Corpus Christi
June 2, 1983
Gen 14: 18-20
Christian Brothers, Iona College, N.R.
Laity in attendance
at the brothers’ Saturday evening Mass almost always outnumber the brothers.
“In
those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a
priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram” (Gen 14: 18).
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| Abraham's Meeting with Melchizedek, by Dieric Bouts the Elder, 15th c. |
One
of the most mysterious persons in the whole Bible appears in our 1st reading
this evening. These 3 verses—that’s his
story! Based only on that, he comes up
again in Ps 110, which was our responsory, in which the Messiah is called “a
priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (v. 4), and in the Letter
to the Hebrews, where, again, Christ is identified as a priest like him, and
the letter expands on that: Christ, like
Melchizedek, is designated a priest by God, and he’s without ancestry or
descendants, eternal, without beginning or end (ch. 5 and 7).
In
the context of Genesis, the focus of this little episode is on Abram—whom God
will rename Abraham 3 chapters later. In
our liturgy of Corpus Christi, however, the focus is on Melchizedek for the
obvious reasons of his presenting bread and wine and his being a priest who
blesses God’s friend Abram.
The
reading began, “In those days,” which isn’t part of the biblical text. The 1st part of Gen 14 tells how a coalition
of nomadic raiders struck several towns and carried off a lot of captives and
booty, including Abram’s nephew Lot and his people and flocks. Abram got his
own people together and chased after the raiders, defeated them, and returned
with all the goods and captives. The “kings”
of the towns that had been attacked came out to welcome back the victorious
sheik Abram—that’s “in those days.”
Commentators
on Genesis suggest that the bread and wine that Melchizedek “brought out” was a
triumph feast for Abram and his men.
Christian tradition, on the other hand, including our venerable Roman
Canon (the 1st Eucharistic Prayer), has seen in Melchizedek’s action a priestly
sacrifice, an offering of gratitude made to “God Most High” on behalf of those
whose people and goods had been recovered (“redeemed” would be a valid biblical
term in this context).
That
Christian tradition thus sees in Melchizedek a “type” of Christ, a Christ
figure. He is both a king and a priest,
and he offers bread and wine to God (at least in the Christian reading of the
passage). Moreover, as the Letter to the
Hebrews comments, he’s “king of Salem, that is, king of peace,” for that’s what
Salem means (cf. shalom), and “his
name (malki-sedek) means righteous
king” (Heb 7:2),. Both peace and
righteousness are properties that we associate with Christ, our king, who
brings us peace by reconciling us with God and sharing with us his own
righteousness or justice, his good standing, his right relationship before
God—which he did “by the blood of his cross,” by offering his body for us (cf.
1 Cor 11:24).
Unlike
almost any other character in the Old Testament, Melchizedek appears out of
nowhere, without any reference to his ancestry.
Nor are we told that he had any offspring. You know how so many genealogies there are in
the OT and how many people are identified as “the son of so-and-so, the son of
so-and-so.” But for Melchizedek there’s
just what we heard this evening: no
father, no son. Nada. Hence the references to his eternal
priesthood: “You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
The self-offering of Christ, the son of God, is eternal, tho made but
once on the altar of Calvary, because it’s offered to the eternal God by the
eternal God on behalf of sinners everywhere and at all times.
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| "You are a priest forever": stained glass in the provincial house chapel (formerly in the Salesian novitiate chapel at Newton, N.J.) |
Moreover,
when like Melchizedek, Jesus brought out bread and wine “on the night he was
handed over” (1 Cor 11:23) and told his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of
me” (v. 24), he instituted a perpetual memorial of that one sacrifice. Each time we offer the bread, become his
body, and the cup, become his blood, we offer that one eternal sacrifice of the
God-man to the eternal God. “As often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until
he comes” (11:26). The bread and wine
presented by Melchizedek the “eternal” priest of God Most High, foreshadow the
bread and wine used by Jesus at the Last Supper, and still used by Jesus the
eternal priest at every Eucharist.
And
when we disciples “proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes,” when we announce
day by day the sacrifice of his body and blood on our behalf, we announce that
he has redeemed us, won us back from the evil prince who has held us captive in
our sins, i.e., the Prince of Darkness.
This bread and wine are like the bread and wine brought out by
Melchizedek to celebrate Abram’s victory—but much better because they have become
the body and blood of our Victor King.
The Messiah, as Ps 110 says, “rules in the midst of his enemies” (v. 2).
Christ has conquered his enemies death
and death’s Dark Lord and has obtained our release from our sins. He has won that victory for us, and each
Eucharist is a reminder, a memorial, of that, and a renewal of his pledge that
thru “this wondrous Sacrament … we may pass over to the heavenly realities here
foreshadowed” (Preface II of the Holy Eucharist).
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