19^th June, 2022

Sunday Church at Home

Take and Eat!    

The lay leader makes the sign of the cross, saying:

Leader:          In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

All reply:       Amen

Leader:          Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

All reply:       Blessed be God for ever

Leader:          We hear in the Gospel today how Jesus fed the crowds: he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. These are the same actions that are at the heart of every Mass. So Jesus feeds us today with his body and blood.

LITURGY OF THE WORD

First Reading: Genesis 14:18-20

Introduction to the reading:

Today’s reading from the book of Genesis tells us all we know about an obscure king named Melchizedek.  Abraham had just won a military victory, and Melchizedek honours him with a meal of bread and wine.  Over the course of time, this meal was seen as a distant foreshadowing of the Eucharist, which is why this passage was chosen for today’s feast.

A reading from the Book of Genesis.

In those days: 
Melchizedek king of Salem 
brought out bread and wine; 
he was a priest of God Most High. 
And he blessed Abram and said, 
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, 
maker of heaven and earth; 
and blessed be God Most High, 
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” 
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 110:1.2.3.4 (R. 4cd)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

R/. You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.

The Lord’s revelation to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your foes your footstool.”

The Lord will send from Sion
your sceptre of power:
rule in the midst of your foes.

With you is princely rule
on the day of your power.
In holy splendour, from the womb before the dawn,
I have begotten you.

The Lord has sworn an oath he will not change:
“You are a priest forever,
in the line of Melchizedek.”

R/. You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Introduction to the reading: The first letter to the Corinthians was written about 25 years after Christ’s death and resurrection.  Today’s passage contains our earliest written account of what Jesus did at the Last Supper.  

A reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.

Brothers and sisters: 

I received from the Lord 
what I also delivered to you, 
that the Lord Jesus 
on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 
and when he had given thanks, 
he broke it, and said, 
“This is my body which is for you. 
Do this in remembrance of me.” 
In the same way, also the chalice, 
after supper, saying, 
“This chalice is the new covenant in my blood. 
Do this, as often as you drink it, 
in remembrance of me.” 
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, 
you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The word of the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia
I am the living bread which came down from heaven, says the Lord; if anyone eats this bread he will live forever.
Alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 9:11b-17

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

At that time: 
Jesus spoke to the crowds of the kingdom of God, 
and cured those who had need of healing. 
Now the day began to wear away; 
and the twelve came and said to him, 
“Send the crowd away, 
to go into the villages and country round about, 
to lodge and get provisions; 
for we are here in a lonely place.” 

But he said to them, 
“You give them something to eat.” 

They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—
unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” 
For there were about five thousand people. 

And he said to his disciples, 
“Make them sit down in companies, 
about fifty each.” 
And they did so 
and made them all sit down. 
And taking the five loaves and the two fish 
he looked up to heaven, 
and blessed and broke them, 
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 
And all ate and were satisfied. 
And they took up what was left over, 
twelve baskets of broken pieces.

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Reflection on the Readings 

The leader reads the text prepared by the priest and leads the sharing.

We divide time into BC and AD: BC, before Christ, and AD, Anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord) time since Jesus’ birth. These days, people also use BCE – before Christian Era, and CE – Christian Era in place of BC and AD. 

• Both systems are our way of showing that Jesus is the centre of history; Jesus is the most important event in history. 
• Everything in history pales into insignificance compared to Jesus. It is the same in our lives; Jesus is or should be the centre of our lives and our week. 
• Because Jesus is the centre of our lives, we come here to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday and afterwards we go in peace to love and serve the Lord whom we encountered here in the Eucharist.

Just as we divide time into BC and AD, before Christ and after his birth, the Sacred Scriptures do the same and so we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

• In the Old Testament from time to time, we get glimpses and hints of Jesus in events or people anticipating or pointing the way to Jesus. 
• Today in Genesis 14:18-20, the priest Melchizedek is one of those people giving us a glimpse and hint of Jesus to come. 
• Melchizedek was an obscure priest/king type of person, and Jesus is the High Priest of the New Testament. 
• The two are linked in Psalm 110 (the responsorial psalm today): “You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.”  
• Melchizedek offered bread and wine to God which was a foreshadowing of the Eucharist that Jesus would give. 
• In Eucharistic Prayer I, we hear, “O Lord…Be pleased…to accept [these offerings] as once you were pleased to accept…the offering of your high priest Melchizedek.” 
• There are other hints and glimpses of the Eucharist in the Old Testament; 
  • the manna which the Israelites received in the desert (Ex 16), 
  • and the food that sustained the prophet Elijah for forty days and nights until he reached Mount Horeb/Sinai (1 Kings 19).

In the Gospel, Jesus performed a miracle by feeding thousands from only five loaves and two fish. 

• This miracle is preparing for the greatest New Testament miracle, the Eucharist. 
• Jesus performed the same four actions over the bread and fish when he multiplied them as he would do later over the bread during the Last Supper:
• he took the bread and fish, 
• said the blessing over them, 
• broke them, and 
• gave them to his disciples.

In the eucharistic bread and wine today we are receiving the One who invites us to come close and receive healing. 

• We are also receiving the One who asks his disciples, 
  • “Why do you not give them something to eat yourselves?” 
• Our response may be confusion as we look at the enormity of the problem of hunger in South Africa and in the world. 
• But the Eucharist can heal us and open our eyes and minds to how we can feed the hungry and where they can be found in our immediate environment. 

Economists tell us that there would be enough to eat if the world’s food and goods were more equitably distributed. 

• Sadly, there is still so much hunger in the world.
• Poverty is the main cause of hunger in the world. This is true in rich and poor countries alike. It is true no matter whether people live in urban or rural areas.
• Factors like unemployment, food shortages and waste, climate change which is damaging food and water security in significant ways, war and conflict, unstable markets pushing up the price of basic commodities, are all causes of hunger in the world.

It is easy to be discouraged as we look at the enormity of the problem. 

• But the Eucharist can heal us and open our eyes and minds to how we can feed the hungry and where they can be found in our immediate environment. 
• This is when look to the work done by our Caritas groups in the parish: God’s Garage, Helping Hands, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Parish Poverty relief project, the CWL, Justice and Peace, and all who do such powerful work for the poor and hungry.
• Today our eyes are opened. 

 The gospel story has the word “distribution” in it and the disciples are in charge of that “distribution”. We are called to share in that distribution.

The second reading (1 Cor 11:23-26) is a description of the Last Supper that is very precious to us because it is the oldest account of the Last Supper in the Scriptures, written even before the Gospels. 

• Paul wrote this letter sometime during the 2½ years he spent preaching in Ephesus 54-57 AD. 
• It is the earliest description of the Last Supper in the New Testament. 
• Jesus said, “This is my body…” He did not say, “This is a symbol of my body” or “This represents my body” but Jesus said, “This is my body.” 
• Transubstantiation is the name we give to the bread and wine changing into the body and blood of Jesus while maintaining the appearance of bread and wine. 
• Trans – substance, the substance is transformed while maintaining its external appearance of bread and wine, transubstantiation.

Just as Jesus is the centre of time, BC and AD, our celebration of Corpus Christi today reminds us to keep Jesus in the Eucharist at the centre of our lives. 

• Jesus desires that we live each day in intimate union with him; 
  • he is not a stranger to meet for just one hour every Sunday. 
• Can you live your entire day with Jesus and also spend special time in prayer with Jesus in the Eucharist? 
• Just as Jesus is the centre of time, and the centre of our lives, the Tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament in it – is the focal point in the church.

There were many hints in the Old Testament that Jesus would come. 

• In every Mass the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus for us, and how bread and wine are formed reminds us of Jesus’ passion and death. 
• The Eucharist shows us Jesus’ love for us. 
• Jesus is the centre of time. 
• Today Jesus is the centre of our day.

So, that is why we go to Church. 

• We want to find a reply to our spiritual quest for meaning and purpose in our lives. 
• When we share in the Eucharist, we encounter Christ. 
• At Mass, which is a ritual, we find that presence of Christ given to our senses in Communion, and it fulfils our Spiritual and physical yearning.
• All who are hungry for Christ – Come and eat!

From today’s Gospel reading:

Jesus said to the Twelve:

“You yourselves give them something to eat.”

Reflection:

“The acceptance by human society of murderous famines, without efforts to remedy them, is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.” 

• The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2269) 

So we ask ourselves: 

• What has touched me in the readings today?
• If I were to check my kitchen, what food could I share with the hungry?
• Do I support any parish programs that feed the hungry?

Prayer of the Faithful

Leader:          

Gathered around the Lord’s table to receive his body and blood, let us pray to God our Father for our needs and the needs of the world.

Reader:

We pray for the Church: that we will live as a Eucharistic people, giving and sharing ourselves, as Christ continually does for us, so that all may have life.

LORD HEAR US

We pray for South Africa: may those who hunger and thirst for justice find a source of strength and understanding in Christ and his people.

LORD HEAR US

We pray for all who cannot receive the Eucharist: that we, as Body of Christ, may be a source of God’s love and compassion for them. 

LORD HEAR US

We pray for all who bring the Body of Christ to the homebound and hospitalized: that they may be renewed through their service and be a support and a source of joy for those whom they serve.

LORD HEAR US

We pray for all fathers and those who have shown us a father’s love: that God will grant them peace and health, and help them give good example and a source of encouragement to their children.

 LORD HEAR US

We pray for members of our families and friends who have died and those whose anniversaries occur about this time. 

LORD HEAR US

We pray for Ana Palmeiro who died this week. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon her. 

May she rest in peace. AMEN

Leader:

A Special Prayer for Fathers and all who have shown us a father’s love:

God of Abraham, Moses and Aaron;

of Zachary, father of John the Baptist,

of Joseph, foster-father of Jesus,

listen to our prayer:

Bless all who father and protect new life in any way,

these fathers who teach and guide,

who encourage and lead.

Invite them to the table of your eternal feast,

these fathers who work hard to provide for the life

that has been entrusted to them.

Embrace them warmly in the intimacy of your love,

these fathers who lift up with strength

those who are helpless and dependent.

Bless them today with all good things:

with health, with laughter, with joy and with love,

with pride in their children

and with the support of many friends.

May all fathers who have protected and guided the life of others

be themselves held securely one day in your strong embrace,

there, for all eternity, to rejoice with their families and friends.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Leader:          Let us pray our PRAYER TO JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT:

Jesus,

increase our faith 

in your real presence in the Blessed Sacrament, 

the mystery of faith, 

that like the disciples who came to know you 

“in the breaking of the bread”, 

we may come to know you in the Eucharist 

in an intimate and personal way.  

We pray that you will help our parish 

to become a faith community

by responding to your appeal 

to be loved day and night 

in the most Blessed Sacrament 

where you call us to pray without ceasing, 

for this is where you, our Risen Saviour, dwell.  

May all praise and thanksgiving, glory and honour be yours.  

AMEN 

Spiritual Communion

We can unite ourselves to the Eucharist through making a spiritual Communion.

By making an Act of Spiritual Communion, we express our faith in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist and ask him to unite himself with us. 

My Jesus, I believe you are really here in the Blessed Sacrament. 
I love you more than anything in the world, and I hunger to receive you. 
But since I cannot receive Communion at this moment, feed my soul spiritually. I unite myself to you now as I do when I receive you. Amen.

CONCLUDING RITE

Leader:          Let us pray to the Father in the words Jesus our Saviour gave us: 

All say:          Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

Leader:           

You have blessed all generations,
O God most high,
in Jesus, our compassionate Saviour,
for through him you invite us to your kingdom,
welcome us to your table,
and provide us with nourishment in abundance.
Teach us to imitate your unfailing kindness
and to build up Christ’s body, the Church,
by generously handing on to others
the gifts we have received from your bounty.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.

All:                  Amen.

Blessing

A leader who is a layperson, using no gesture, says:

May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. 
Alleluia. Alleluia 

All:                 Amen. Alleluia. Alleluia.

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