BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST Glenstal 3rd June, 2018.
YR B Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mk 14:12-16.22-26
The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood –
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.
A text such as this, if read out of context, can sound rather creepy.
Similarly, those who are unfamiliar with the language and images of the Scriptures, those who are not tuned into the idiom of the liturgy, may find the talk of blood in today’s readings, particularly in the first and second readings, a little morbid.
In the Semitic world, and in particular the Hebrew world, blood was synonymous with life. And so, in today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, the blood of the sacrificed animals, their life, is offered to the Lord as an image of the peoples’ own life. Sanctified by the sacrifice on the altar, this blood is then sprinkled on the people, a symbol of God’s response by offering his own life and way of life to his people. The sprinkling symbolizes and brings God’s covenant with his people and the promise of another, everlasting covenant to come.
In the letter to the Hebrews, today’s second reading, the writer explains that the sacrifices of the Old Testament, with their use of animals, were anticipatory images of the real life-giving sacrifice which is the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The efficacy of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, however limited, is not denied, and their role as pre-figurations of the one really efficacious sacrifice of Christ is acknowledged. But now, we are told, ‘(Christ) brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised…the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.’
How we have access to this amazing reality is laid out in today’s gospel. This describes what we call the Last Supper, during which Jesus, taking the bread and wine, anticipates what is to happen on the following day, the Friday we call good. He foretells his death. But he also foretells what will happen on Easter Sunday, his resurrection. And he tells us that whenever we perform this same action of taking, blessing, breaking and eating the bread and taking, blessing and drinking the wine, the power of His Spirit will make these realities present to us. The Last Supper becomes the First Supper of many which will continue until the end of time.
Those who have celebrated attentively the liturgy of the Easter Triduum, the great making-present of the Paschal Mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, may wonder why it is necessary to have a special feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, since this has already been celebrated only two months ago – and indeed is celebrated at every Mass.
Many of the Church’s feasts have their origin in historical circumstances. In the course of the centuries leading up to the thirteenth century, the practice of the faithful receiving communion at every Mass became less and less frequent. Along with this came a concentration on the Mass as primarily the action of the priest, the congregation being reduced to the status of passive onlookers rather than active participants. Increasingly, what was regarded as the moment of consecration became central, at the cost of other elements of the Mass, such as the readings, which in any case, being in Latin, were incomprehensible to most present. For almost all the faithful, seeing and adoring the elevated Host became the centre of the liturgical action. The denial by many of the Reformers in the 16th century of the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic led to an even greater emphasis in Catholic belief and practice on this concentration on the Host.
But, enough of the history lecture. What was formerly called the feast of Corpus Christi, or the feast of the Body of Christ, concentrating on adoration of Christ really present in the consecrated host, is now called the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It is a feast that reminds us as we blossom into Summer of that blossoming of life that followed Jesus’s death. It reminds us of our own blossoming, begun at our Baptism, boosted at our Confirmation and the other sacraments, all constantly fertilized, nourished, by the bread/body broken for us and the wine/blood poured out for us. It is a happy and gentle reminder that even if we might we like to think
that we are, in the words of the poet, sound, substantial flesh and blood, the fact is that,
On this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite.
Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead,
Here, instead of darkness, light.
Fr Henry OSB