A reading from the Book of Genesis
14:18-20
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.
A reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians
11:23-26
Brothers and sisters:
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.
From the Gospel according to Luke
9:11b-17
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God,
and he healed those who needed to be cured.
As the day was drawing to a close,
the Twelve approached him 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."
He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."
They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have,
unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."
Now the men there numbered about five thousand.
Then he said to his disciples,
"Have them sit down in groups of about fifty."
They did so and made them all sit down.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,
and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing over them, broke them,
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And when the leftover fragments were picked up,
they filled twelve wicker baskets.
This miracle — a very important one, so much so that it is recounted by all the Evangelists — demonstrates the Messiah’s power and, at the same time, his compassion: Jesus has compassion for the people. Not only does that prodigious gesture endure as one of the great signs of Jesus’ public life, but it also foretells what will be, in the end, the memorial of his sacrifice, namely, the Eucharist, the sacrament of his Body and his Blood offered up for the salvation of the world.
The Eucharist is the culmination of Jesus’ entire life, which was a single act of love toward the Father and brothers and sisters. There too, as with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus took the bread in his hands, raised a prayer of blessing to the Father, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples; and he did the same with the cup of wine. But in that moment, on the eve of his Passion, with that gesture, he wished to leave the Testament of his new and eternal Covenant, a perpetual memorial of the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. The feast of Corpus Christi invites us to renew each year the wonder and joy of this wondrous gift of the Lord which is the Eucharist. Let us receive it with gratitude, not in a passive, habitual way. We should not grow accustomed to the Eucharist and go to Communion as a habit: no! Each time we approach the altar to receive the Eucharist, we must truly renew our “amen” to the Body of Christ. When the priest says “the Body of Christ”, we say “amen”: but let it be an “amen” that comes from the heart, a committed one. It is Jesus; it is Jesus who saved me; it is Jesus who comes to give me the strength to live. It is Jesus, the living Jesus. But we must not become accustomed: each time as if it were the first Communion. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 23 June 2019)