Each year on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi the gospel is taken from one of the miraculous feeding of the multitudes. This year the reading is from the Gospel of Luke 9:10-17 when five loaves and two fish become the starting point for feeding more than 5,000 people.

This Lukan passage comes at a “breaking point” in the narrative of the gospel. In Luke 8, we come to a “kind of ending” of the Galilean mission. Up to and through Luke 8 the accounts have focused on Jesus – the telling of parables (sower and the seed, 8:4-15; lamp, 8:16-18) and performance of miracles (calming of the sea, 8:22-25; healing of the demoniac, 8:26-39; healing of Jairus’ daughter, 8:40-56). At the beginning of Luke 9, the Twelve are sent on mission, “He summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (the sick)” (vv1-2). These were prophetic actions that Jesus had already given to the people and the leaders of the Jews. As the leaders began to reject Jesus, even while the outcasts began to accept him, there was a growing gap in religious leadership. And thus Jesus, already having taught his disciples the meaning of the Kingdom, now sends them to proclaim God’s reign in word and deed. We are only told of the summary of their missionary endeavors: “Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.” (Luke 9:6)