DOWN AND OUT?

Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. – Luke 9:16

After the devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda, people felt defeated and depressed. They lost everything. Some even lost loved ones.

Within a few days, volunteers of Tzu Chi Foundation trooped to Tacloban for relief work. They began a cash-for-work program. Survivors were invited to register in the morning, clean up their own homes during the day, and in the afternoon collect P500 for their day’s work. People got back on their feet and started working to improve their situation—a very important aspect of disaster recovery. They even had cash on hand to buy basic necessities.

Here’s the marvelous thing. As people lined up to receive their day’s pay, they were also invited to donate what they can. Even just one peso. Can you imagine if you had so little and were asked to give? When you’re down and out, is there something more you can give?

The donations collected from typhoon survivors eventually reached more than two million pesos. Each donor could thus say that they contributed to a multimillion fund that helped even more survivors. Wow!

When we give with love, it adds up. Edwin S. Soriano (edwin@ winningcoaching.net)

Reflect: Recognizing what you have now, how can you give more today? How can you bless more people?

Lord, teach me to be more generous. Teach me to break bread.

St. John Fisher, pray for us.

Genesis 14:18-20

18 In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being 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.

R: you are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.

1 The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.” (R) 2 The scepter of your power the Lord will stretch forth from Zion: “Rule in the midst of your enemies.” (R) 3 “Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor; before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.” (R) 4 The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” (R)

A covenant is a contract—in this case between two parties of unequal strength. God maintains the covenant through His generosity. On our part, we simply commit to obey His will. Remembering all that God has done for us is important to our faith journey, and the Eucharist reminds us today about the sacrifice of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

23 Brothers and sisters: 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.

GOSPEL

The feeding miracles in the Gospels are Eucharistic in nature. We see in these miracles the actions of taking, blessing, breaking, and giving. They also remind us that the Eucharist is also a meal where family and friends gather to eat together. As we celebrate the Eucharist, let us remember that each person present is a fellow traveller on a pilgrim journey of faith. Let us walk with and help one another.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Luke 9:11-17

11 Jesus spoke to the crowds 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 and 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 in groups of about fifty.” 15 They did so and made them all sit down. 16 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. 17 They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

think: “The Eucharist is the secret of my day. It gives strength and meaning to all my activities of service to the Church and to the whole world.”- Pope John Paul II

A PIECE OF HEAVEN ON EARTH

Let’s face it. The doctrine on the Sacred Body and Blood of the Lord, being profound, is a little difficult to fathom. This is where possibly the movie Babette’s Feast can help us.

Babette was a French woman who lost her husband and child and everything else. Fate brought her to a small fishing village of Norway to be a cook for the family of a pastor of a small community church. She went there reduced to utter penury, to cook frugal and tasteless meals for a puritan family whose idea of sensate pleasure was almost synonymous to sin. When, by a stroke of fortune, she won in the national lottery of France, she set sail for her country and spent all her winnings to prepare a sumptuous meal for the family and friends of the pastor.

That meal of a lifetime changed the lives of everyone who was there. From petty intrigues and subtle but deep animosities, the food and drink shared began to do wonders among those who partook. Joy flowed freely as wine flowed abundantly. Warmth suffused everyone’s heart as, for the first time in their rigid, puritanical lives, they sank their teeth into every heavenly morsel. Warmth led to mirth and almost mystical oneness, as the “grace of the moment” took everyone in its sway, and they all went out of the dinner interiorly happy, serene, and genuinely grateful for the palpable experience of grace and love that came from above, mediated by the material reality of food and drink shared in conviviality.

I know that this does not capture the fullness of the Eucharistic mystery that we celebrate today. But it does show us what Eucharist is partly about—a meal offered in sacrifice, a meal paid for by someone so that “we might live.” That meal, called by St. Thomas Aquinas as sacrum convivium (sacred banquet), is a gathering that molds us into one, a meal that fills us with deep and lasting joy. The Eucharist is a foretaste of heavenly joys. It is a piece of heaven on earth. O res mirabilis! O wonderful reality! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

------- REFLECTION QUESTION -------

What do you experience after receiving the Eucharist each Sunday?

Lord, thank You for Your nourishing presence in the Eucharist. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _________________________