Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
THE SOLEMNITY OF
THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST—CORPUS CHRISTI (Cycle C)
The universal Roman
calendar celebrates this solemnity on the Thursday after the Solemnity of the
Holy Trinity. In the United States and Canada, the celebration moves to the
Sunday after the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
Readings:
Genesis 14:18-20
Psalms 110:1-4
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11b-17
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood
of Jesus (Corpus Christi): Sharing in the life of Christ
When we partake of the Eucharist, we receive and celebrate
the mysterious Presence of Jesus Christ within the community of the Church:
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I in him, says
the Lord" (communion antiphon). In the Middle Ages, Christians wanted to
joyfully celebrate Jesus's precious gift of the Eucharist in a solemnity echoing
Holy Thursday. They created this feast in the spring during a time when they
could hold joyful religious processions, street fairs, and other outdoor events
within their faith communities. On those occasions, the bread of the Lord's
Body was carried outdoors under a canopy in a procession with music playing and
the people joining in singing their favorite hymns of praise. The celebration
of this solemnity continues with such joyous displays in Latin America and
Europe. In the universal Roman calendar, the Church celebrates this solemnity
on the Thursday after the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. However, the United
States and Canada now celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood on the
Sunday after the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
In the First Reading, the inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews quotes Genesis 14:19 and interprets Melchizedek, God's righteous priest-king of Salem, the "city of peace," as prefiguring Jesus, the High Priest and King of the heavenly "city of peace" and its Sanctuary in the Kingdom of Heaven. The First Reading prepares us for the Responsorial Psalm that prophecies the future coming of One who, like Melchizedek, will be a priest forever.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul repeats the Church's oldest account of the words of consecration in the celebration of the Eucharist apart from Jesus's declaration to the disciples at the Last Supper. Paul received Jesus's words concerning the Eucharist in the same way they have been passed on to us throughout the centuries. St. Paul invited the Corinthian Christians to meditate on the meaning of the Eucharistic banquet. He wrote that for those who belong to Christ, the Eucharist signifies not only oneness with Jesus, who feeds the faithful with His glorified Body and Blood, but also of the Church that is One Body in Christ. It is a unity Christians celebrate in every generation until Christ comes again in glory.
The Gospel Reading concerns Jesus's miraculous feeding of the 5,000 men (not counting women and children). At first glance, this story seems to be only concerned with Jesus's compassion and His supernatural ability to meet the needs of the crowd that came to hear Him preach, but there is much more to understand concerning this event. Jesus's miracle feedings of the 5,000 men and later the crowd of 4,000 men (Mt 15:38) recalled for the people of His time the past feeding miracles of God and His prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus's two miracle feedings also prefigured His greater miraculous feeding of the disciples with His Body and Blood at the Last Supper, a miracle He promised in His Bread of Life Discourse after feeding the 5,000 (Jn 6:22-65). The continuation of the miracle feeding at the Last Supper is the celebration of the Eucharistic banquet as Jesus continues to abundantly provides for the spiritual nourishment of His Kingdom of the Church in every generation on every Catholic altar. The Eucharistic banquet also anticipates the faithful's participation in the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the heavenly Sanctuary at the end of time.
Today's remembrance of our redemption through the self-sacrificial offering of Jesus's Body and Blood on the altar of the Cross is an excellent time to recall what redemption means to a Catholic. Protestants believe that God punished Jesus for the sins of humanity and that in Christ's Passion, the Father saw not His divine Son but our sins and vented His wrath upon Jesus. This view of redemption is not what Catholic Christians believe. Jesus did not serve as our penal substitute to receive the retributive punishment for countless lifetimes of sin since the fall of Adam and Eve. God did not abandon Jesus to suffer the fullness of the damnation humankind had earned. Jesus did not take on the world's sins, literally becoming sin Himself. If that were the case, Peter would not have called the Resurrected Christ a "Lamb without blemish" (1 Pt 1:19), and Jesus could not have ascended to Heaven soiled by the sins of humanity.
For the Catholic Church, redemption was always about love. The Father never loved the Son more than as He hung on the Cross. "God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son" to give His life for our salvation. Therefore, Jesus was not our substitute; He was our representative. He did not exempt us from suffering; instead, He endowed our suffering with meaning and divine power. Christ's sufferings are not punishments; they were the result of a pure and holy offering of love in obedience to the will of the Father that extended to every human in every age, including His persecutors. Jesus's act of divine love in offering up His Body and Blood on the altar of the Cross is what makes us a new creation in His Kingdom of the Church! See CCC 613, 616 and the book "What is Redemption?" by Father Philippe de la Trinite, published by Emmaus Road.
The First Reading Genesis 14:18-20 ~ Melchizedek
prefigures Jesus's Divine Priesthood
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram with these words: 19 "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the
creator of heaven and earth; 20 and
blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand." Then Abram
gave him a tenth of everything.
The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (probably St. Paul) refers to Genesis 14:19 and interprets God's priest-king Melchizedek as a foreshadowing of Jesus, the High Priest and King of Kings of the New Covenant (Heb chapters 5-7). Eucharistic Prayer I refers to the bread and wine offered by the priest-king Melchizedek to Abram (Abraham) as prefiguring the Eucharist: "Look with favor on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek."
Melchizedek is not a name; it is a title. Melech is the Hebrew word for "king," and zedek means "righteousness;" he is the "king of righteousness" (The Works of Philo, "Allegorical Interpretation, III," page 59; Antiquities of the Jews 1.10.2) who, according to the first-century Jewish priest/historian Flavius Josephus, ruled Jerusalem, formerly known as Salem (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.10.2, 7.3.2; The Wars of the Jews 6.10.1). The Book of Hebrews identifies him as the King of Salem (Yireh-salem, in Hebrew, meaning "provides/will provide-peace"; see Gen 22:14). Melchizedek, like Jesus Christ, was God's high priest by His divine calling and not through an ancestral lineage like the priests of the Sinai Covenant who came to the priesthood by heredity, having to prove their descent from Moses's brother Aaron (first High Priest of the Sinai Covenant). Melchizedek's priesthood was like Christ's High Priesthood in that it was a higher-order priesthood ordained by God.
According to Jewish tradition and also recounted by Church Fathers, Melchizedek was Noah's righteous firstborn son Shem (Gen 6:10). Shem was still alive at the time of the events in the passage. In fact, Shem outlived his descendant Abraham (Gen 11:10-26). There is a Biblical precedent for Shem changing his name and adopting a "throne name" when he became King of Salem. King Solomon's name changed from Jedidah (Yedidyah = "beloved of Yahweh), the name he received at his birth from the prophet Nathan. The throne name he was known by was Solomon (from the Hebrew word for "peace"). There is also a historical precedent: kings in the ancient Near East (and most kings) took a throne name other than their birth name (i.e., the Egyptian pharaohs). The first Vicar of Christ also received a "throne name," Peter, Kepha (his birth name was Simon), and Peter's successors, like Joseph Ratzinger, took the name Pope Benedict XVI. In the Bible, a name change reflected a change in mission or destiny.
Both St. Ephraim in the 4th century AD and St. Jerome in the 5th century AD acknowledged Shem's link to Melchizedek:
Shem was the first man identified in Scripture as "God's man": Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem (Gen 9:26a, NJB), and Shem was also the righteous "firstborn" son of Noah with whom God's Covenant with Noah continued. Abram/Abraham was his descendant according to the genealogy in Genesis 11. Genesis 11:10-11 records: When Shem was a hundred years old, he begot Arpachshad, two years after the flood. Shem lived five hundred years after he begot Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters. Shem lived to be 600 years old. If you calculate the age of Shem from the genealogy of Genesis 11:10-20, you will discover that Shem was 390 years old when Abram/Abraham was born. Genesis 17:24 records that Abraham (God had changed his name from Abram to Abraham by then) was 99 years old at the time of Ishmael's circumcision at age 13. At that time, Shem was a venerable 489-year-old man and still alive after the events of Genesis Chapter 14 when Abram brought his tithe to the priest-king Melchizedek. For information on Shem as Melchizedek, also see the Babylonian Talmud, N'darim 32b, and most modern Jewish Bible study notes: i.e., Tanach (Stone edition), note on page 29; and The Jewish New Testament Commentary, page 679.
In an act that has the elements of liturgical worship, Melchizedek brought Abram "bread and wine," the future sign of the Eucharist, and pronounced a blessing in the name of "God the Most High, Creator of heaven and earth," giving credit to Yahweh for Abram's victory over his enemies. Jesus Christ, as our High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary, receives our offerings of bread and wine and returns them to us, transformed by the miracle of Transubstantiation, into His Body and Blood. It is a gift that He promised in the Bread of Life Discourse in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John: In truth I tell you [amen, amen], if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have not life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person (Jn 6:53-56, NJB). Melchizedek's priesthood prefigured Christ's (Heb 5-7), and his gift of bread and wine to Abram foreshadowed Christ's gift of the Eucharist to His Church—the bread and wine that is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ (CCC 1333; 1373-77; 1544).
|
Melchizedek |
The Priest in the Liturgy of the Mass |
| He offered bread and wine to Abram. | In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the bread and wine are brought forward and transformed into Christ's Body and Blood, which the priest then offers to the faithful. |
| He pronounced God's blessing on Abram. | The priest calls down God's blessing upon the people. |
| He offered praise to God. | The priest leads the people in praise of God. |
| He received Abram's tithes. | As God's representative, the priest receives the people's tithes and offerings. |
| He was acknowledged as God's representative. | The priest is acknowledged as Christ's representative to the covenant people. |
| M. Hunt © copyright 2009 www.agapebiblestudy.com | |
After his gift of bread and wine, Melchizedek blessed Abram. It was a blessing that echoed the blessing Noah gave Shem in Genesis 9:26, both praising God for blessing Shem and for subduing his enemy: Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem; let Canaan be his slave! Compared to: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, [...]. And blessed be God Most High for putting your enemies into your clutches (NJB).
A blessing is conferred by God through His priest, affecting what is pronounced. In the liturgy of Israel in the Sinai Covenant, two types of blessings form the ritual of worship:
In Genesis 14:19, Melchizedek conferred the same kind of two-part blessing that would become the foundation of liturgical worship in the Sinai Covenant in prayers offered by the priests in every liturgical service:
From the time after the flood when God established a covenant with Noah and all creation, all humanity was under the Noahide Covenant, which remained in effect for the Gentiles until the proclamation of the Gospel (see CCC 58). If Shem/Melchizedek was Yahweh's Covenant representative, it was appropriate for Abram to acknowledge his leadership and pay him a tithe.
Scripture records that Abraham died when he was 175 years old (Genesis 25:7). At that time, Shem would have been a venerable 565 years old, outliving his descendant and heir, Abraham, and dying in his 600th year. Making the argument that Shem is Melchizedek, St. Ephraim wrote: Shem lived not only to the time of Abraham, as Scripture says, but even to the time of Jacob and Esau, the grandsons of Abraham. It was to him that Rebekah went to ask and was told, "Two nations are in your womb, and the elder shall serve the younger." Rebekah would not have bypassed her husband, who had been delivered at the high place, or her father-in-law, to whom revelations of the divinity came continually and gone straight to ask Melchizedech unless she had learned of his greatness from Abraham or Abraham's son. Abraham would not have given him a tenth of everything unless he knew that Melchizedek was infinitely greater than himself. Would Rebekah have asked one of the Canaanites or one of the Sodomites? Would Abraham have given a tenth of his possessions to any one of these? One ought not even entertain such ideas (St. Ephraim, Commentary on Genesis).
Some Bible scholars have suggested that Melchizedek was a pagan king serving a Canaanite god named Elyon, Hebrew for "Most High." Scripture itself refutes this interpretation by identifying the God Melchizedek worshiped as the "God Most High (El Elyon), the Creator of heaven and earth" (Gen 1:12:4a), who is also Abram's God. Melchizedek's God is the same God by whom Abram swore an oath to the king of Sodom using Melchizedek's same words: I swear by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth (Gen 14:22). Would Abram swear an oath by a Canaanite god, or would he pay a tithe to the priest of a pagan god? Surely not! As St. Ephraim vigorously wrote, one mustn't even entertain such thoughts! Melchizedek is a priest of God the Almighty: the God of Creation and the God of Abraham. Similar titles/names for God as "God Most High" are also found in the Old Testament in the Psalm (Ps 7:17; 9:2; 21:7; 47:2; 50:14; 57:2; 73:11; 77:11; 78:17; 78:56; 82:6; 83:18; 91:1, 9; 92:1), and in Isaiah 14:14 (Satan calls God "Most High"); Lamentations 3:35, 38; Daniel 3:26; 5:18, 21; 7:18, 22, 25 (twice), and 27.
In the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews, the unnamed inspired writer (who, according to many of the Church Fathers, was St. Paul) compared Melchizedek to Jesus. St. Paul presented Melchizedek as a "type" of Christ, prefiguring Jesus Christ as God's priestly king (see Heb 4:15; 5:1-10; 6:19; 7:1-28; 8:1-5; 9:25-28; 10:10). Melchizedek, God's priest-king of Salem, the "city of peace," prefigured Jesus, the Son of God, the High Priest of the Heavenly Jerusalem and its Sanctuary, and the King of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth:
| Priestly order of Melchizedek as Shem | Priestly order of Jesus Christ |
| Shem/Melchizedek is the first priest in Scripture appointed by God (Gen 14:18). | Jesus is the eternal High Priest—the last and the only eternal priest appointed by God (Heb 7:26-8:2). |
| He was chosen from among men (Gen 9:26-27) to rule over his brothers and their descendants through the Noahide world Covenant (Gen 9:8-10, 17). | He was chosen from among men to be a compassionate High Priest and advocate of the worldwide New Covenant people of God (Mt 28:19-20; Heb 4:15). |
| Abram paid tithes to the priest-king Melchizedek. If Melchizedek is God's covenant mediator Shem, the tithes are within the covenant family (Gen 14:20). | Members of the covenant family of the Church pay tithes to honor Jesus Christ, our High Priest, the New Covenant mediator, and the King of kings. |
| Melchizedek brought Abram bread and wine as a priestly function (Genesis 14:18). | The covenant people bring Christ, our High Priest, offerings of bread and wine, and He gives us, under the appearance of bread and wine, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity (Mt 26:26-29; 1 Cor 11:23-27). |
| As God's priest, he blessed Abram and offered praise and thanksgiving to God (Gen 14:18-19). | He offers eternal blessings to the people and an everlasting sacrifice to God on behalf of the covenant people (Heb 9:25-28; 10:10). |
| Melchizedek was both the High Priest and the King of Salem/Jerusalem (Gen 14:18). | Jesus is both the New Covenant High Priest, the King of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. |
| Genesis 14:14 identifies Melchizedek by the title "the priest" of God Most High. There is no other priest or covenant mediator. | God's New Covenant extends to include all nations (Mt 28:19-20). Jesus is the New Covenant mediator and High Priest, bringing the peoples of the earth back into one covenant family. There is no other High Priest of the New Covenant Church. |
| M. Hunt © copyright 2007 | |
The Responsorial Psalms: Psalms 110:1-4 ~ The Eternal
Priesthood
Response: "You are a priest forever, in the line of
Melchizedek."
1 The LORD says to
you, my lord: "Sit at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool."
Response:
2 The scepter of your
might: the LORD extends your strong scepter from Zion. Have dominion over your
enemies!
Response:
3 Yours is princely
power from the day of your birth. In holy splendor before the daystar, like dew
I begot you."
Response:
4 The LORD has sworn
and will not waver. "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek."
Response:
LORD, in capital letters, is a substitution for God's divine covenant name, YHWH, pronounced Yahweh (Gen 3:14). The First Reading prepares us for the Responsorial Psalm. This psalm, attributed to King David, prophesies a return to a priesthood like that of God's high priest Melchizedek: The LORD has sworn and will not waver. "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek."
The Letter to the Hebrews (in the New Testament) quotes Psalms 110:4 LXX (from the Greek Septuagint) along with Psalms 2:7 LXX: In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him: "You are my son; this day I have begotten you"; just as he says in another place: "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 5:5-6). Jesus also quoted the Psalm 110 passage, which He applied to Himself, in Matthew 22:43-45, quoting from verse 1 but referring to the entire Psalm 110 and the prophecy of the prerogatives of His worldwide sovereignty and eternal priesthood. In Luke 20:41-44, Jesus taught the true meaning of this psalm to the religious authorities: 41 Then he said to them, "How do they claim that the Messiah is the Son of David? 42 For David himself in the Book of Psalms says: 'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand 43 till I make your enemies your footstool."' 44 Now if David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?"
David was considered a prophet (see Acts 1:16; 2:25; 4:25; 13:36), and the Book of the Psalms was considered a prophetic book (Lk 24:44; Acts 1:20). The psalm Jesus quoted is LXX 110:1 (Ps 109:1 in some translations). It is the psalm most often quoted or alluded to by Jesus in the Gospels (Mt 22:44; 26:64; Mk 12:36; 16:19; Lk 22:69) and is an important proof text for the Resurrection (see Acts 2:33-34; 1 Cor 15:25; Heb 1:3) and for the Resurrected Christ seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly Sanctuary (Rom 8:34; 1 Cor 15:25; Eph 1:20, 22; Col 3:1; Heb 1:13; 2:8; 8:1; 10:12-13; 12:2).
The point of Jesus's argument in Luke 20:41-44 is that the psalm refers not only to an earthly descendant (one less than David) but also to another (one greater than David) since the prophet David calls this person "Lord," which means that person is far above David and must therefore point to the Messiah. The future king that David wrote about in Psalms 110:1 is one the angel Gabriel spoke of who would not only inherit "the throne of David, his father," but also "rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will have no end" (Lk 1:32-33). St. Peter made a similar argument in his address to the Jewish crowd on the Feast of Pentecost, referring to Jesus as the Davidic Messiah in Acts 2:25-34.
The Second Reading is 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 ~ The Eucharist
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to
you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over took bread, 24 and, after he had given thanks, broke it and
said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, also the cup, after supper,
saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you
drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For
as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the
Lord until he comes.
St. Paul was recounting the Church's oldest account of the words of consecration in the celebration of the Eucharist apart from Jesus's declaration at the Last Supper in the Gospels. Paul was not present at the Last Supper. Jesus's words were passed on to him in the same way they have been passed on to all generations of New Covenant believers throughout the centuries.
This passage begins with a rebuke from Paul to the faith community at Corinth. The early Church celebrated the Eucharist in a tradition similar to the Last Supper in which the sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ came at the end of a communal meal, which the Church called the "agape" (love) meal. However, in Corinth, the agape meal had become a problem. The wealthy brought their food and did not share it with the community's poor. Therefore, the meal that was a prelude to the Eucharist meant to bring the community together had become a sign of division (1 Cor 11:17-22). In this passage, St. Paul invited the Corinthians to meditate on the real meaning of the Eucharistic banquet. It signifies not only oneness with Christ, who feeds the faithful with His own Body and Blood, but also the oneness of the Church as the Body of Christ. It is a unity the Church must continue celebrating until Christ comes again in glory.
The Gospel Reading Luke 9:11b-17 ~ The Eucharist
Prefigured in the Feeding of the Five Thousand
11 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. 12 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." 13 He
said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "five loaves and
two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go to buy food for all these people."
14 Now the men there
numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit
down [cause them to recline] in groups of about fifty." 15 They did so and made them all sit down
[recline]. 16 Then taking
the five loaves and 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. 17 They all ate and were satisfied. And
when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
[...] = literal translation from the Greek verb analino/anapipto,
"to fall back," or "recline"' (IBGE, vol. IV, page 187). It is the same
verb used to describe the position of Jesus and the disciples at the Last
Supper (IBGE, vol. IV, page 234, Luke 22:14).
All the Gospels record this miracle feeding. The Gospel of John tells us this event occurred in the second year of Jesus's ministry during the spring when Jewish pilgrims were making their way to Jerusalem for the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread (Jn 6:1-4). Bethsaida, located at the extreme northern point of the Sea of Galilee, was the hometown of the Apostle Philip (Lk 6:14) and Peter and Andrew before they moved to Capernaum (Jn 1:44).
At first glance, this story seems only to be concerned with Jesus's
compassion and His supernatural ability to meet the needs of people, but there
is so much more to understand concerning the event. This miracle recalls the
feeding miracles in the Old Testament. See for example, Exodus 16:4-13, 35; Numbers 11:31-34; 1 Kings 17:8-16; 2 Kings 4:42-44.
Some of the Old Testament feeding miracles include:
The miracle feeding of the 5,000 men (not counting women and children) is not only meant to remind us of God's acts of compassion in the Old Testament. It also prepares us for a greater miracle that St. John's Gospel points us to in Jesus's Bread of Life Discourse the day after He fed the 5,000 (Jn Chapter 6). The Jews saw Jesus's feeding miracle of the 5,000 the day before in the context of the miracle of the manna God provided for the children of Israel in the desert wanderings after the exodus from Egypt. They also saw Jesus as a prophet like Moses, who had come to liberate His people from oppression, and another David promised by the prophets who came to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel (see Jn 6:1-15; 30-31; also Jer 23:5-7; 34:14-18; Ez 34:23-24; 37:24-25). In His discourse the next day, Jesus promised that one day He would give His Flesh and Blood as food and drink for the salvation of humanity (Jn 6:22-65). His miracle feeding and the discourse the next day foreshadow the giving of Himself in the Eucharist.
Jesus miraculously transformed five loaves of barley bread (Jn 6:9) and two fishes into enough food to feed the crowd. First, He told them to recline in groups on the grass. Then, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and gave the food to His disciples to distribute to the people. Scripture mentions that five thousand men were fed, not counting the women and children, so the number may have been twice or three times as many people. It was a supernatural event and not, as some claim, an example of the people sharing food they brought with them. In Scripture, 5 is the number of grace and power, and any multiple of a number signifies the abundance of the symbolic nature of the number. In this case, 5,000 signifies the abundance of God's grace in meeting the needs of His people. The five loaves and two fishes of the meal also have symbolic significance. Together they add up to the number 7; it is also one of the "perfect" numbers (3, 7, 10, and 12), signifying perfection, fullness, and completion, especially spiritual perfection (see the document "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture").
Notice how carefully St. Luke and the other Synoptic Gospel writers provided several similarities between the miracle feeding of the more than 5,000 and the miracle feeding at the Last Supper (see Mt 14:13-21 and 26:26-30; Mk 6:30-44 and 14:22-26; Lk 9:10-17 and 22:14-20). They used some of the same wording and in the same order:
| The Feeding Miracle of the 5 Thousand | The Last Supper |
| It was evening when the meal took place (Mt 14:15; Mk 6:35; Lk 9:12) | It was evening when the meal took place * |
| They reclined to eat (Mt 14:19; Mk 6:40; Lk 9:14-15) | They reclined to eat (Mt 26:20; Lk 22:14 in the Greek text) |
| Jesus blessed the food (Mt 14:19; Mk 6:41; Lk 9:16) | Jesus blessed the food (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19) |
| He broke the loaves (Mt 14:19; Mk 6:41; Lk 9:16) | He broke the loaves (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19) |
| Jesus passed the food to the disciples (Mt 14:19; Mk 6:41; Lk 9:16) | Jesus passed the food to the disciples (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19) |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013 | |
*According to the Law of Moses, the sacred meal of the Passover victim began after sundown on the night of Unleavened Bread (Ex 12:8; Mt 26:20).
This miracle feeding foreshadowed the first Eucharistic banquet at the Last Supper, but it was not the same miracle:
There were 12 baskets of food left over: one basket for each Apostle. The abundance of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes distributed by the Apostles prefigures the feeding of the Eucharist to the faithful of the world. Jesus makes the same miracle of the Last Supper present on church altars of His ordained ministers who pass out to the congregation what was ordinary bread but has become the Bread of Life to the Body of Christ—the Church, throughout the world.
Jesus's abundant miracle feedings prefigure the offering of Himself in the Eucharist to generations of the faithful. And the Eucharist also foreshadows the promise of the eschatological banquet of the faithful after the "final harvest" at the end of time in God's heavenly Sanctuary (see Is 25:6; 62:8-9; 65:13-14; Jer 31:12-14; Ez 44:16; Rev 19:7-9). The Catechism interprets Jesus's miracle feedings of the five thousand (and four thousand) in this way: "The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributed the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus's glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ" (CCC 1335). Therefore, never take for granted the miracle in which you participate when you receive the Body and Blood of the glorified Christ in the Eucharist, and make sure, as St. Paul warned the Corinthians, that you come to the altar table in a state of grace, discerning the Real Presence of Christ in the sacred meal. St. Paul wrote: Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:27-29).
Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates
Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Genesis 14:18 (CCC 58*, 1333, 1544)
Psalms 110:1 (CCC 659*) 110:4 (CCC 1537*)
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (CCC 1339*); 11:23 (CCC 610, 1366); 11:24-25 (CCC 1356*); 11:24 (CCC 1328, 1329*); 11:25 (CCC 611, 613); 11:26 (CCC 671*, 1076, 1130, 1344, 1393, 2772, 2776)
The Holy Eucharist (CCC 790*, 1003*, 1322-1325, 1326, 1327, 1328*, 1329*, 1330*, 1331*, 1332, 1333*, 1334*, 1335*, 1336*, 1337*, 1338*, 1339*, 1340, 1341*, 1342*, 1343*, 1344*, 1345-1346, 1347*, 1348, 1349*, 1350-1354, 1355*, 1356*, 1357-1362, 1363*, 1364*, 1365*, 1366*, 1367*, 1368-1371, 1372*, 1373*, 1374-1375, 1376*, 1377-1379, 1380*, 1381-1383, 1384*, 1385*, 1386*, 1387-1390, 1391*, 1392, 1393*, 1394*, 1395, 1396*, 1397*, 1398-1402, 1403*, 1404*, 1405*, 1406, 1412-1419)
The Eucharist and the communion of believers (CCC 805, 950, 2181-2182; 2637, 2845*)
The Eucharist as spiritual food (CCC 1212, 1275, 1436, 2837*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2016; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.