Brief synopsis of the readings: In Genesis we read about Melchizedek, the priest who blessed the bread and the wine. He then blessed Abram who then gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. Luke’s Gospel brings us the famous story of the feeding of the five thousand men. After Jesus had been teaching the crowd and evening approached his followers suggested that Jesus dismiss the crowd so they could go into the village and buy some food. When Jesus suggested they feed the crowds the disciples could find only five loaves and two fish. But Jesus instructed them to divide the crowd into groups of fifty. They were able to feed the entire crowd and still fill twelve wicker baskets with the leftovers.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or in its Latin translation: “Corpus Christi.” We are a worldwide, 2000 year old organization that has seen dramatic changes, even in our lifetimes (remember the Latin mass? Oh, never mind).

But few of our teachings have changed as little as our belief in the Eucharist. From the Last Supper when Jesus proclaimed This is my Body and this is my Blood we Catholics have taken this literally. We have always believed that while the bread and wine appear not to have changed, it has changed, and changed forever. We’ve taken great pains to protect and reserve the Eucharist and at times we’ve seen great sacrifices made.

And while we celebrate seven sacraments Eucharist holds the name “Blessed Sacrament.” Unfortunately we have also witnessed times when we have dangled the Eucharist to manipulate behavior or forced good people into difficult and painful choices. Let me give a few examples:

• In 1968 Pope Paul VI reaffirmed Church teaching against artificial birth control and in many cases married couples were forced to choose between celebrating the intimacy of their marriage and receiving Eucharist.
• The Speaker of the United States House of representatives, Nancy Pelosi (a lifelong Catholic) has been banned from receiving the Eucharist in her hometown of San Francisco because of her views on abortion. The Archbishop of San Francisco has instructed all parishes in San Francisco to deny her Eucharist until or unless she changes her views.
• Many Catholics of a certain age were told that they needed to go to Confession (celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation) before receiving the Eucharist. A few years ago one of my hospice patients wanted to receive Eucharist from her church. But when I spoke with the pastor he told me that she couldn’t until she went to confession as she hadn’t attended mass in a few years. Fortunately my vigorous suggestion that she hadn’t been to mass because she was bedbound convinced him that she didn’t need to go to confession.
• When we were ordained one of my classmates was assigned to a campus ministry. A few months after his arrival he got a call from a woman whose daughter attended mass there. The mother was angry because she learned that her daughter was sleeping with her boyfriend and the mother demanded that my classmate refuse her Eucharist. He, of course, expressed astonishment that most parents hoped their children would attend mass while she demanded that her daughter be publicly humiliated. He later told the daughter about the call and commended her on her emotional health, all things considered.

I could go on, but you get the point. My hope for this weekend, as it is every year on this feast, is that we look at Eucharist not in terms of what we need to do to be worthy, but what this incredible gift can provide for us. Recall the words of the priest shortly before we receive Eucharist: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

If there are times when we feel unworthy to receive, we should recognize something: we aren’t. But if we believe what we say we believe about God’s love and mercy we should receive with an equal measure of enthusiasm. Years ago I spoke with a man of great faith who feared that because of his sinfulness God would grow angry at his reception of the Eucharist. Here’s what I told him:

Imagine you are a person of great wealth and power and you have a favorite nephew. For his birthday, instead of a normal gift you decided to give him something of great value, a gift way beyond anything he expected or deserved. And even though this was beyond what he deserved you want him to know how much you love him.

Now imagine your nephew refuses the gift because he decided on his own that he wasn’t worthy and didn’t believe your claims of love. Wouldn’t you be hurt? I know I would. His attempts at humility were, in fact, nothing more than a self centered posture of false modesty.

And finally, Eucharist not only shows us God’s love and generosity but also God’s desire for healing and reconciliation. I understand that through the generations many teachers told students that they needed to go to Confession to prepare for Eucharist because they were taught that. But (again, if we believe what we say we believe) we need only look at the words of Consecration of the wine: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Please understand this doesn’t negate the benefit, and even the need, for Confession/Reconciliation. But likewise it doesn’t mean we need one sacrament to prepare for another.

As we approach the Eucharist today let us recognize not our need for worthiness but God’s love, generosity, and desire for healing.