Jesus gathered His friends, on the night before He died, and, sharing bread and wine with them, said, “This is My body…This is My blood.†The Gospel writers, recording this event, remembered also an earlier event, when Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to people to eat. It was on a hillside near to the Sea of Galilee, on a day when crowds of people followed Him. It was a lonely place and getting late, when the disciples decided to put some order affairs by sending the people away.
In the Church now, which is the living body of Christ, we live according to these events. As Jesus welcomed the crowds who came to listen to Him, so He welcomes all people of goodwill today. As He taught the crowds on the hillside, so He teaches us today through the scriptures read at Mass. As he fed the hungry people in that lonely place, so now He feeds the world, in its loneliness, with the gift of His own Body and Blood.
We are called to be a Eucharistic people. That is, people who bless the Lord for His goodness, and we share the blessings of life with others. We are called to be like the Lord Himself. On that hillside, next to the Sea of Galilee, Jesus welcomed people. He was good news for people and He fed people. This is what it means to be part of Jesus Christ, His living Body.