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Message from the desk of the Pastor:

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE

MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Gospel Reading 

Luke 9:11b-17

They all ate and were satisfied.

Background on the Gospel Reading

Today, the Second Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate a second solemnity, which marks our return to Ordinary Time. Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body    and Blood of Christ. At one time, this day was called Corpus Christi, Latin for “the Body of Christ.” In the most recent revision of the liturgy, the name for this day is expanded to be a more complete reflection of our Eucharistic theology.

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus' miracles to appear in all four Gospels. Luke places it between Herod's question, “Who is this about whom I        hear such things?” and Peter's response to Jesus' question about who he thought Jesus was: “You are the Messiah of God.” In Luke the feeding is not the result of Jesus' compassion for the crowd but is instigated by the disciples. They wanted Jesus to send the crowd away to town. Instead Jesus tells the disciples to give    them some food on their own.

The passage is meant to remind us of two feedings in the Old Testament: the  feeding of the Israelites in the desert and Elisha's feeding of 100 people with              20 loaves in 2 Kings 4:42-44. It is also connected to the institution of the Eucharist. As in the Last Supper accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and in Paul's account      in 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, Jesus takes bread, looks up to heaven, blesses the bread, breaks it, and then gives it to the disciples. In using this exact language, Luke is reminding his readers that in this miracle Jesus is doing more than feeding hungry people as God did for the Israelites and the prophet Elisha did as well. The bread he gives is his body, which he will continue to give as often as the community breaks bread in remembrance of him in the Eucharist.

Family Connection

In our age of fast food and eating on the go, families often find that they are not eating meals together at a dinner table. As a family, look back over the past week  and recall how many meals were eaten together and how many meals were eaten alone or on the run.

In the Bible, meals are seen as much more than a means to satisfy a physical need. The Hebrew people viewed eating a meal as a way of expressing and strengthening their relationship to one another under God's covenant. It is no coincidence that meals are often the setting of Jesus' teaching and miracles in the Gospels. In this Sunday's Gospel, we hear the story of Jesus feeding the crowd of 5,000 people.

Read this Sunday's Gospel, Luke 9:11b-17. Talk about the kinds of hungers that people have in addition to physical hunger. Describe the hungers that a family nourishes (love, compassion, forgiveness, laughter, and so on). Together give      thanks for the food that Jesus gives us that we celebrate on this Sunday's feast          of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Make a commitment to share in this Eucharistic meal together as a family.