those we serve, as well as to people we will never know. God has given us—each one of us—as a sacred gift to the world.
BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE, SEE WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BECOME WHAT YOU ARE!!! In other words: Our deepest reality is Christ. Christ is our truest identity. You and Christ . . . One and the same . . . One holy communion. formed when you become Eucharist and have allowed yourself to be chosen, blessed, broken and given with Him and for Him, or as St. Augustine would say: when you put your life on the altar.
I guess St. Teresa of Avila said it best when she wrote. “Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.”
Ever wonder why, after the five thousand were fed, there were twelve wicker baskets full of leftovers? Maybe for each of the twelve Apostles to take a basket and to do what Jesus commanded, “Give them some food yourselves.” And that basket has not become empty in two thousand years.
The basket has now been passed to you. “Give them some food yourselves.”
