By Richard Clifford, S.J.

Does the name of the feast, Corpus Christi (“Body of Christ,” in Latin), spontaneously evoke in you words “meal, hospitality”? It should, if we take seriously the first reading from Genesis, which describes a mysterious figure who gave a rich feast for Abraham.

One way to appreciate the Eucharist as both a feast and a gift is to read the feeding of the five thousand in the Gospel of Luke. As the day was drawing to a close, the disciples reminded Jesus that the people who had followed him to a lonely place had nothing to eat and nowhere to stay for the night. The disciples urged him to send them away, but for Jesus hospitality outweighed the disciples’ desire to get rid of them. He challenged the disciples: “You yourselves give them something to eat!” Baffled, they replied that they had only five loaves and two fish. How could they ever feed five thousand with that?

Jesus presses on. He has the disciples make the people sit in groups, a sure sign that feeding will soon take place. Then, invoking heaven, he said the blessing over the bread and fish, broke them in pieces, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. Everybody ate and were satisfied and there twelve baskets of leftovers! This kind of episode was so important in the early church that all four gospels record them and some speak of the feeding twice. Obviously, the evangelists thought the feeding in the wilderness had much to say about the Eucharist.

Note some interesting things. Jesus does not deal directly with the crowd, but rather enables the Twelve to provide the hospitality they initially balked at. The Gospel expressly says the day was coming to an end, suggesting that Jesus’ own day was coming to a close and the disciples will carry on his hospitality. The blessing, breaking, and distributing the food to the hungry foreshadow the Eucharist. The chief task of the ministers is to facilitate the hospitality of God.

How can we approach the bread and the wine of the Eucharist in a way that shows our appreciation of this great gift? Why not use the Song of Songs, a collection of love poetry? In the Middle Ages, it was, second only to the Psalms, the biblical book most commented on. Using its language of love might sensitize us to the person we receive in the Eucharist. Note the lines spoken by the woman to the man in the Song, and the man to the woman: “How beautiful you are, my friend, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves!”; “My lover speaks and says to me, ‘Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, . . . and the song of the turtledove is heard in the land”; “I belong to my lover, and my lover belongs to me.”

Richard Clifford, S.J., has taught biblical studies for 55 years, most recently at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College, and has written many scholarly and popular books and articles.