The Body and Blood of Christ

June 7^th 2015. CORPUS CHRISTI: THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Gospel: Mark 14: 12-16; 22-26

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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Gospel: Mark 14: 12-16; 22-26

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, “The Master says: Where is my dining room in which I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there,’ The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.

And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Old Testament Covenant, the people were asked to observe what the Lord decreed and then to listen to it. Sometimes we need to try to obey the Lord before we understand what he is asking of us. But the Old Testament Covenant failed because humanity could not keep its side of the agreement. Only Jesus is capable of following the Father’s will, even if he doesn’t fully understand what he is being asked to do. He establishes the New Covenant in which both sides perfectly fulfil their commitment to each other. In his person he unites humanity and God. The Feast of Corpus Christi is an occasion to reflect on this communion between God and man that was so imperfect in the Old Testament. Communion with God is a lifelong process of transformation. We are called to prepare ourselves for this communion by ascending to the upper room of true intimacy with the Lord. Every Mass involves participation in this journey. We consign our sins to the God who loves us, listen to the word of God, then participate in the Eucharist, receiving the sustenance we need to live our lives as children of God.

The Old Testament involved trying to observe what the Lord decreed under pain of punishment. The people were asked to obey first and understand later.
This Sunday we celebrate Corpus Christi and reflect on the gift of the body and blood of Our Lord. In the liturgy we speak of the “new and everlasting Covenant”. In reality there were various covenants in the Old Testament, but the clearest text describing a covenant in which God and his people make commitments to each other is described in chapter 24 of Exodus. Sacred sacrifices are made and the blood is sprinkled on the people and on the altar. In reality this is a threatening ritual. It specifies what will happen if one of the parties breaks the agreement. The sprinkling of blood foreshadows the shedding of blood that will result from the transgression of the covenant. During the ritual the people say: “We will observe all that the Lord has decreed. We will listen.” The rabbinic commentary on this text observed that the observation of the decrees preceded listening to the decrees. This might seem strange. Usually we listen to what is asked of us before doing it. But it is also true that often we learn to truly listen and understand something once we have made the effort to put that thing into practice. Sometimes we have to try to be obedient first. Then we begin to enter into, understand, appreciate, that which we are being asked to do.

Jesus is the only one capable of obeying without understanding, of saying fully: “Not my will but yours be done”.
In practise, as the Old Testament abundantly shows, the people do not observe or listen to what the Lord has decreed. That is the very reason that we have need of a New Covenant in which someone radically obeys what is being asked of him, who submits to the will of the Father even if he doesn’t fully understand, someone who says, “Not my will but yours be done”. Someone who does and then understands. This is something that we are not capable of doing by ourselves. The Old Testament shows that we are not able to achieve anything of the sort. We need God to take our flesh and enter into the true Covenant with God. The new and eternal Covenant is faithfully kept on both sides because both sides are inhabited by God himself. When Jesus took on our flesh he introduced the element of eternity into the human component of the alliance. We are rendered capable of entering into the eternity of God with our flesh. The blood of the alliance is not that of goats but that of God himself. The blood of animals has no true purifying capacity for the refined inner state of the human heart. Something much greater is needed. The Lord Jesus in his body lives this communion between God and humanity. This is what makes possible the authentic fulfilment of true communion with God, and this is the meaning of the feast we celebrate on Sunday. We are called, not only to understand what God requires of us, nor simply to observe what he wants, but to be part of him and to have him as part of us.

The Eucharist is part of a lifelong process of entering into full communion with God. We must participate in the process.
God wants to make his home in us. When people go looking for a house, they look for one that is beautiful and spacious, that is well-illuminated and that has great potential. God loves to have our hearts as his home. The Gospel highlights the importance of preparing ourselves for this indwelling of God. The disciples ask where they should prepare the Passover for Jesus. The Easter event is something that we need to get ready for. Receiving Our Lord is not some sort of magic event. Indeed, we must lament the casual attitude that is very prevalent in approaching the Eucharist. There is a tendency to think that our interior state is irrelevant. Of course the Eucharist is efficacious and valid irrespective of how well we are prepared, but this doesn’t mean that our interior state should be neglected. Our welcome and our participation is of the utmost importance. We are in a never ending process of transformation and of passage towards God. We must enter into the process with our minds and our hearts.

The Eucharist is a call to enter into the upper room of encounter and communion with God. It requires us to ascend towards God, consigning our sins to him and listening to his word

The disciples head towards the city to prepare the Passover and meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. The Fathers of the Church see in this encounter a symbol of Baptism. We must pass through the waters of Baptism, through the call to divine son-ship, to the nutritional sustenance that we need to live as children of God. Then the disciples go to the upper room for the Passover. We too have need of this house which is not a simple one-storey house but has something more. We must climb to the higher level, conscious of our baptismal status as children of God, and be open to the riches that God sends our way. We are called to the upper room, to the room that in the Old Testament was prepared for the prophet Elisha, signifying the dignity that God wishes to bestow on us. We are indeed noble, beautiful and important, endowed with wonderful gifts. But we must enter into these things and climb to the upper room for the full encounter with God that is the Eucharist. Let us prepare ourselves for Easter, grounded in our identity as children of God in Baptism, ascending to the upper room to participate in the Eucharist. This is the path we must undertake in every celebration of Mass. The word of God is the point of departure for our journey, after we consign our sins to the God who loves us and wishes for our good. God wishes to dwell in our house and for us to dwell in him. We are called to this marvellous experience of intimacy at a superior level, at the highest level of our being.