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1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33:
Brothers and sisters:
In giving this instruction, I do not praise the fact
that your meetings are doing more harm than good.
First of all, I hear that when you meet as a Church
there are divisions among you,
and to a degree I believe it;
there have to be factions among you
in order that also those who are approved among you
may become known.
When you meet in one place, then,
it is not to eat the Lord’s supper,
for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper,
and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.
Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink?
Or do you show contempt for the Church of God
and make those who have nothing feel ashamed?
What can I say to you? Shall I praise you?
In this matter I do not praise you.
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my Body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my Blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
The Word of the Lord.
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Saint Paul wrote his First Letter to the Corinthians before any of the Gospels were written. Thus, we have in today’s first reading the first words ever recorded as spoken by Jesus.
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,” Paul says, “that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said”:
“This is my Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me… This cup is the new covenant in my Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
Paul is reminding the Corinthians that, when Mass is celebrated, they are, in fact, receiving the Promised Presence of Jesus Christ himself!
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Such a profound mystery should leave the Corinthians in awe, forever changed. However, this isn’t always the case.
Rather, some are “eating and drinking judgment upon themselves,” Paul says, “because they are not discerning what the body means.”
There are two sins, in particular, that he is addressing.
Some of the wealthier Christians saw themselves as superior to their less fortunate neighbors. They failed to understand that, in Christ, we are all one body, and therefore equals. True Christians do not jealously guard what they have; rather, they freely give it away.
As Saint Francis later says, “It is in giving that we receive.”
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Secondly, some of the Corinthians do not appreciate what the Eucharist actually is, Christ’s gift of his very self. This idea still lingers in some today.
This does not mean that we must be perfect to receive Communion; as Pope Francis says, “the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect.”
Rather, like the centurion in today’s Gospel, we humbly recognize the Presence of Jesus, and say:
“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. But only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
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Image credits: (1) Christ Pantocrator, Sinai (2) Catholic Answers Shop (3) Jesus Healing the Servant of Centurion, Veronese