JUNE 14th, 2020: BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a I Corinthians 10:16-17 John 6:51-58 The early biblical Christian community would have looked at today’s feast through different eyes than those looking at it today. We’ve been trained to see the “feeding” element of Christ’s Body and Blood; they saw the “presence” element. We see the former in today’s choice of a first reading. The comparison of Christ’s Body and Blood to the manna in the wilderness is classic. Moses reminds the Chosen People, “He (Yahweh) let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna . . . .” No matter the dangers the Israelites faced during their desert wanderings, Yahweh’s timely manna provided the strength to see them through their journeys unscathed. The similarity with Christ’s Body and Blood needs no explanation. John’s late first century CE reflection on both Eucharistic elements certainly reinforces that theology. Immediately after the bread miracle, his Jesus states, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day.” The evangelist is convinced Christ’s Body and Blood are the only “true food and true drink” Christians need to attain eternal life. Yet a generation or two before John wrote his gospel, Paul looked at the Eucharist through a different filter. Today’s I Corinthians passage is very significant; it contains the earliest known biblical reference to the Lord’s Supper. But once pulled out its chapter 10 context, it’s almost impossible to appreciate Paul’s unique Eucharistic theology. At this point of his letter, Paul’s challenging the overconfidence of some in the Corinthian community who believe they can continue taking part in their old pagan sacrifices yet remain followers of Jesus in good standing. He argues that just as receiving from the Eucharistic cup makes them one with the risen Jesus, so the pagan temple rituals in which they engage make them one with those other gods; an obvious contradiction for a disciple of Jesus. Then, bringing up a point John never makes about the Lord’s Supper in his oft-quoted chapter 6, the Apostle mentions his belief that receiving the cup and bread also make the participants one with one another. Symbolized by the one loaf, it transforms them into the one Body of Christ. (I wonder what our use of individual “hosts” signifies.) Paul doesn’t have to ask the next question. It’s obvious. How could the Body of Christ take part in such an abomination? One of the reasons Catholic celebrations of the Lord’s Supper eventually transformed themselves into just a series of “robotic actions” springs from our church’s zeroing in only on John 6 and ignoring other early Eucharistic theologies, especially that of Paul in I Corinthians. The “Mass” simply became the way this special food and drink was produced. No longer was it a communal meal in which the participants became one with both the risen Christ and one another. One special person did all the “work;’ everyone else just “applauded” when it was over. (Until the liturgical reforms of the mid-20th century practically no one – except the priest - even dared to actually eat any of this unique food!) Ad nausea I repeat the late Bishop Frank Murphy’s 1964 instruction to us about-to-be-ordained priests. “Your main task during the Eucharist isn’t just to say the right words or make the right gestures; it’s to help form the participants into the Body of Christ.” Unfortunately, it didn’t take us long to figure out it was far easier to “cook” the meal than it was to create the unique environment in which that one of a kind meal was to be eaten.
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