June 2, 2013: The Most Holy Body and Blood

One morning this week I noticed one of our parishioners teaching his granddaughter how to ride a bicycle in the church parking lot. He said that since the summer break from school started, his grand kids were spending a lot of time at his house. Not only that, his grand kids invited a few more of their friends for slumber parties. I surmised that his refrigerator was being devoured whole quite frequently. But he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to enjoy feeding his grandchildren. For some reason, we take pleasure in cooking and feeding our children. Is it our parental instinct? Or is there something more to it?

Perhaps to help us understand our desire to feed our children, I'd like for us to mentally recall our state flag of Louisiana. What's prominently featured on the flag? A mother pelican with her three baby pelicans. The symbolism of the mother pelican feeding her little baby pelicans is rooted in an ancient legend. The legend was that in time of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself, striking her breast with the beak, and then fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life.

Given this tradition, one can easily see why the early Christians adapted it to symbolize our Lord, Jesus Christ. The pelican symbolizes Jesus our Redeemer who gave His life for our redemption and the atonement He made through His passion and death. We were dead to sin and have found new life through the Blood of Christ. Moreover, Jesus continues to feed us with His body and blood in the holy Eucharist.



Here in lies why we like to feed our children and grandchildren. We know that we are made in the image and likeness of God. And our desire to feed others mirror in someway the very heart and desire of our Heavenly Father--His great love and his great desire to feed his children. In today’s Gospel when Jesus saw the vast crowd gathered hungering for his word, he was moved with compassion. We are told that there were about 5,000 men and perhaps many more women and children. Yet, to Jesus, this vast crowd was not just a number. He knew each of them individually by heart; he knew their hopes, their sufferings, and their sins. What saddened him the most was seeing them hungry for God to the point of starving to death.

Did you know that even before you set foot in this church today, Jesus knew what you had been through this week and what you are hungering for? Although you may not have noticed him or even acknowledged him, Jesus has been right by your side as you faced your joys, struggles, and even failures. Can you see with your eyes of faith, Jesus who is present right here, who has so much compassion for you? Can you see Jesus in the Eucharist, who is filled with the desire to fill your hunger for God? What a great mystery as you receive the Eucharist, Jesus says to you, “This is my covenant with you, that I give all of myself to you without holding anything back.”



What does Jesus ask of us in response? He asks us, “Do you notice, within your home and workplace, those who are hungry for Me or those who do not even know Me? Bring Me to them.” And perhaps we feel that’s too overwhelming of a request for us, just as the disciples were overwhelmed when Jesus asked them to feed the crowd of more than 5,000 with just two fish and five loaves of bread. But we should not be frightened of our own weakness. Jesus knows each of us by heart; all he needs from us is the desire to say “Yes, Lord. Lead me.”