CORPUS CHRISTI The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 6, 2010 Reflections on Genesis 14:18-20 Psalm 110: 1,2,3,4 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 9:11b-17 by Sister Patricia Coughlin, O.S.B, D.Min.

Don't you just love buzz words? They start out meaning something. Then they mean everything. Then they mean nothing. Last year it seemed that every time you turned on the news something or somebody was described as “iconic.” This year the word, or one of the words, seems to be “narrative.”

We all know what narrative means-a description or accounting of a series of events, usually in chronological order. But, the current usage of the word has a more specific meaning having to do with public relations, especially in politics. So there is a fair amount of discussion on political talk shows and newspaper editorials of the Obama administration's perceived failure to communicate it's narrative to the American people in the compelling way that Obama the candidate did. In other words, they are not providing a big story that links individual policy initiatives in health care, banking, climate, energy, education, foreign policy, etc. into a coherent whole that gives people a way of remembering and believing them. Slogans often help us to connect to narratives. “Free markets/not free loaders” “Hate is not a family value.” You can guess the narrative or big story that underlies each of those slogans.

At this point you might be wondering what all this has to do with the feast we are marking today. This might be a stretch but I think we can look at all three readings and see a story shining through all of them: it is a story summed up by “took, blessed, broke, gave.” It is a story that has been retold and reenacted endlessly over the past 2,000 years. The Melchizedek story, originally meant to connect Abraham to David's royal city of Jerusalem and to lift up the priestly character of David's kingship has been folded into the Christian story as a prefiguring of the Eucharist. Paul's Last Supper account, written before any of the gospels, presents the story as already tradition and already stylized and ritualized and focusing on Jesus' saving death.

The importance and centrality of this story is shown by the fact that the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. And the repetition of “taking, blessing, breaking, giving” reminds us that this miracle story is a eucharistic story as much as the Last Supper is a eucharistic story. Nathan Mitchell of St. Meinrad's has written, “Jesus, took the five loaves...said the blessing...broke them and gave them...The reader naturally begins wondering what the connections are between the miraculous multiplication of food and the eucharistic meals of the community...In other words, these stories challenge Christians to remember that eucharistic origins lie not in Jesus' last meal, but in all those events wherein Jesus (as guest or host) satisfied hunger, announced the unbridled joy of God's arrival in the present moment (=God's reign), and offered healing and hope to the poor and needy.”

So, the taking, blessing, breaking and giving story, even as the Christian scriptures were being formed, became part of two big narratives: One of them puts the events of history and of our lives into the context of a story about God's creation of a perfect world and humanity's fall into sin and its consequences of suffering, death, and estrangement from God. This narrative tells how Jesus loved us so much that he died on a cross to reconcile us with a God who was somewhere else than here. (Michael Morwood refers to this God as “the elsewhere God”.)The eucharist in this narrative is the body and blood of the crucified Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine - the Real Presence. This is the narrative that has been emphasized for many centuries and the one that most of us here grew up with and that has deeply informed our psyches. TERRY/MIKIE

The other narrative is certainly found in the scriptures and Christian tradition as well, but has been given much more attention in recent years, partly because of what we now know about the origins of the universe and our tiny place in it as well as the evolution of our human species, a worldview in which young people today are growing up. In this one the universe is an expression of God's self-communicating grace and God's Real Presence is in every part of it. In this narrative we are not so much depraved as forgetful. We tend to forget that we are connected to God just because we exist and that we, like everyone and everything, are a part of God and deserving of love. In this light the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand is a story about the abundance of God. As Nathan Mitchell says, “Do this in memory of me,” means, 'Make your eucharistic table a place of lavish abundance and extravagant service, where the tired, the poor, the hungry, and all who are driven by despair and need may find real food, real rest, real comfort, real nurture.' For it is the abundant presence of these things that signals the presence of Jesus, of God, as table partner.”

How can we live up to this very challenging, daunting command unless we remember that to act in this way is to act out of the fullness of our humanity, that the God who permeates all existing things comes to visibility in the human reality that we are?

It's always tempting to put 21st century ideas into the mouths of Jesus and the early church, so I was surprised and kind of relieved to come across the following words in a homily given by St. Augustine, of all people:

If you, therefore, are Christ's body and members, it is your own mystery that
is placed on the Lord's table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving!
You are saying “Amen” to what you are. Your response is your personal
signature, affirming your faith. When you hear, “The body of Christ,” you
reply “Amen.” Be a member of Christ's body then, so that your “Amen” may
ring true. (Sermon 272)

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