This Feast reminds us that the body and blood of Christ were offered as a sacrifice for us, and every time we re-enact this sacrifice, we renew his sacrifice. The multiplication of the loaves and the fishes in the Gospel prefigures the messianic banquet of fulfilment. Its miraculous bounty assures us of the abundance of that future banquet. Its miracle of multiplication prefigures the miracle of Jesus as he changed the bread and wine into his own body and blood. Jesus handed himself over as food and drink on the very night that he was handed over by others. The banquet that he prepared was a celebration of the new covenant; it was a messianic banquet of thanksgiving. This feast invites us to enter through either the past, the present or the future, for each one will lead us to the mystery that we celebrate: the mystery of the sacrifice of Christ; the mystery of the sacred bread and wine of the future; the mystery of the messianic banquet of the present.