This Sunday we celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist.  We celebrate this event at every Mass and participate in the taking of the bread and the wine, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We celebrate the final sacrifice provided to us by our loving God, His only begotten son, who became our sacrificial lamb.  The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Happy are those who are called to his supper.

In our first reading from 1 Corinthians Paul relates for us what he was taught at the last supper concerning the bread and the wine.  We recognize these words from Mass on Sunday when the priest holds up the bread and the wine and in the words of our Lord Jesus presents them to us and invites us to eat and drink. 

In the Gospel according to John Jesus teaches us what it means to partake of the Holy Eucharist.  This is a very special food and drink that when you eat you will not hunger and when you drink you will not thirst.  The hunger and thirst are not of the physical variety that our human bodies repeatedly endure but rather the hunger and thirst of our souls for the goodness and righteousness of God.  “Real life” is not what we are experiencing as we are, but what we will become and we will become what we are destined to be by reliving the Last Supper and eating the bread and drinking the wine which are the body and blood of our Lord Jesus, given in sacrifice for us.  Our higher calling is to be like Jesus and to join Him and we cannot do that without accepting His sacrifice which will grant us the ability to transform.  Each time you eat the bread, each time you drink the cup you proclaim the death of the Lord, which means you acknowledge the sacrifice given freely for you and you accept the precious gifts offered to you too.

The children will be able to tell you what special meal they share with family on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  We can all recall the holiday meals we shared since childhood!  These meals were special because they brought people closer and love was the binding force across the table!  When we think of these special meals, some of which we have taken up preparing now that we are married and have children, we are overcome with a sense of love, and comfort.  The Eucharist is that very special holiday meal instituted by Jesus and carried on as a tradition throughout the family of man, the adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus.  As we celebrate that special meal, let us feel the love among us at the table and the comfort in our company as we realize the amazing reason and cause for our celebration!  Praise be to God!

The Psalm this week is Psalm 110: You Are A Priest Forever (in the line of Melchizedek) and following this link you will find a demo and a lead sheet. 

And who was this Malchizedek?  The first reading for this Sunday is from Genesis 14:18-20, and reads as follows:

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:

"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

the creator of heaven and earth;

and blessed be God Most High,

who delivered your foes into your hand."

Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

 

For historical/scriptural reference here is an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia on the New Advent website (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10156b.htm).  You can see exactly why this Psalm is perfect for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ because there exist so many descriptions of Melchizedek that are like Jesus.

Melchisedech

[Gr. Melchisedek, from the Hebrew meaning "King of righteousness (Gesenius)] was King of Salem (Gen. xiv, 18-20) who, on Abraham's return with the booty taken from the four kings, "bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God, blessed him", and received from him "the tithes of all" (v. 20). Josephus, with many others, identifies Salem with Jerusalem, and adds that Melchisedech "supplied Abram's army in a hospitable manner, and gave them provisions in abundance. . .and when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accepted the gift" (Ant., I, x, 2). Cheyne says "it is a plausible conjecture that he is a purely fictitious personage" (Encyc. Bib., s.v.), which "plausible conjecture"Kaufmann, however, rightly condemns ( Jew. Encyc., s.v.). The Rabbins identified Melchisedech with Sem, son of Noah, rather for polemic than historic reasons, since they wished to set themselves against what is said of him as a type of Christ "without father, without mother, without genealogy" (Hebrews 7:3). In the Epistle to the Hebrews the typical character of Melchisedech and its Messianic import are fully explained. Christ is "a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech" (Hebrews 7:6; Psalm 109:4); "a high priest forever", etc (Hebrews 6:20), i.e. order or manner (Gesenius), not after the manner of Aaron. The Apostle develops his teaching in Hebrews 7: Melchisedech was a type by reason

• of his twofold dignity as priest and king,
• by reason of his name, "king of justice",
• by reason of the city over which he ruled, "King of Salem, that is, king of peace" (v. 2), and also
• because he "without father without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest forever." (v. 3).

The silence of Scripture about the facts of Melchisedech's birth and death was part of the divine plan to make him prefigure more strikingly the mysteries of Christ's generation, the eternity of His priesthood. Abraham, patriarch and father of nations, paid tithes to Melchisedech and received his blessing. This was all the more remarkable since the priest-king was a stranger, to whom he was not bound to pay tithes, as were the children of Israel to the priests of the Aaronic line. Abraham, therefore, and Levi "in the loins of his father" (Heb. vii, 9), by acknowledging his superiority as a type of Christ (for personally he was not greater than Abraham), thereby confessed the excellence of Christ's priesthood. Neither can it be fairly objected that Christ was in the loins of Abraham as Levi was, and paid tithes to Melchisedech; for, though descended from Abraham, he had no human father, but was conceived by the Holy Ghost. In the history of Melchisedech St. Paul says nothing about the bread and wine which the "priest of the most High" offered, and on account of which his name is placed in the Canon of the Mass. The scope of the Apostle accounts for this; for he wishes to show that the priesthood of Christ was in dignity and duration superior to that of Aaron, and therefore, since it is not what Melchisedech offered, but rather the other circumstances of his priesthood which belonged to the theme, they alone are mentioned.