Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 407

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied....

Every Catholic should recognize Jesus's four gestures as he fed the crowd in the desert. Priests repeat them during every mass. We recall his taking the bread with the Offertory; his blessing during the Eucharistic Prayer; his breaking with the Fraction; and his giving the broken pieces of bread to the disciples as the Body and Blood of the Lord are given to the congregation. 

The Lord had certainly learned the rite in Egypt and Nazareth as he grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary. We hear the rite repeated when he feeds the crowds; during his Last Supper; when he appears to the disciples in Emmaus; and, in the Acts of the Apostles, as missionaries bring the Eucharist to the world. Saint Luke called it the breaking of bread. We call it Mass, or Eucharist. 

We can suppose Jesus repeated these four gestures every time he ate with his disciples as they journeyed toward Jerusalem. However, during the Last Supper -- on the very day he died since the Jews marked the day's beginning at sundown -- Jesus added the words we know as the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, "This is my body!" and "This is my blood!" and "Do this in memory of me." 

We cannot possibly understand or appreciate the incidents of Good Friday and Easter Sunday without the Breaking of Bread. Nor can we enter into the Pascal Mystery of his passion, death, and resurrection without the Mass. With this most blessed sacrament we become the Body of Christ in the world. With the Mass we are sent to the world. 

I grow a little impatient when I hear about miracles of the Eucharist, The spectacle and its enthusiasts seem to miss the point. If these odd phenomena draw people to believe in the Lord and serve him with greater intensity they serve the purpose. But the Eucharist cannot be removed from the Mass, nor the Last Supper be separated from Good Friday and Easter. They are inseparable and appreciated as a unity.  

A key to this understanding is the three day ceremony we call Triduum. This prolonged ritual begins on Holy Thursday evening with the Sign of the Cross. That's no surprise as we begin every prayer with the Sign of the Cross. But the Holy Thursday Mass does not end with the sign of the cross. It doesn't end that night. Nor do the Liturgy of Good Friday and the Easter Vigil begin with the Sign. In fact, we do not use that gesture again until the end of the Easter Mass when the priest blesses the congregation and says, "The Mass is ended, go in peace." The Triduum is not three different rituals; it is one three-day prayer. 

There is no Holy Thursday without Good Friday; there is no Blessed Sacrament without our being absorbed into the Being of God. This is not something we simply gawk at. We must consume it. And become it. Jesus didn't say, "Look at this." He said, "Eat..., Drink..., and Do This in Memory of Me." 

Celebrating the Mass, we become God's presence in the world. That is the Miracle of the Eucharist.