June 23 - The Feast of Corpus Christi: the Living bread

First Reading Genesis 14:18-20
Melchizedek, king of Salem, blessed Abram.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 110:1-4
You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Gospel Reading
Luke 9:11b-17

Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, or the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is true food and drink but at the same time it is very different from every other food and drink. The great difference lies in these words of Christ which St Augustine heard in prayer, “You will not change me into yourself as you would food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.” We transform ordinary food into our own bodies but the food of the Eucharist transforms us into the body of Christ. Ludwig Feuerbach's statement that we become what we eat is never more true that in the Eucharistic experience.