16 September 2024 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33

Please read the passage before reading the commentary

In this passage, Paul is not going to praise his people.  This sounds bad.  It seems that some of the parish had some sort of banquet prior to the Eucharistic banquet, to which not all were invited or welcomed.   Rich people could bring their servants and lavish meals, some people could bring hot pizza, and some could afford nothing except to be in time for the Eucharistic celebration.  Paul told them that they did not understand the Eucharist, how at the Last Supper Jesus had taken and blessed bread and wine, declared them to be his body and blood and told the disciples to eat and drink.  What the Corinthians were doing was quite contrary to what Jesus had said and done.

If we are the body of Christ, then all of us should be present at the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ.  St Augustine once declared that “we, who are the body of Christ, eat the body of Christ and become more the body of Christ.”  If there is fellowship before or after the Eucharist, then all should be invited.  In the time of slavery in our country, we had special places for the slaves in the back of the church, which shows that at that time, we had as faulty idea of Eucharist as the Corinthians had.

The Eucharist is the mystery of the body of Christ, the mystery of his death and resurrection.  By baptism we are brought into this mystery, becoming Christ and experiencing in ourselves the dying and rising of Jesus.  There is only one body of Christ.  The body of Christ in heaven is the same body of Christ present in the Eucharist and is the same body of Christ that we are here on earth.

Those who feed the hungry, tend to the homeless, welcome the immigrant, give to help others and support those in need show that they understand the Eucharist.  If we do not become the body of Christ through baptism, then the bread and wine that Jesus declared was his body and blood did not change, be remained bread and wine.

The Corinthians did not understand or discern properly the nature of the body of Christ and missed the boat terribly.  If we understand, then we welcome others to the table and rejoice with those who come to celebrate with us.  Paul calls each of us the discern and recognize the body of Christ and so partake of the body and blood of Christ worthily.  We are all part of the deep mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus.