DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Genesis 14,18-20; 1 Corinthians 11,23-26; Luke 9,11b-17: Solemnity of Corpus Christi; 2019)
(Genesis 14,18-20; 1 Corinthians 11,23-26; Luke 9,11b-17: Solemnity of Corpus Christi; 2019)
The few verses that constitute the first reading is a description of a cultic event that includes a priest, possibly a sacrifice, a blessing, and a religious practice. It is a story about Abram, the premier ancestor of the Israelites. But he is not, as one would expect, the principal actor in the drama that unfolds. All the significant actions are performed by someone named Melchizedek. The only important action Abram initiates is the tithing, and that appears to be a response to what has transpired. The deity in whose name (God Most High) Melchizedek blesses Abram is closely associated with the cult that was practiced in Jerusalem (cf. Pss 46,4; 87,5). This was not a saviour God, as was the God of Israel; this God was the Creator of heaven and earth, and Melchizedek, who was not an Israelite, was His priest and conducted worship in the name of his God. The rite celebrated here is a kind of thanksgiving offering, probably for Abram's victory over his foes. The text does not tell us why it is this mysterious king-priest who presides and not Abram, or why Abram is blessed in the name of a god not his own. The words pronounced by Melchizedek are both a blessing for Abram and an exclamation of praise of God Most High. A blessing by the Creator would include a share in the goods of creation, the benefits of fertility of the land, crops, animals, and particularly of one's own procreative potential. It is at the conclusion of this blessing that Abram offers a tenth of his goods to the king-priest.
The second reading (1 Corinthians 11, 23-26) is an account of the institution of the Lord's Supper that draws on the Jesus tradition. The language used is technical and formulaic; what Paul received he now hands down (cf. 1 Cor 15,3). This does not mean that he received this tradition in direct revelation from the Lord but that he received it by word of mouth, the usual way a religious heritage is transmitted. This manner of expression establishes the ecclesial authority of the teaching. It also demonstrates Paul's own conviction that the risen Christ transmits the tradition through the agency of the members of the body of Christ, the Church. That the account comes specifically from the Jesus tradition and not from the more general early Christian tradition is evident in the recital of the words of Jesus. They actually give instruction for the continual celebration of the liturgical reenactment. The fact that they are the words of Jesus gives divine legitimation to the anamnesis (ritual of remembering that makes events of the past effective and effectual in the present) that is enjoined upon the community of believers. The words themselves are found within a succinct account of Jesus' Last Supper, wherein he draws lines of continuity between the old and the new covenants and also makes clear their differences. Jesus' sharing of the blessed bread and cup was a prophetic symbolic action that anticipated his death. The ritual reenactment of this supper would be a participation in his death and a sharing in the benefits that would accrue from it. In it the risen exalted Lord continually gives what the dying Jesus gave once for all. In the memorial celebration the past, the present, and the future are brought together: the past is the commemoration of his death; the present is the ritual of remembrance itself; the future is his parousia, his coming again. The reason for repeating Jesus' actions and words is that they reenact and signify his salvific death. Believers live an essentially eschatological existence, anticipating the future as they reenact the past.
The gospel account (Luke 9,11b-17) opens with a summary statement about the ministry of Jesus: He preached about the reign of God and he healed the people of their illnesses. If his preaching had not attracted crowds, his healing certainly would have. At any rate, people from all walks of life thronged around him so that, as we see in this narrative, they had to be dismissed. It is the end of the day, the time when the major meal is customarily eaten. The scene is an out-of-the-way place, deserted but close enough to populated areas that the Twelve could suggest that food and lodging might be procured there. They could not have imagined what Jesus had in mind. Five loaves and two fish would not have been much of a meal for Jesus and the Twelve, much less for the crowd said to have gathered on this occasion. Yet that was the fare the disciples were told to distribute. Jesus' actions over the food are brief but significant. He blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it as food. The eucharistic overtones are obvious. The prayer said over the food was probably more a thanksgiving than a blessing. The role played by the apostles cannot be overlooked. They are actually the ones through whom the crowds experience the munificence of Jesus. They distributed the food and, most likely, collected what was left over into twelve baskets. The author of the gospel shows by this that Jesus provides for his people through the agency of the Church. Over the years there have been attempts to explain what really happened in this event. Was food really multiplied? Or did people bring out their own provisions and share them with others? Any attempt to explain away the miracle completely misses the point of the narrative. Its many-levelled meaning rests on the miraculous abundance God provides through Jesus.
This day’s feast combines two previously separate feasts (Corpus Christi and the Precious Blood) and celebrates the living presence of Christ, which we know in the gift of his body and blood in the Eucharist. The readings themselves offer us portals through which we can enter this mystery. There is the portal of Melchizedek, the portal of sacrifice, the portal of banquet, the portal of the death of Jesus. No one theme exhausts the possibilities of entrance into the mystery. The letter to the Hebrews holds that Jesus offered himself once and for all times. The body and blood of Christ are offered as a sacrifice for us, and every time we reenact this sacrifice (at Holy Masses), we renew his sacrifice for us. The bread that is broken is the bread of a thanksgiving sacrifice, and the blood that is consumed is the blood that ratifies the covenant between us and God. However, the broken bread is really his broken body, offered for us, and the ratifying wine is really his blood, poured out in atonement for our sins. The body and blood of Jesus is the interim meal for the Christian community. They are to feed on it until the Lord returns. Take note of the already-but-not-yet character of Christian eschatology, for the Lord has already returned. This means that the Eucharistic meal is a re-enactment of Christ's death, an anticipatory celebration of his coming, and a thanksgiving banquet with him present. The symbolism here is rich and many-layered. The sacrifice Melchizedek offered was neither more or less than a thanksgiving offering to the Most High God. Read on this feast day, the passage opens the door for us to step into the realm of thanksgiving. Although what we commemorate today is intimately linked with the death of Jesus, the sentiments this reading opens us to are sentiments of thanksgiving and awe before the high God of heaven. The psalmist moves away from the content of the sacrifice and concentrates on the priest who offers it. He is not only a priest but a king as well. This feast would have us stop in our tracks and contemplate the royal as well as the priestly character of Jesus, who offers his body and blood as sacred food and drink. The multiplication of the loaves and fish is another portal that opens into the richness of this feast. It prefigures the eschatological banquet of fulfilment, Its miraculous bounty assures us of the abundance of that future banquet. Its miracle of multiplication prefigures the miracle of Jesus as he changed the bread and wine into his own body and blood. Jesus handed himself over as food and drink on the very night he was handed over by others to become a victim of sacrifice. The banquet he prepared was a celebration of the new covenant; it was a banquet of thanksgiving; it was eschatological. This feast invites us to enter through any portal, for each one will lead us to the mystery we celebrate: the mystery of the sacrifice of Christ; the mystery of the sacred bread and wine of the future; the mystery of the eschatological banquet of the present. It also challenges us to sacrifice ourselves for our neighbour as Christ did, to allow ourselves be transformed into Christ we receive as communion, to be generous in providing for the needs of others just as the bread and fish multiplied in the gospel were provided by some people, to build up the body of the church by contributing our time, talents, money as Abraham did by offering a tenth of his war-spoils and to join Christ and the members of his mystical body the, Church, in rendering God the greatest form of thanksgiving through our active participating in the Holy Masses especially those of Sunday, the day of the Lord. May we be united intimately and for ever with Christ whom we encounter in today’s Eucharistic celebration! Happy Solemnity of Corpus Christi!+John I. Okoye
GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE
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