Road to Emmaus The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Jun 10, 2009

First Reading – Ex. 24:3-8

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18

Second Reading – Heb. 9:11-15

Gospel Reading – Mk. 14:12-16, 22-26

 

 

This the truth each Christian learns,

Bread into his flesh he turns,

To his precious blood the wine…

 

Blood is poured and flesh is broken,

Yet in either wondrous token

Christ entire we know to be.” (Corpus Christi Sequence, Lauda Sion)

 

This Sunday we celebrate the beautiful Solemnity of Corpus Christi, known in the United States as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The above quote from the Sequence, Lauda Sion, tells us essentially what this Solemnity is about; reflecting what took place in the wondrous event narrated in the Gospel reading from Mark for this Sunday, namely the institution of the Eucharist.

 

In 2006, during his homily for this very Solemnity, in speaking of the Gospel narrative, Pope Benedict XVI said, “The entire history of God with humanity is recapitulated in these words. The past alone is not only referred to and interpreted, but the future is anticipated - the coming of the Kingdom of God into the world. What Jesus says are not simply words. What he says is an event, the central event of the history of the world and of our personal lives. These words are inexhaustible… Jesus, as a sign of his presence, chose bread and wine. With each one of the two signs he gives himself completely, not only in part. The Risen One is not divided. He is a person who, through signs, comes near to us and unites himself to us.”

 

In commenting on the readings for this Sunday there is so much that could be said, but I would like to focus in particular on the relationship between the reading from Exodus and the Gospel from Mark.

 

Exodus 24 in context

 

The reading from Exodus is taken from chapter 24. Prior to this, God raised up Moses to lead his people out of 400 years of Egyptian bondage. In chapter 12 the people prepare for the final plague through the celebration of the first Passover. In chapter 14 they triumphantly cross the Red Sea. In chapter 15-18 they make a three month journey down to Mt. Sinai.

 

(Column continues below)

At Mt. Sinai, God summons Moses to the top of the mountain and in chapter 20 gives Moses the Decalogue as well as others laws. In chapter 24 Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai do deliver the law to the people.

 

Moses tells the people of the laws and ordinances of the Lord, and twice in Exodus 24 the people respond, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient” (vv. 3c, 7b).

 

Moses responds during this covenant making liturgy by taking the blood of the sacrifice, throwing it own the people and saying, “Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (24:8).

 

Jesus, new Moses, new blood of the covenant

 

As we have had opportunity to see on other occasions in the Gospel of Mark, during Year B’s cycle of readings, Jesus is being depicted as a new and greater Moses. (cf. Road to Emmaus, 4^th & 7^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2^nd Sunday of Lent). This theme continues in Mark’s narration of the institution of the Eucharist.

 

This is clear by virtue of the mention and significance of Jesus instituting the Eucharist during the Feast of Passover. It is this Passover that Jesus “earnestly desired to eat” with the Apostles (Luke 22:15). Of course, Moses was the one who instituted the Feast of Passover to begin with.

 

Another indicator of the connection with Jesus and Moses is that the exact same language is employed by Moses and Jesus during a covenant making liturgy. Moses says, “Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:8). Jesus says, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

 

One crucial difference is that Moses sprinkled the blood of bulls and goats. Jesus gives the Apostles his own blood. The second reading from this Sunday, the Letter to the Hebrews, picks up on this important dissimilarity. Hebrews states the consequences of this difference for us: “For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ…purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:13-14).

 

This leads us to another crucial difference, namely Moses merely sprinkles the blood on the people; Jesus gives his blood so that it goes in the people who receive it. “And he took a chalice, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it” (Mark 14:23). This is a profound difference between the covenant at Sinai and the new covenant Jesus establishes. Christ desires that we receive nothing less than the fullness of his divinity and the fullness of his humanity in the sacrament of sacraments of the new covenant, the Most Holy Eucharist.

 

The response of the people

 

Now we are led to a consideration of the response of the people in Exodus 24, and what our response should be to receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.

 

As mentioned above the people responded to Moses, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient” (vv. 3c, 7b). This is a beautiful and proper response. However, we later find out that their response was mere words. Their actions will betray their words. Moses will proceed to go back up Mt. Sinai for another 40 days and nights. Before these days and nights have come to completion the people gathered at the foot of the mountain commit a most grievous sin against the God whom they have just come into a new covenant relationship with. The one to whom they have sworn to be obedient. They commit the sin of the worship of the golden bull in Exodus 32.

 

What about our response to the words of Christ, and the pouring forth of his blood into our hearts, minds, bodies and souls? By virtue of our baptismal consecration we have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” By virtue of our anointing at Confirmation we have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” By virtue of the reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation we have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” By virtue of the reception of the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick we have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” Those who have received the sacrament of Matrimony have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” Those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.”

 

Finally, every time during Mass we pray the “Great Amen” in response to Christ’s words, “This is the blood of the new covenant,” and respond “amen” to the words “The body of Christ, the blood of Christ,” we have said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do…and we will be obedient.” This is essentially what “amen” means.

 

We have not been sprinkled with the blood of bulls and goats, but have received into ourselves the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. Should we commit our own worship of a golden calf the consequences will be far greater than they ever were for the Israelites in Exodus 32 and following.

 

Making a comparison between the good and the bad who receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, Lauda Sion says:

 

Bad and good the feast are sharing,

Of what divers dooms preparing,

      Endless death, or endless life.

 

Life to these, to those damnation,

See how like participation

is with unlike issues rife.

 

However, even though we should be concerned about the consequences of eternal damnation, we should far more be concerned about offending our God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to come down from heaven to earth, to step down into the muck and mire of human existence, to die for us, offering his divine Body and Blood so that we might be saved by receiving that Body and Blood spiritually and physically.

 

Let us conclude with the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “Let us listen to his (Jesus’) voice repeat, as we read in the Book of Revelation, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me’ (Revelation 3:20). The Feast of Corpus Christi wants to make the Lord's knocking audible, despite the hardness of our interior hearing. Jesus knocks at the door of our heart and asks to enter not only for the space of a day but forever. Let us welcome him joyfully, raising to him with one voice the invocation of the Liturgy: ‘Very bread, Good Shepherd, tend us, / Jesu, of your love befriend us.... /You who all things can and know, /who on earth such food bestow, / grant us with your saints, though lowest, / where the heav'nly feast you show, / fellow heirs and guests to be.’ Amen!” (Homily, 2007 Solemnity of Corpus Christi).