Lemuel the Servant

Sunday, 02 June 2013
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Solemnity - Year C

Sts. Peter & Marcellinus, Martyrs (+ c. 304)



Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine : «Be what you see, and receive what you are»

Readings

Lk 9:11b-17.


           The crowds, meanwhile, learned of this and followed him. He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."
He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."
Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of (about) fifty."
They did so and made them all sit down.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 272 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)

«Be what you see, and receive what you are»

You see on God's altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence
of your eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the
bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few
words we can say perhaps all that faith demands. Faith, however, seeks
understanding... How can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is
in the cup, how can that be his blood?" These things, my friends,
are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our
understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding,
its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body of Christ
is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: «Now you are
the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it» (1Cor 12,17).
If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the
Lord's altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You
reply "Amen" to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear
the words "The body of Christ" and you reply "Amen." Be, then, a member of
Christ's body, so that your "Amen" may accord with the truth. Yes,
but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our own,
but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of
this sacrament: «Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form
one body» (1Cor 10,17). Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for
there you will find unity, truth, piety, and love. He says, «one loaf»:
and who this one loaf? «We, though we are many, form one body». Now bear
in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but of many. Be, then,
what you see, and receive what you are.