Reflection by Jeff Koch
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.
Corpus Christi, which is Latin meaning the” Body of Christ,” is a joyful feast dedicated solely to honoring the Eucharist emphasizing the real presence of Christ in the form of bread and wine; for the forgiveness of sins and spiritual nourishment of the faithful. It is considered a call for Christians to deepen their understanding of the Eucharist as the "source and summit of all Christian life.”
I personally have been on a journey with my understanding of the Eucharist. A journey much like we see in the journey of God’s provision in the Scriptures for this feast day of Corpus Christi.
When Moses peached to the Israelites toward the end of his life, as recorded in Deuteronomy, he wanted them to remember how God had provided for them as they exited Egypt. Several things were happening to Israel on the way to the promised land. God wanted His people, he had just delivered, to learn to trust him. They, for years had been patterned to trust in the provision of Egypt, so as they went through the wilderness, God took care of them, provided for them in their hunger and thirst, in their travels and battles that faced them. He brought them out from their captivity and protected them in the perils they faced, even in the consequences of their own disobedience. He fed them with Manna, he brought forth water from a rock, He showed he was with them in so many ways. He also wanted them to know that it wasn’t just the bread they needed to eat, but there was something more, they were to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now as we look back from our present vantage point, we know that the word that comes from the mouth of God, is the Word that was with God and was God, that word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .JESUS! Also, Paul tells us that the rock that the water came from was Christ. (All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:3-4) The manna, the bread from heaven was given by God to the people to sustain them and give them life, but it wasn’t just the manna, it was the word, the commands that came with the manna, God has provided for them. Don’t forget that! Remember that!
So, as we move forward to the time when, the “word made flesh,” God, came to this earth, in the flesh, the body of Jesus. At one point, Jesus was questioned by this new generation of Israelites, (showing that they had remembered) they mentioned that Moses had given them bread from heaven. Jesus then counters with, it wasn’t Moses that gave you that bread from heaven, it was my Father that gave you the manna, the bread from heaven. In fact, He has done it again, for “I am the living bread that came down from heaven and whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world . . . my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (John 6) He later emphasized that, and further explained his statement is John 6, when he said at the last supper, “This is my Body and this is my blood,” as he blessed and broke that bread and lifted and blessed the cup.
As God provided nourishment in the wilderness and satisfied their thirst in the desert, God has again provided for us in bread and wine, provision for our lives. It is in the Eucharist that we find nourishment and sustenance for this life and life eternal. It is in the Eucharist that Jesus is present with us at the table. At the table, just as he was with his disciples on the night before He gave his life for our forgiveness and, by his death and resurrection, He defeated death so we might have life. And just like Moses said to the Israelites so long ago, remembering how the Lord your God has done this, we also hear in the words of Jesus; “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Paul continues and says to the Corinthian church and to us. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ: the bread that we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ! The word for participation is the word in the Greek, koinonia or fellowship. At the table we have fellowship with the presence of Jesus as we participate in Christ and in the body and in the forgiveness and in the life of Jesus and his provision for our journey in this life into life eternal with him.
The story of Scripture makes it clear that God so longs to be with us and longs for us to be with him. He was with Israel in the wilderness. Why wouldn’t he want to be with us at the table as we remembrance of all that He and Jesus have done for us to make that possible; and to be present to us in the Bead and in the Wine? The collect below calls us to “revere the sacred mystery, this meal proclaims to us something beyond what we see in the bread and the cup, it is this mystery of Jesus with us that brings us the reality of the ‘fruit of our redemption.” What Jesus did for us proclaims to us that God loves us. God has given us what we need for life and godliness. God has been faithful in all things, so we can trust Him. God is with us! . . . in the bread and in the wine! Remember . . . and then “Do this in remembrance of Him!”
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen!