Share Whatever You Have
June 22, 2025
Body and Blood of Christ, 6/22/25
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Genesis 14: 18-20; Ps. 116; 1 Cor 11: 23-36; Luke 9: 10-17
“Do this in remembrance of me.” These are the words of Jesus that Paul relayed to the people of Corinth in our second reading today. Paul was repeating the instructions he understood Jesus had given the apostles on the night before he died. If you have read the verses just before and after this passage in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, you have seen that Paul was in the process of reading the people of Corinth the riot act. He was bawling them out for being selfish and even drunk at the eucharistic suppers they had. He accused the rich people among them of coming early for supper and eating all the finest foods and drinking too much wine, so that when the working-class people arrived after their shifts ended, all the good foods were gone. Paul was angry because this created divisions in the Corinth community.
Paul was trying to emphasize that this selfish behavior was just the opposite of what Jesus had conveyed to his apostles. Jesus had also said, “This is my body, that is for you.” Jesus was summing up all he had done and taught in the months and years leading up to that evening. “I have given my very body for you,” he was saying. “I have given everything I have. Now I ask you to do the same for one another. Share whatever you have.”
I believe “Share whatever you have” is also the message of our Gospel passage today. I don’t believe that Jesus was a magician who whipped up extra fish and bread out of thin air. I do believe that his teaching and influence where so persuasive as to inspire his listeners to share whatever little they had brought along for their excursion to hear Jesus that day, so that, between them, there was enough for everyone. Do you remember the children’s book Stone Soup? I can see the loaves and fishes situation being similar. The people all pooled their resources and managed to have more than enough to feed everyone. And it seems that everyone was included, whether they had brought food or not, or whether they were friends or enemies. After all, the organizational scheme for the meal seemed to be pretty random: “Sit down with the fifty people around you.”
I think “Share whatever you have” is also Jesus’ message to us today. Also “Include everybody.” It’s Pride month, so inclusion is a very good thing for us to think and pray about. Whom do we steer clear of? Why? We can always benefit from learning from people with different circumstances than our own. And when we do so with the teachings of Jesus in mind, we see that everyone, no matter how well off, is in need of something. Maybe mind-opening education. Maybe compassion for the losses they have experienced in the past. Maybe the sense of being valued for themselves, not just their money. And those who are not well off, well, their needs are usually more obvious, though we still need to communicate to know what they need most.
It is truly miraculous to have a physical connection with Jesus present every time we gather around the eucharistic table. Bread and wine, common foods going back even to the time of the obscure priest Melchizedek, Abraham, and Sarah, bring Jesus’ presence back to us. We become one with the Christ, with one another, and with the whole People of God, every time we offer this meal together. But just like the Corinthians, we have to live the symbols and the actions Jesus established for us. We have to work to learn to share whatever we have, with anyone who needs them, no exceptions, as well as we can.
June 22, 2025
Body and Blood of Christ, 6/22/25
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Genesis 14: 18-20; Ps. 116; 1 Cor 11: 23-36; Luke 9: 10-17
“Do this in remembrance of me.” These are the words of Jesus that Paul relayed to the people of Corinth in our second reading today. Paul was repeating the instructions he understood Jesus had given the apostles on the night before he died. If you have read the verses just before and after this passage in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, you have seen that Paul was in the process of reading the people of Corinth the riot act. He was bawling them out for being selfish and even drunk at the eucharistic suppers they had. He accused the rich people among them of coming early for supper and eating all the finest foods and drinking too much wine, so that when the working-class people arrived after their shifts ended, all the good foods were gone. Paul was angry because this created divisions in the Corinth community.
Paul was trying to emphasize that this selfish behavior was just the opposite of what Jesus had conveyed to his apostles. Jesus had also said, “This is my body, that is for you.” Jesus was summing up all he had done and taught in the months and years leading up to that evening. “I have given my very body for you,” he was saying. “I have given everything I have. Now I ask you to do the same for one another. Share whatever you have.”
I believe “Share whatever you have” is also the message of our Gospel passage today. I don’t believe that Jesus was a magician who whipped up extra fish and bread out of thin air. I do believe that his teaching and influence where so persuasive as to inspire his listeners to share whatever little they had brought along for their excursion to hear Jesus that day, so that, between them, there was enough for everyone. Do you remember the children’s book Stone Soup? I can see the loaves and fishes situation being similar. The people all pooled their resources and managed to have more than enough to feed everyone. And it seems that everyone was included, whether they had brought food or not, or whether they were friends or enemies. After all, the organizational scheme for the meal seemed to be pretty random: “Sit down with the fifty people around you.”
I think “Share whatever you have” is also Jesus’ message to us today. Also “Include everybody.” It’s Pride month, so inclusion is a very good thing for us to think and pray about. Whom do we steer clear of? Why? We can always benefit from learning from people with different circumstances than our own. And when we do so with the teachings of Jesus in mind, we see that everyone, no matter how well off, is in need of something. Maybe mind-opening education. Maybe compassion for the losses they have experienced in the past. Maybe the sense of being valued for themselves, not just their money. And those who are not well off, well, their needs are usually more obvious, though we still need to communicate to know what they need most.
It is truly miraculous to have a physical connection with Jesus present every time we gather around the eucharistic table. Bread and wine, common foods going back even to the time of the obscure priest Melchizedek, Abraham, and Sarah, bring Jesus’ presence back to us. We become one with the Christ, with one another, and with the whole People of God, every time we offer this meal together. But just like the Corinthians, we have to live the symbols and the actions Jesus established for us. We have to work to learn to share whatever we have, with anyone who needs them, no exceptions, as well as we can.
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