The Priesthood of Christ and the Miracle of the Eucharist – June 22, 2025
Readings and Virtual Homily for June 22, 2025, Feast of Corpus Christi; San Gabriel Media Hits a Milestone; Thanks for the Father's Day Wishes; What's Left of the June Schedule
Readings for Mass, this Sunday:
Genesis 14:18-20
Psalm 110:1-4
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11-17
Dear Friends and Family,
This Sunday being the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus, also known as Corpus Christi, all four readings bear directly on a consideration of the Eucharistic Lord, Jesus as both priest and sacrifice; Jesus as truly present in the Eucharistic species, his body and blood being the very means of our salvation.
The first reading and the psalm invite us to reflect on Jesus as priest. The entire Letter to the Hebrews concerns itself with this fascinating study -- about as deep as our theology gets, short of the Trinity itself. But earlier passages in Scripture, including, of course, the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, also reflect the priesthood of Jesus -- the first priest in known history to offer himself on the altar.
(A time-out here to remind ourselves that priesthood exists, in any religion from the most primitive to today, for one purpose: to offer sacrifice to the divine realm. Priests -- in any religion -- may perform other services for their people as well, but their primary responsibility, and one which only they can carry out, is to offer sacrifice.)
The first reading, from the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, that is, very early on in terms of the story of salvation, gives us Abraham (still being called Abram at this point) thanking God for his victory over several rival kings, freeing his nephew Lot and Lot's household in the process. From nowhere, it seems, appears Melchizedek, described as "King of Salem and priest of God most high" (vs. 18). Clearly an ally of Abraham, Melchizedek assists in the celebrations by offering sacrifice to God on Abraham's behalf. At a time when priests and priestesses in almost all of the world's religions were sacrificing animals and/or human beings to their deities, Melchizedek offers...bread and wine.
Melchizedek then disappears from Genesis and it would seem, from history itself. He is mentioned in today's psalm, where the psalmist makes a startling prediction about the coming Messiah. The Messiah will be not just a king and a conqueror, a savior and a liberator. The Messiah will be a priest. "A priest forever, according to the line of Melchizedek" (vs. 4).
The prediction is startling not just because it tells the Jewish people to expect a Priest-Messiah. It is startling because it tells them (and us) that the Messiah, though Jewish, will not share in the priesthood of Aaron, will not be a Jewish priest. Rather, the Messiah's priesthood is from the greatest antiquity, the time when Abraham was still being called Abram; hundreds of years before the establishment of the Jewish priesthood under Moses.
This priesthood -- the Priesthood of Melchizedek -- which one might fairly term cosmic and ahistorical -- is in fact the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, in which all Catholic (and Orthodox) priests have a share today. This priesthood becomes historical, comes down to earth to stay, so to speak, only at the Last Supper, when the Lord institutes the new covenant in his blood, a new covenant which will be served by a new priesthood. Well, no, actually, by the ancient and original priesthood, the Priesthood of Melchizedek.
I have written on this before, but it bears repeating. Most Scripture scholars, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant are in agreement -- Melchizedek is the pre-incarnate Christ.
Jesus himself gives us a glimpse of the cosmic nature of his priesthood in the passage from today's Gospel. The miracle of the loaves and the fish prefigures the miracle of the Eucharist in several ways, but one of the most obvious is simply that there is no running out of the loaves and the fish. If we think literally about the Eucharist (and today's feast is a very good day for doing that) its miraculous nature is immediately apparent. Not just in that the bread and wine are transformed; become the body and blood of Jesus, but that his body and blood are inexhaustible, they are perpetually available to us.
The body and blood of Jesus are the "pure sacrifice" described by the prophet Malachi, five hundred years before the Last Supper. This pure sacrifice, Malachi foretells, is offered continuously "from farthest east to farthest west;" that is, it is offered unceasingly at Catholic and Orthodox altars around the world, time zone after time zone after time zone, Mass after Mass after Mass. Jesus' body and blood are perpetually available to us all around the world until the end of time. And, a detail Malachi emphasizes, this sacrifice is not offered by the Jewish priests. It is offered by the priests of a different priesthood -- it is offered by the Gentiles (Malachi 1:11).
Paul references the reality of the ongoing and true presence of the Lord in the Eucharist in his description of the Last Supper to the Corinthians. In verse 27, which is just past today's passage, Paul admonishes his audience not to receive the Eucharist without discerning the body and blood of the Lord. Here Paul reinforces the doctrine of transubstantiation (specifically formulated, of course, centuries later). In his reminder to the Corinthians of the real presence, Paul underscores the great reality we celebrate this Sunday; the reality of the body and blood of Christ, always and everywhere available to us, in the Eucharist.
I have a praise report regarding our initial foray into marketing at San Gabriel Media. As I've mentioned in earlier e-mails, we began a summer-long promotional campaign on our You Tube channel last month. On May 9, the day we launched the campaign, we had 278 resolute and loyal subscribers. Within a week, we had over seven thousand; at Memorial Day we topped 25,000. This Wednesday evening we passed the 100,000 mark.
This growth has been in response to our series on the Acts of the Apostles. We decided to run with Acts because it was the Easter season, and Acts is the first reading at Mass throughout the period of Easter. We had thought we would discontinue the Acts promotion at Pentecost; replacing it with a promotion of one of our other programs. (We have four series in release at the moment.)
But Acts is performing so well that we decided to extend its run, so to speak. We will continue to feature it until the second week in July. We'll evaluate where things are at that time, but the current plan is to switch to another of our series, for the mid-summer stretch of the campaign.
All of us at San Gabriel are -- impressed -- at how well our series on Acts is doing. I suppose it helps that this is, after all, my favorite book in the Bible. I imagine my enthusiasm for it comes across in the episodes. In any event, people literally around the world are evidently finding it worthwhile; we are off to a strong start with this effort. It is only one among several marketing strategies that we plan to put into play, the second half of the year.
Finally, my thanks to everyone who sent me a text or e-mail, or in some cases a mailed card, last weekend, for Father's Day. I appreciate very much that people remember priests on that day, though as I said at all my Masses last weekend, compared to the real thing, priestly fatherhood is a walk in the park. A walk in the park on a bright and breezy day, no less.
All the same, the many thoughtful expressions of joy and support were happily received -- and while I am here, a month after the fact, my thanks as well to all who remembered the anniversary of my ordination, May 20. This was number nineteen -- next year we will throw a party! I had a very good life before I was ordained. I have had an almost unbelievably good life, though, in the nineteen years since.
An appropriate note on which to end a homily about the Priesthood of Christ!
Take good care and God bless you. Happy official start to summer!
Fr. Brawn
I evidently never sent the June Mass schedule, for which I apologize. Here is what is left of it:
Sunday, June 22
8 and 1115 AM (both English)
Saturday, June 28
5 PM (English)
Sunday, June 29
630 PM (English)
Weekday Masses (English at 8 AM):
Monday, June 23
Saturday, June 28