Slow Down; Share your Meals: The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ Sunday

                                       Slow Down; Share your Meals

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ Sunday

June 19, 2022

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Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17

 

          This feast that commemorates the Body and Blood of Christ, as we see, has deep roots in the faith, going way back to Melchizedek, the priest of old who set the standard for blessings and offerings. In his offering to God, he blessed the food of life, bread and wine, and gave his blessing to Abram. In our Eucharist, Jesus perfects the offering to God by handing onto the disciples the remembrance of sharing a meal together and blessing his friends. This action of eating, which is fundamental for life, becomes embedded as a cornerstone of our faith. 

 

          Naturally we see our time of worship as a sacred time; it is helpful for us if we see our ordinary meals as sacred too because we bless people when we spend time with them. There are aspects of our culture in which we eat alone, or in the car while driving, or at our desk while replying to emails, and we often do not have a prepared meal in the house as we did in times past. Life is busy and we try to use our precious time the most efficient way possible, and most of the time, we cannot have efficiency as a goal because we lose out of very human and sacred possibilities.

 

          I understand that we may wake up late, omit breakfast, and grab a cereal bar on the way out the door because the traffic is heavy, but this ought to be an exception to our daily routine rather than a common occurrence. We may need to make adjustments in the way we order our day if we find ourselves always rushing to the next appointment. We can place value on our eating and drinking so that it is not just nutrition or consumption. We will adopt a healthier diet if we prepare our meals and set times to eat with others. 

 

          Which gives you more pleasure: drinking a coffee from a Styrofoam disposable lidded cup as you walk to the office or arriving at your office, pouring coffee into a ceramic mug, and taking a breath before you begin your day? Which is more real? More pleasurable? We cannot only consume because it is more convenient. Taking time to sit down with a colleague over a cup of coffee will communicate worth and dignity to the person with whom you choose to spend time. The same goals with lunches and dinners. We must make time to sit down and be present to another human being if we are to enjoy the sacred moments of the day. These moments feed us not only nutritiously but they touch our spirit as well. 

 

          Jesus gave us a model for remembering him when we eat and drink, and it is not only sacred during the ritual meal. The model is applied to our common meals, the ordinariness of our day, because it is in the profane and common that the sacred is to be discovered. When we eat and drink with another person, we bless that other person and raise them to a new level of dignity. Eating with one another is sacred and we see that it is part of our history, that God’s presence is communicated when we choose to eat together in a way that is real, that is a mutual sharing, with genuine thanks given to the other. This food is no less sacred for our soul.

 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

 

Monday: (2 Kings 17) Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, occupied the whole land
and attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel the king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the children of Israel to Assyria, setting them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes.

 Tuesday: (2 Kings 19) Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent envoys to Hezekiah
with this message: “Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

 

Wednesday: (2 Kings 22) “Go, consult the LORD for me, for the people, for all Judah, about the stipulations of this book that has been found, for the anger of the LORD has been set furiously ablaze against us, because our fathers did not obey the stipulations of this book, nor fulfill our written obligations.”

 

Thursday: (Jeremiah 1) In the days of King Josiah, the word of the LORD came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

Friday (Ezekiel 34) Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered
when it was cloudy and dark.

 

Saturday (Lamentations 2) Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment; My gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, As child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 7) Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 7) Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.

 

Wednesday (Matthew 7) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.

 

Thursday (Luke 1) Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

 

Friday (Luke 15) 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance." 

 

Saturday (Luke 2) After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him,
they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us?

 

Saints of the Week

 

June 19: Romuald, abbot (950-1027), was born into a family of dukes from Ravenna and became known for founding the Camaldolese Benedictine order that combined the solitary life of hermits into a monastic community life. He founded other hermitages and monasteries throughout Italy. 

 

June 21: Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., priest (1568-1591), gave up a great inheritance to join the Jesuits in 1585 in his dreams of going to the missions. However, when a plague hit Rome, Gonzaga served the sick and dying in hospitals where he contracted the plague and died within three months. He is a patron saint of youth.

 

June 22: Paulinus of Nola, bishop (353-431) was a prominent lawyer who married a Spaniard and was baptized. Their infant son died while in Spain. He became a priest and was sent to Nola, near Naples, where he lived a semi-monastic life and helped the poor and pilgrims. 

 

June 22: John Fisher, bishop and martyr (1469-1535) taught theology at Cambridge University and became the University Chancellor and bishop of Rochester. Fisher defended the queen against Henry VIII who wanted the marriage annulled. Fisher refused to sign the Act of Succession. When the Pope made Fisher a cardinal, the angry king beheaded him. 

 

June 22: Thomas More, martyr (1478-1535) was a gifted lawyer, Member of Parliament, scholar, and public official. He was reluctant to serve Cardinal Woolsey at court and he resigned after he opposed the king’s Act of Succession, which would allow him to divorce his wife. He was imprisoned and eventually beheaded. 

 

June 24: Nativity of John the Baptist (first century) was celebrated on June 24^th to remind us that he was six months older than Jesus, according to Luke. This day also serves to remind us that, as Christ is the light of the world, John must decrease just as the daylight diminishes. John’s birth is told by Luke. He was the son of the mature Elizabeth and the dumbstruck Zechariah. When John was named, Zechariah’s tongue was loosened and he sang the great Benedictus.

 

Friday: The Sacred Heart of Jesus is set on the Friday following Corpus Christi. The heart of Jesus is adored as a symbol of divine, spiritual, and human love. Its devotion grew during the Middle Ages and was transformed in the 17th century when Mary Margaret Alocoque and her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude La Colombiere, reinvigorated the devotion. 

 

Saturday: The Immaculate Heart of Mary began as a devotion in the 17th century. In 1944, the feast was extended to the Western Church. Her heart signifies her sanctity and love as the Mother of God. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 19, 1558. Fr. Lainez, the Vicar General, summoned the opening of the First General Congregation, nearly two years after the death of Ignatius. Some trouble arose from the fact that Fr. Bobadilla thought himself entitled to some share in the governance. Pope Paul IV ordered that the Institute of the Society should be strictly adhered to. 
• June 20, 1626. The martyrdom in Nagasaki, Japan, of Blesseds Francis Pacheco, John Baptist Zola, Vincent Caun, Balthasar De Torres, Michael Tozo, Gaspar Sadamatzu, John Kinsaco, Paul Xinsuki, and Peter Rinscei. 
• June 21, 1591. The death of St Aloysius Gonzaga, who died from the plague, which he caught while attending the sick. 
• June 22, 1611. The first arrival of the Jesuit fathers in Canada, sent there at the request of Henry IV of France. 
• June 23, 1967. Saint Louis University's Board of Trustees gathered at Fordyce House for the first meeting of the expanded Board of Trustees. SLU was the first Catholic university to establish a Board of Trustees with a majority of lay members. 
• June 24, 1537. Ignatius, Francis Xavier, and five of the companions were ordained priests in Venice, Italy. 
• June 25, 1782. The Jesuits in White Russia were permitted by the Empress Catherine to elect a General. They chose Fr. Czerniewicz. He took the title of Vicar General, with the powers of the General.