A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 9, n. 31)
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A – June 26, 2011*
“One Bread, One Body”
BIBLE READINGS
Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a // I Cor 10:16-17 // Jn 6:51-58
(N.B. Series 9 of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY includes a prayerful study of the Sunday liturgy of Year A from the perspective of the Second Reading. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year C based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 3. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 6.)
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the feast of Corpus Christi. Our gracious Lord gives himself in the Eucharist, a memorial of his suffering and death that brought us salvation and made us God’s covenant people. The Old Testament reading (Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a) speaks of a merciful, loving God who showered exquisite care upon his chosen people Israel. He nourished them with manna from heaven to satisfy their physical hunger. Above all he taught them that “not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord”. While the manna helped the people’s physical life, the word of God sustained, refreshed and united them in their pilgrimage through the wilderness toward the Promised Land.
Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the true bread from heaven and the nourishment par excellence (cf. Jn 6:51-58). He declares, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life … For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” Through the Eucharistic bread and wine, he nourishes us with his body broken on the cross for our redemption and with the sacrificial blood shed in his life-giving passion, sealing God’s covenant love for us – his new chosen people.
Today’s Second Reading (I Cor 10:16-17) is a powerful witness of the Eucharistic faith of the Christian community. The Eucharist builds the Church, whose head is Jesus Christ. Participation in the body and blood of Christ is the source of the life and unity of the Church as one body.
The biblical scholar, Richard Kugelman comments: “Through eating the bread and drinking the cup Christians are united to Christ in an intimate fellowship, because the Eucharist is his body and blood. From this Eucharistic fellowship with Christ follows the real union of all the faithful with one another in one body. Baptism incorporates the Christians into the body of the Risen Lord; the Eucharist in which each communicant receives the body of Christ strengthens and cements the union. The Eucharist is consequently the sacramentum unitatis ecclesiae (Augustine), and when we receive the Eucharistic bread, Christ assimilates and transforms us, making us his body.”
Saint Augustine explicates: “You see on God’s altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all that faith demands. (…) These things, my friends are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want us to know what the body of Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: Now you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it … Listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of this sacrament: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one body. Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but many. Be then, what you see, and receive what you are. So much for what the Apostle says about the bread. As for the cup, what we have to believe is quite clear, although the Apostle does not mention it expressly. Just as the unity of the faithful, which Holy Scripture describes in the words: They are of one mind and heart in God, should be like kneading together of many grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine. Think how wine is made. Many grapes hung in the cluster, but their juice flows together into an indivisible liquid. It was thus that Christ our Lord signified us, and his will that we should belong to him when he hallowed the sacrament of our peace and unity on his altar.”
The multi-talented Fr. Leo Patalinhug, a third-degree black belt in tae kwon do and arnis, a form of full-contact stick fighting, and an award-winning break-dancer, is also a fabulous chef. He has started the Grace Before Meals movement, which encourages families to prepare and enjoy meals together. It is a movement deeply rooted in the Eucharist. Fr Leo asserts: “Relationships are what I’m trying to encourage … relationships that are developed when we spend time with each other and feed one another.” Family meals can thus lead people to the Eucharist, enabling them to experience in it the sacramental reality: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one body.
The beautiful article reported below is most fitting for today’s feast of Corpus Christi (cf. Fr. Leo Patalinhug, “Cook’s Grace” in GUIDEPOSTS, May 2011, p. 88-90).
Food was a big deal in our little house south of Baltimore. My parents, brother, sister and I crowded around the kitchen table. I remember Mom dishing hot pancit onto our plates, a simple Filipino meal of noodles, vegetables and chicken she loved making for our immigrant family. I dug in with my fork, hungry and wanting to rush back to my G.I Joes. “Slow down, Leo!” Mom would say. “Taste the different flavors.” I learned to chew … slowly … and there was the sweetness of the carrots, the pungent garlic. Mom was right. Food was meant to be savored, like a blessing. Mmmm!
“What did you learn at school today?” Dad would ask at dinner. It seemed remarkable to me, his fascination with both photosynthesis and James and the Giant Peach. We would all talk. Even after my plate was clean I lingered, wanting seconds of the conversation. It slowly dawned on me that mealtimes were for more than just eating. It was when my family connected. It helped that Mom was a great cook. Before long she began teaching me. My first meal was Eggs in a Nest. I made it for Dad for breakfast. One look at the love in his eyes and I knew how Mom felt cooking for us.
Eventually I answered a call to priesthood, which made my parents happy. I still love to cook though. My studies took me to Rome, where I learned to make pasta and discovered the wonder of sauces. Then, back in the States, assigned to my first parish, a realization: For many of my parishioners the dinner hour was no longer sacred. Rush here, rush there, take-out, mom and dad working late, no one sitting at the table anymore. I was troubled. I prayed about it.
Soon I felt a calling, to show how easy it is to make great food, to share my own story, and bring parents and children back to the Lord’s table – the one collecting dust in their homes. I was teaching at seminary by now but I had weekends free. I would spread the gospel of family mealtime and good food.
Five years later I’ve taken the message of our growing movement Grace Before Meals to nearly every state and countries around the globe. You may have seen my face-off and win against master chef Bobby Flay on the Food Network last year. That was huge. But my crusade can be lonely at times. I wonder if I’m making any difference at all.
Last November a parish in Tiverton, Rhode Island, invited me up. It was a Friday evening and I was tired after a long week of teaching. But I perked up when the event coordinator told me she expected 200 people, half of them teens. “Wow! Your kids must be into cooking.” “Not exactly”, she said sheepishly. “I made them come … as part of confirmation classes.”
My heart sank. As the crowd streamed in I searched their faces for some sign of recognition. Surely someone had come eager to see me. Why did every presentation feel like I was starting anew? I hopped onstage, behind the stove that serves as my pulpit. “Good evening”, I said. “My name is Father Leo. Tonight I’m making Penne alla Vodka, enough to feed your body, mind and soul.”
The adults chuckled appreciatively, but the kids looked at me blankly. I hoped I could hold their interest until I burned off the alcohol in the vodka. I grabbed my big bottle of olive oil, poured it into a pan and turned up the heat. I tossed a handful of garlic into the oil and paused to hear the sizzle. “That’s my favorite sound”, I said. “Or maybe it’s ‘Go in peace and serve the Lord’.” More laughter. They were getting into it.
I stirred in some onion, letting it caramelize, while sharing the importance of a family meal. Next some tomato paste. And a few more stories. At last it was time for the vodka. I took the bottle by the neck and tipped it into the pan. “Now I’m gonna set this bad boy on fire.” I struck a match and with a whoosh flames leapt from the pan. “Whoa!” the crowd roared. Kids were on the edge of their seats. For an instant I felt that familiar rush of adrenaline. I mixed in tomatoes, heavy cream and the penne. Finito! “Who wants a bite?” I said.
I dished out samples as the crowd filed past. Most everyone said they loved it, though a few said it was too spicy. But as I headed out the doors I felt drained. I’d done so many presentations like this and what did I have to show for it? Was I bringing families together or just putting on a show? On the flight back to Baltimore I wondered whether it wasn’t time to hang up my apron.
I brooded about it for the next week. Then one day, in my office, I clicked open an e-mail from an unfamiliar name. Father Leo, So here’s the deal. My grandson Nathan eats nothing but PBJ and hot dogs. But on my birthday he announced he wanted to make me Penne alla Vodka. He attended your presentation in Tiverton. I laughed, but he knew every step of the recipe. I watched in disbelief as he cooked his first meal to perfection. You obviously made quite an impression on him and I just wanted to say thanks for a birthday present I’ll never forget.
I reread the e-mail, marveling at every word, like an answer to prayer. What difference could I make to a hectic world? Suddenly, through God’s grace, the possibilities seemed limitless.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Are we thankful for the “daily bread” that feeds our body and for “every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” that nourishes our soul?
Do we actively, consciously and fruitfully participate at the Eucharistic table, allowing ourselves to be nourished by the flesh that is true food and by the blood that is true drink?
Do we truly believe that at the Eucharistic table the cup of blessing that we bless is a participation in the blood of Christ and the bread that we break is a participation in the blood of Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Leader: O loving and gracious God,
we thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ,
the true bread from heaven and the real cup of blessing.
At the Eucharistic table,
he offers us the flesh that is true food in the form of bread
and the blood that is true drink in the form of wine.
How wonderful is the memorial-presence
of the saving event of liberation through the sacrificial body of Christ
and of the new covenant that he sealed in his blood!
Let our participation in the wondrous mystery of the Eucharist
make of us “one bread … one body” .
Let us drink from the one cup of salvation
and enable us to share in the eternal life that is ours
as your covenant people.
We proclaim and relish this mystery of faith,
now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (cf. I Cor 10:17)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
ACTION PLAN: Pray that we may all realize the need to draw near the altar-table of the Eucharist and be nourished with the word of God and the body of blood of Christ. That our Eucharistic transformation and communion as “one bread … one body” may impel us to work in solidarity with all peoples and pursue the common good.
ACTION PLAN: That we may experience fully the wondrous reality of “one bread … one body”, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR: A Weekly Pastoral Tool (Year A, vol. 7, # 31).
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US