Homily for the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ, Year C

Satisfying The Deepest Hunger

Rev. Marcel Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, June 19, 2022

The miracle of the feeding of the thousands with five loaves and two fish must have been so popular in the early Christian communities, for the story to be found in all four Gospels. Luke’s version says that crowd of people had gather around Jesus when they heard that he had retired to Bethsaida. Moved with pity, Jesus taught them and cured their sick. But as the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve Apostles became concerned about what this great crowd of people would eat. So they came to Jesus and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” On the surface, their suggestion sounds reasonable. It seems to be coming from a sincere concern and care for the people. But at the depth, they are attempting to scatter those whom Jesus has magnetically drawn to himself. These folks came to be fed by the Fountain of Life himself. Instead of attending to their suggestion, Jesus challenges them, “You give them something to eat.” Not ready to give up, the Twelve protest and say, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we go and buy food for these people.” Ignoring their complaint, Jesus instructs them to gather the crowd in groups of about fifty. Then, taking the loaves and fish, Jesus said a blessing over them, broke them, and then handed them to the disciples for distribution. Everyone in the crowd of about five thousand ate until they were satisfied. 

Now the hungry people who came to Jesus in this story stands for the hungry human race, who have been hungry and starving for what will satisfy from the time of Adam and Eve to the present day. Sadly, we like our human progenitors, Adam and Eve, have tried to fill up the emptiness with wealth, pleasure, power, honor, and the lust to dominate, but none of it works, none of it has satisfied and filled us. After getting all we want, we are still hungry. We still feel empty. Why? Because the deepest hunger of the human heart cannot be found in what is acquired. It is a gift, God’s gift of himself. God is the deepest hunger of the human heart. We have all been wired for God and God is nothing but love. It is only when we conform ourselves to the way of love, only when we empty out all our ego, that we are filled. The five loaves and two fish symbolize that which has been  given to us, all that we have received as a grace from God, that is, our life, our very existence, our being. If we appropriate it, misuse it, not spend it, we lose it. But if we hand it over and surrender it to Jesus our Savior, then we will find it transfigured and multiplied, even to the point of using it to nourish many people. 

Sisters and brothers, consider what Jesus did after praying over the bread and fish. He hands the loaves and the fish to the disciples, who in turn give them to the people. So at the climax of the narrative, the disciples themselves became the instruments of nourishment, setting the loaves and fish before the people. What does this mean? It means that the Body of Christ, Mystici Corporis Christi (the Mystical Body of Christ), the Church of Jesus Christ is not an unstructured, egalitarian society but rather a structured society, governed and ordered hierarchically. It means that the Church is the means, the vehicle through which Christ fed and nourished hungry people and through which he continues to feed and nourish the hungry people of the world. This hunger can sometimes be physical— that’s why we have Catholic Charities, St. Vincent the Paul, Mary’s Place and several other charitable organizations that provide the material needs of the poor. On the whole, this hunger is mostly spiritual. A great number of people can provide their material needs. A good number of you listening to me now are able to afford your material needs. The times we collected gift cards, groceries and toiletries and distributed them to the poor, a sizable number of people who came to be helped are not even our parishioners. Many of you don’t need handout from the parish. Materially, you are okay. But every Sunday, you are here. For some of you, it is everyday. Why are you here in the church? Where do you keep coming? To be fed spiritually! We are all hungry, and the kind of hunger we have can only be satisfied by Jesus. The divine life of Jesus is always received either directly or indirectly through the sacraments of the Church. That’s why we keep coming to church. The lifeblood of the Ecclesia is grace, and the ordinary means by which that grace is made available to us are the sacraments, the visible signs of an invisible power. Can these sacraments be obtained from a grocery store and department store? Not at all! It is always through the Church properly governed. So, it is not enough to be spiritual, we must be religious and be actively connected to the mystical body of Christ. It is even insufficient to proclaim Christ without being a member of his Body. 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, it is important to remember that in the Eucharist, Jesus feeds us. The Eucharist is the most profound demonstration of God’s mercy and love. It is the greatest showing off of compassion. His desire to stay with us at all time and become our Real Food and Drink is God’s mercy at its apogee. May our hunger always bring us to Christ the Fountain of life. Amen.