SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SUNDAY JUNE 14th 2009
Luke 9: 17 “And they all ate and were satisfied”.
The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is in each of the four Gospels. Interestingly it refers to 5,000 men – where were the women? Well, of course, they were at home preparing the lunches the men had forgotten to bring – therefore necessitating Jesus to perform this great miracle!
Corpus Christi is a unique feast. The Epistle reading (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) reminds us that we are celebrating again that great act of love on Maundy Thursday, the Last Supper.
But not – as it was then – in the gathering gloom of Good Friday and the suffering of Christ. Today is set aside so that we may celebrate Maundy Thursday again with the joy of Easter still in our minds. We have moved from the Last Supper in Holy Week, to a celebration of the giving of the Eucharist which acknowledges that our Lord Jesus Christ now reigns in heaven, but is still present here on earth in this most wonderful sacrament. Our celebration takes us back to the spiritual atmosphere of Maundy Thursday and that Upper Room when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, but with the knowledge that he now lives and reigns for ever and ever in heaven.
Now that he is both Victor and King, we can understand the teaching Jesus gave about the Eucharist, particularly that in John 6:
“I am the bread of life, whoever eats this bread will life forever”.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you………………anyone who eats this bread will live forever”.
To non-believers what Jesus says in Saint John’s Gospel sounds like a nonsense – or maybe even cannibalism. But to people of faith it is the gift that Jesus gives of himself to reveal God’s infinite love for us and for the world.
From the beginning the feeding of the 5,000 was seen as an image and prophecy of the Eucharist. Saint Luke records the four-fold action of Jesus taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those present. This is the same Eucharistic action that Jesus did at the Last Supper – He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave.
It is the same action that the priest does when he celebrates the Eucharist, at the heart of the consecration of the bread and wine. So today is not just a day for commemorating the mystery of Maundy Thursday – but also to reaffirm with joy our faith in the Eucharist, and what that action leads to: the presence of Christ given to us individually and corporately.
Pope Benedict reminds us that the Eucharist constitutes the heart of the Church. Of this feast of Corpus Christi he said: “It is a feast that was established in order to publicly adore, praise, and thank the Lord, who continues to love us to the end – even to offering us his body and his blood”.
And thus at the end of High Mass today we have the procession of the Sacrament, when we honor Jesus present as if he was walking amongst us, concluding with His benediction.
This ceremony calls to mind the procession at the end of the Mass on Maundy Thursday. However that procession led to the Garden of Gethsemane and Christ’s agony in the garden in that night of betrayal.
Today in a similar procession we proclaim Our Lord Jesus Christ as the risen, ascended and glorified Lord passing amongst us. But it should not be enough it that Jesus should pass just amongst us. He should pass amongst everyone! He should pass through the world as he did on those roads in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.
That is surely the meaning of Saint Luke’s comment when he says: “They all ate and were satisfied”. Surely this image of the feeding of the 5,000 tells us that the Eucharist is meant for the whole world – not just for the select group of Christians who understand it. All surely means, all the world?
Jesus wants every human being to be nourished by the Eucharist – for the Eucharist is for the whole world. What Jesus instituted in the Upper Room with the apostles was destined for the whole world, so that all may eat and be satisfied. For surely the whole world needs the healing love and presence of Jesus – if only they knew it was here at All Saints’!
And then Saint Luke says they were satisfied. Here is another image of the feeding of the 5,000 – for the Eucharist surely satisfies our spiritual hunger and our need to be touched by Jesus – even as we can quite literally reach out and touch him in Holy Communion.
The Eucharist satisfies us as spiritual food for our journey through life, and leads us to heaven. Just like the manna in the desert that nourished the people of Israel for 40 years, so the Eucharist is the indispensible nourishment that sustains us and all Christians. Sustains us as we, like the Jews, move through the deserts of this world – those deserts which hold out false idols, treacherous ways, and fake nourishment.
The miracle of the 5,000 has another element that holds up an image of the Eucharist.
The miracle that Jesus did began with an invitation to the people to make their contribution. He asked them what they had to feed the 5,000. Just five loaves and two fishes, of course. But those five loaves and two fishes signify our contribution – small as it was.
They symbolise what we can offer to the Lord. No matter how small the offering of those five loaves and two fish were, it was a necessary offering so that Jesus could show that he can transform the small things in our lives into something abundant and loving, and beautiful. Something as a gift of love. As he did on that day, so he continues to do in the Eucharist, and in our lives as faithful Christians. No act of love or service to the Lord by us is too small to be received and magnified and made into divine love.
The Eucharist is a call to live with Christ and to make of ourselves a gift to him – and also to each other. For are we not called to be, with Jesus, bread broken for the life of the world?
Are we not called to serve by the very nature of the Eucharist and the miracle of the 5,000?
What wonderful things Scripture gives us to ponder about the simple act of Communion and the Eucharist. As we ponder on all these aspects of the Eucharist there is just one response that we can make as we celebrate this great feast of Corpus Christi:
“Blessed and praised be Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament; Hosanna in Excelsis!”