Body and Blood of Christ - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2010

It is important to note the setting of today’s Gospel. Luke introduced the feeding by showing Jesus doing three things: he was welcoming the crowd; he was speaking to them about the Kingdom; and he healed those who needed it.

Who were the crowd? Throughout the whole Roman Empire at the time of Jesus, about 70% of people lived just on or under the poverty line, many of them going to bed hungry each night, and, as a consequence, acutely prone to sickness and disease. 

These were the ones to whom Jesus was speaking about the Kingdom. Luke had already summarised Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom: Blessed are you who are poor, the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now, you shall be filled. That revolution would take place to the extent that people took seriously Jesus’ injunction to everyone (as spelt out in the Sermon on the Mount) to love your enemies, to do good, and to lend, expecting nothing in return. In short, to the extent that people chose, as Jesus said, to be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 was simply another illustration of the message he was proclaiming and of the dream that animated him – a world where people cared for each other, respected each other, welcomed each other and shared what they had with each other … and, where, consequently, the poor were no longer excluded, the hungry were filled and those who wept at last could laugh.

Here we are today, 2000 years later, remembering what Jesus was up to, at a time in our own nation when the issue of asylum seekers has made the political agenda once again. I don’t want to look at the political intricacies, but at where those decisions might come from, and at the attitudes that determine them.

To Jesus’ earlier preaching of the beatitudes, Luke had added a series of warnings: Woe to you who are rich, Woe to you who are full now, Woe to you who are laughing. 

Jesus wasn’t necessarily annoyed with them. He wanted to show them how to enjoy something better – the Kingdom.

There is nothing necessarily evil with wealth, healthy and adequate meals, or enjoying yourself. It depends on the context. Where other people are poor, hungry and oppressed, people who are blind, insensitive, unwilling to share and unresponsive to those in dire need are missing out on something – are missing out on the possibility of real, deep happiness.

And a society that is blind, insensitive, unwilling to share and unresponsive to need is fragile – violence always simmers close to the surface. As was the case with the victims of sexual abuse, it is so easy for us, in our comfort, not to see suffering. We can be intent on maintaining business as usual.

When we see asylum seekers, do we see suffering people fleeing persecution and possible death? Certainly, they are not the only refugees. But they are people in profound need. Do we see that first? Do we treat them with particular sensitivity? Do we approach them with respect? If we don’t, what might it say of us? Are we missing out on something that Jesus yearns to give us?

What has all this to do with Eucharist? When describing the feeding of the needy 5000, Luke deliberately chose to use Eucharistic language: Jesus took the loaves, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing, broke them, and handed them to his disciples. Luke’s point was not to say that that feeding was a Eucharist but to emphasise that every Eucharist reflects that feeding. Like that feeding, every Eucharist is a celebration of welcome, of reclaiming Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom, and of meeting, and responding to, people in their need.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ – the body of Jesus broken, the blood of Jesus shed because of his unshakeable commitment to a new and better world. Next Friday we shall focus on the Sacred Heart of Jesus – the quintessential “bleeding heart”. For us, as followers of Jesus, to be called “bleeding hearts” has become a badge of honour.