The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Reading I
Ex 24:3-8
When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites
to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
"This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 116:12-13,
15-16, 17-18
R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II
Heb 9:11-15
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came as high priest
of the good things that have come to be,
passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves
but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.
For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant:
since a death has taken place for deliverance
from transgressions under the first covenant,
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
Gospel
Mk 14:12-16,
22-26
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
Jesus' disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Commentary
Today’s First Reading recalls the Covenant making and the blood rite. Sacrifices (in this case communion sacrifices) bring about covenant. In response to the people’s willingness to accept Yahweh’s will, Moses writes down the stipulations. After reading the book of the covenant, he sprinkles the people with half of the blood of the slaughtered animals. For Israel, blood is life. Thus the sprinkled blood joins them to the blood splashed on the altar, which symbolizes God. A union has been made from this blood relationship. However, the terms for preserving that relationship are also spelled out. Only by living up to those terms is Israel assured of her ongoing union with Yahweh.
In the Second Reading, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews applies the categories of priestly ministry, covenant, and sanctuary ritual to the saving death of Christ. The important point of this passage is that the death of Christ is interpreted as the one really effective sacrifice that atones for the sins of humanity. The principal underlying image is the ritual of the Day of Atonement as described in Leviticus 16. But the author blends with it two other pictures. Verse 13 refers to the sacrifice of the red heifer, a sin offering, described in Numbers 19. The ashes of the heifer had the power of making holy again persons who had incurred various forms of ritual defilement. Later verses refer to the sacrificial ratification of the Sinai covenant described in Exodus 24:3-8 (First Reading). What all three of these rituals have in common is that they involve the shedding of blood and thus can be applied symbolically to the death of Jesus. Sacrificial blood is a powerful and pervasive theme in ancient Israelite worship. It could be used as a petition for the forgiveness of sin, as a means of purification, and as a way of sealing a covenant with Yahweh. In all these respects the one effective sacrifice of Christ replaces the old ritual.
Today’s Gospel Reading establishes the Passover Eucharist. The Passover meal of the Hebrews celebrated their deliverance from Egypt. As Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples begins, an unnamed (for now) and pitiable disciple is symbolically singled out as the one who will bring about Jesus’ betrayal and, ironically, the new deliverance of God’s people.
This dramatic preparation leads to Mark’s account of the first Eucharistic meal, which was as central to his Christian community’s faith then as it is to us today. Mark was faithful in passing on the early church’s tradition that the Christian Eucharist is the new Passover. Jesus’ saving death and resurrection was God’s new and perfect way of delivering all people. Mark’s Christians shared in the new covenant of Christ’s body and blood when they shared the Eucharistic bread and cup. At the same time, Mark uses the occasion of the first Eucharist to round off a special theme he has been developing in regard to the disciple’s blindness: namely that those who wish to share in Jesus’ Eucharistic cup must first choose to share fully in Jesus’ way of suffering service. They must participate actively in Jesus’ mission on earth, which involves pouring out their lives for many, and always in imitation of him.
Today’s liturgy reflects yet another of the great mysteries of our faith, the Eucharist. In its most profound reality, the Eucharist transcends every human ability to comprehend or rationally explain this gift of divine love. It is the supreme sign of fidelity that comes from a God that does not follow human logic of power and dominance but rather a God that puts himself at the service of his creation.
The Eucharist is first of all a banquet that unites all of creation into one family where God is Father and Christ is the first among many brothers and sisters. In it we remember the mystery of communion (koinonia, community) that God has made reality in the person of Christ in history (yesterday) and becomes reality today. The Eucharist is also the memorial of Christ’s one and only eternal sacrifice on Calvary that becomes present in our day. It is a sacrifice that is, above everything else, the greatest sign of God’s love for us. In and through the Eucharist we begin to get a glimpse of God’s logic that to become great we must first become the least and that we can only reach our full potential and realization by giving ourselves entirely to God and one another. If then, one of the aspects of the Eucharist is to be a banquet of unity, then the aspect of the Eucharist as sacrifice shows us how to live in this unity.
But these things only describe what the Eucharist represent and not what it truly is. In this greatest of all the Sacraments is contained all the treasure of the Church itself because in the Eucharist is Christ himself – his divinity, his humanity, his entire presence. He is there in eloquent silence to listen as we speak from the depths of our heart. Unlike we who think about what we will respond to someone who is speaking to us, or who look for fault and weakness in someone’s argument, or who try to influence the other’s thoughts with our own ideas and convictions, Jesus remains silent in the Eucharist, eloquently penetrating the depths of our soul to know us even better than we know ourselves. There is nothing for him to say out loud because in him is contained every word ever spoken by God. In him everything is revealed. In his Eucharistic silence Christ gives us the example the entire Church is to follow, that is diakonia (service). The Church must first listen to the needs of others, especially those who traditionally do not have a voice or power to have their voice heard, the poor, the weak and marginalized, the forgotten, in order to respond with faith, hope and love in the same manner of Christ. And, when we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we must be transformed, we must become Christ-like. We must see everyone through the eyes of Christ.
New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Childs, B. S., “The Book of Exodus”; Hyatt, J. P., “Exodus”; “Exodus, Sinai and Moses”; Attridge, H. W., “Hebrews”; Bruce, F. F., “The Epistle to the Hebrews”; Kingsbury, J. D., “The Christology of Mark’s Gospel”; Schweizer, E., The Good News According to Mark”; Tuckett, C. (ed.), “The Messianic Secret”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa