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The Lord be with you.

A reading from the Holy Gospel has written to us by Luke.

Jesus spoke to the crowds about the reign of God

and he healed those who needed to be healed. As the day was drawing to a close, the 12 approached him and they said dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodgings and provisions.

We are here in a deserted place.

He said to them,

Give them some food yourselves.

But they replied, five loaves and two fish are all we have.

Unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.

Now the men there numbered about 5,000.

And he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of 50. They did so and made them all sit down.

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven.

Jesus said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to the disciples to sat before the crowd.

They all ate and they were all satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up,

they filled 12 wicker baskets.

This is good news from the Lord. Well, the body of Christ is one of those words that has so many levels of meaning.

And we'll just skim the surface as we look at that.

The first one is noted in that first obscure reading where this character named Melkizadak appears out of nowhere.

Have any of you ever met anybody named Mel Kizadak?

No.

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