The Body and Blood of Christ, June 22, 2025
/God, through Jesus, feeds us and sustains us
Luke 9:11b–17
Jesus spoke to the crowds 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.
Music Meditations
- I Am the Bread of Life—John Michael Talbot
- In the Breaking of the Bread—Kitty Cleveland
- Ave Verum Corpus—Andrea Bocelli
- Table of Plenty—Dan Schutte
- You Satisfy the Hungry Heart—Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers
Preparation / Centering
If done in a group setting, the prompts are read aloud by the leader; otherwise a silent meditation.
Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025
Presence of God:
Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your incarnation. Help me to become more aware of your real presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love others as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you.
[1-2 minutes of silence]
Freedom:
Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love.
[1-2 minutes of silence]
Consciousness:
Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Help me to be your body for others in my life.
[2-3 minutes of silence]
Opening Prayer
Lord, you are always watching out for us, caring for us, feeding us. Help us to see your generosity in our lives, and help us to be thankful and generous.
Companions for the Journey
This reflection is from Fr. Jude Siciiano. O.P., in “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:
After preaching in parishes during Lent and the post-Easter weeks, I have noticed a continuation of the eucharistic devotion I remember from my childhood. On this feast (”Corpus Christi”), in my boyhood parish in Brooklyn, we had a procession with the host carried in a gold monstrance around the church building and then taken to the altar, where it was reverenced in silent adoration and then with benediction and Latin hymns. Several parishes I visited in recent months still have similar silent adoration for some period during the week.
One parish had “perpetual adoration” in a side chapel open 24 hours to the public. Worshipers signed up to be present in shifts throughout the day and night. A benefit of this eucharistic adoration in those busy city parishes was the opportunity for the faithful to drop in and spend some precious moments of silence with the Lord, away from the hustle and bustle of their lives. Such eucharistic piety goes back way beyond my childhood to over 1000 years ago when there was an intense increase in eucharistic devotion – specifically focused on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
Since Vatican II, we have broadened our awareness to emphasize Christ’s true presence in the gathered assembly. (At a dinner table in one parish recently one priest said he thought people found it harder to accept Christ’s presence in the baptized than in the bread in the monstrance, or the cup of wine and bread on the altar.)
Today’s feast isn’t a way of returning to a former day of only silent reverence and genuflections before the consecrated host. Rather, this feast invites us to broaden our faith vision to include a deeper awareness of our common priesthood; especially in the diverse ministries included in and derived from our eucharistic celebration: the proclamation of the Word; the role of Eucharistic ministers and those sent to take communion to the sick; the music ministry etc. The laity also have a larger role now in the planning of our liturgies. While we want to reclaim our sense of reverence and contemplative silence for the sacred species, we also are graced with current practices that celebrate Christ’s presence in our ministerial and worshiping community.
We also recall today Christ’s true presence in the world--a presence that began with his human body, real flesh and blood like ours. He was subject to human emotions of joy, love, yearning, and pain-- just as we are. We also celebrate our own human bodies – the sign, beginning at our baptism, of God’s presence in the world. Because of Jesus, our physical presence in the world is also a sign of God’s saving love and power present through us, who are nourished today by the Body and Blood of Christ. Our bodies reflect God’s love for others and God’s compassionate presence to those whose bodies and spirits are used, afflicted, abused, distraught, etc.
Today, our presider will invoke the Holy Spirit and say over the bread, “This is my body which will be given up for you...,” and over the wine, “This is the cup of my blood....” These words are also said over us, for we are the body of Christ “given” and the “blood” offered to the world. Jesus gave his entire life, body and blood, for us and our communion with him enables us to give our lives in sacrificial love for the world as he did. Our lives, like that of Jesus, are given by God to be instruments of God’s reconciliation, love and justice for the world
In the gospel today, Jesus sees the hungers of those around him. He directs his disciples, “Give them some food yourselves.” They claim their inadequacy to address the challenge he gave them. “Five loaves and two fish are all we have....” They are right, the hungers of the world are too much to address on our own. But we are not on our own. The miracle of the multiplication symbolizes what we celebrate at our Eucharist: Jesus gave himself to feed the hungers of the world. We celebrate today that Jesus is giving himself to us and calling us to imitate his love whenever we encounter the many hungers around us. “Give them some food yourselves.” Today we are concretely reminded in the bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ, that we can feed the world’s hungers because we have been fed by the Lord in whatever deserted place we have found ourselves.
Further reflection:
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
“Give them some food yourselves.”
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
- Adapted from Jude Siciliano O.P., 2022:
As we note Jesus’ hospitality, how welcoming and generous are we at our celebrations?
As Jesus says a blessing, are we aware of the blessing that food is?
And the gift we enjoy when we eat?
Do we treat food as something precious?
We note how simple meals can satisfy in a community, and how all eat the same food and are nourished. God has more than enough (they had “leftovers”) to satisfy our hungers at this meal. What kind of examples are we setting for our children in regard to simple life styles, care for others, frugality, etc.?
We read : “…they followed his instructions” …the hungry must be fed. We have his instructions. Do we live them? - Are there people in our current society who are “gathered in a lonely place”? Who are they?
- ”Give them some food yourselves”. In what way are you personally called to feed God’s people?
- What is my feeling about the Eucharist? Do I connect it with the story of the Loaves and fishes?
Loaves and Fishes = Eucharist = Hospitality. Where do I fit into this equation? - In this story, what criteria did Jesus use in deciding who should be fed?
What criterial does the Church use in deciding who should be fed? - What food in my panty could I share with the hungry?
- Do I support, with time or money, parish or community programs that feed the hungry?
- What hungers do I see around me in my daily life?
How do I respond to those hungers? - by Daniel J Harrington. S.J.:
Which aspects of the Eucharist do you find most meaningful?
What are the concrete ways in which the Eucharist shapes your life as a Christian? - What Is there a disconnect between my prayer life, my “church” life and the everyday life I lead? Why or why not?
- According to Father Ronald Rolheiser in The Holy Longing, when Jesus talks about eating his flesh, he uses a term for the body in all its messiness and ugliness, not some glorified or intellectual notion of body. (Sarx is the Greek word used, one that refers to the body in its messiness and ugliness, its illness and dysfunction)
Are we messy, dysfunctional? Are we beautiful? How do we know this?
Is the Church messy, dysfunctional? How?
Is the Church holy, graced and beautiful? How?
Do you expect the Church to be perfect? Better than it is? Why or why not? - Have I ever had an experience of being ‘fed’ by God’s word?
- Jesus made the crowds welcome! Have I a sense of being made welcome by Jesus and all that that being ‘made welcome’ can mean for me?
- From “Sacred Space”, a ministry of the Irish Jesuits:
The text does not take into account the number of women and children.!
What is that like for me to read this?
Will I read this text differently depending on my gender? - From Stephen Cole, online commentary:
Since there are so many needs in the world, how do we know where to devote our time, effort, and money?
When is it right to say “no” to the needs and demands of people?
Are there areas of service you should not refuse just because you think that you are not so gifted?
Meditations
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
This gospel is as much about the Apostles as it is about a miracle performed by Jesus. Or maybe the miracle is that Jesus saw in the few loaves and fishes possessed by his disciples food and sustenance for a large number of needy people. When Jesus said: “You feed them yourselves”, he was teaching them self-reliance, initiative and most of all, generosity. The apostles had to give something away, not know what plans Jesus had for their meager gifts. So the questions we might have for ourselves about the message and challenges of this gospel section are several: Do I believe that God actually gives us each day the sustenance we need? Can I differentiate between what I want and what I actually need? Do I see myself as an agent of Jesus bringing “food”, comfort, safety to those in our world who might need it, or do I expect a miracle?
A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:
Imagine that you are one of the crowd following Jesus that day. What do you have with you as provisions for the day away from home? Are you hungry? Thirsty? What do you so when you hear the apostles telling you to sit down? Do you expect to be fed? How? Imagine the scene as people begin to sit on the ground. Do you sit with people you already know, or is everyone a stranger? When Jesus has blessed the food and passes it out, do you share also what you have brought with you? Do others? What is the miracle here?
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:
“They all ate and were satisfied.” (—Luke 9:17)
The prayer which we repeat at every Mass: “Give us this day our daily bread,” obliges us to do everything possible, in cooperation with international, state and private institutions to end or at least reduce the scandal of hunger and malnutrition afflicting so many millions of people in our world, especially in developing countries. In a particular way, the Christian laity, formed at the school of the Eucharist, are called to assume their specific political and social responsibilities. To do so, they need to be adequately prepared through practical education in charity and justice. To this end it is necessary for Dioceses and Christian communities to teach and promote the Church’s social doctrine. (—Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007)
Did you know?
- An estimated 854 million people across the world are hungry.
- Every year, 15 million children die from hunger-related causes—one child every five seconds.
- 35.1 million people in the US—including 12.4 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents more than one in ten households in the United States (11.0 percent).
- Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion—a majority of humanity—live on less than $1 per day, while the world’s 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world’s people.
- Infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality.
- To satisfy the world’s sanitation and food requirements would cost US$13 billion—what the people of the U.S. and the European Union spend on perfume each year.
What Can I do?
- Don’t take your “daily bread” for granted.
- Fast for a day to better understand the experience of hunger and to be in solidarity with the hungry of the world. Donate the money you would have spent on food to a hunger program, local or global.
- Learn about issues of hunger and how you can make a difference.
- Join one of your parish or community ministries which address issues of hunger. Do something!
Poetic Reflection:
This is a beautiful meditation on the real meaning of Corpus Christi:
"Gather the People"
What return can we make
for all the Lord has done in our lives?
We bring bread, wine, our clay dishes
and our clay feet
to this altar
and we pray that we may here
make a beginning—
that somehow in our days
we can begin to see the promises
the Lord has made us.The promises do not always
glow with obvious light, or
overwhelm us by their obvious truth.
No matter what anyone says,
it is difficult to understand an invisible God
and belief is not always
the easy way out.So we gather the people
and we tell the story again
and we break the bread
and in the memory of the one
who saves us,
we eat and drink
and we pray and we believe.We gather, we pray, we eat.
These things are for human beings.
God has no need of them.
Yet he himself gathered the people,
prayed, broke bread
and gave it to his friends.And so the invisible God became
visible
and lives with us.—Ed Ingebretzen, S.J., from Psalms of the Still Country
Poetic Reflection:
Commenting on her poem, Mary Oliver wrote words of wisdom for theologians: “Centuries ago theologians claimed they had parsed with precision how God acted on the bread and wine during the celebration of the Eucharist. This wasn’t helpful. Their lust for certitude bruised a mystery which was best left alone. It eventually birthed theological wars about the nature of a meal that was ironically intended to mend, not tear apart. I don’t need to know what happens to the bread and wine to experience the oceanic love of God that I feel when I receive it, any more than a newborn needs to know the mother’s name and address to see and feel the adoration in her gaze. To which I wish all God’s people might say, ‘Amen’”.
“The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist”
Something has happened
To the bread
And the wine.They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forwardTo receive the gift
From the priest’s hand,
Then the chalice.They are something else now
From what they were
Before this began.I want
To see Jesus,
Maybe in the cloudsOr on the shore,
Just walking,
Beautiful manAnd clearly
Someone else
Besides.On the hard days
I ask myself
If I ever will.Also there are times
My body whispers to me
That I have.—Mary Oliver, from Thirst
Closing Prayer
God of Abundance, give us the generosity to see that we are the body of Christ in this world. Help us to feed the hungry and care for those in need, and provide charity based on relationship, not pity. Give us the insight to realize that the meaning of true success may not be measured in money or power, but in serving others. Help us to recognize the joy of the Eucharist and to proclaim Christ in our daily lives…
