The Best of Wheat

Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

We come together today to celebrate the sacrament that has been called “the source and summit of our faith.” The Church presents us with four different Scripture readings that are best understood by taking them in reverse order, for the Christian Scriptures are the key to understanding the Hebrew Scriptures, as the destination is the explanation of the journey.

Today’s Gospel passage shows Jesus making a bold and controversial statement. He tells his followers that they will have eternal life if they consume his body and drink his blood. When he made this statement, most of his followers left him then and there, just as many refuse to believe him about the saying here and now. Those unbelieving disciples were scandalized by his statement. They realized that there was no middle position between faith and unbelief among those who heard him make this claim.

Jesus had just miraculously multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. While the English word that is used to describe this action is “miracle,” the Greek word that we find in the actual text literally means “sign.” Miracles point beyond themselves; they signify who Jesus is and what Jesus does for a specific group of people who witness it. Signs point beyond themselves to real things. Just as our roads are filled with signs to help us reach real places, spiritual signs also help us reach a destination. While the multiplication of loaves of bread and two fish is certainly a miracle, it was done for five thousand people gathered on a hillside to listen to Jesus speak. However, we were not there. Consequently, for us who are gathered here today, the multiplication of loaves and fishes is a sign that leads us to an understanding of who Jesus really is; namely, our ticket to heaven.

Jesus explains the sign to the crowd gathered around them by reminding them that God had kept their ancestors alive through the manna that they found every morning upon waking. This miracle, like the feeding of the five thousand, was done for a specific group. However, the manna was also a prophetic sign of what Jesus would become for us. He miraculously gives eternal life to us just as the manna gave physical life to the Israelites wandering in the desert. Ordinary bread sustains our ordinary natural life by being ingested and transformed into nutrition for our bodies. Jesus tells us that bread that he will give sustains our spiritual life by being ingested and offering for our souls. This is precisely why the Church calls this sacrament the source and summit of our faith. If we do not eat his body and drink his blood, we will not reach the reality which Jesus came to proclaim; namely, that we will not die but will live forever with him in heaven.

This is why St. Paul says in today’s reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians: “the bread that we break is a participation in the body of Christ. Because the loaf of bread is one (that is, because Christ is one), we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Every time that we gather around the table of the Lord, we remember what Christ did for us. Jesus died that we might live. Before he died, he gave us the Eucharist and the priesthood at the Last Supper. With these two sacraments, the spiritual food for everlasting life would be perpetuated until the end of time.

The psalm that we sing today tells us to glorify God for his gift – the best of wheat with which he fills us. This psalm is also a prophetic sign. When David composed the psalm, he didn’t realize that he was writing about the Eucharist to come any more than Moses realized what God was giving to the Israelites in the desert as food. The manna, the psalm which David wrote, and the feeding of the five thousand were all signs that pointed us in the direction of our destination. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that unless we eat his body and drink his blood, we will not have eternal life within us. That is why David also writes that God has not done this for any other people. This sacrament is only meant for those who put their faith in Jesus; it is the sign that leads us to eternal life.