This Week: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus (Corpus Christi).
22 And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. 'Take it,' he said, 'this is my body.'
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them, and all drank from it,
24 and he said to them, 'This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many.
25 In truth I tell you, I shall never drink wine any more until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.'
26 After the psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.
12 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?'
13 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,
14 and say to the owner of the house which he enters, "The Master says: Where is the room for me to eat thePassover with my disciples?"
15 He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.'
16 The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.
All of today’s readings are set in the context of the Passover. The First Reading recalls the old covenant celebrated at Sinai following the first Passover and the exodus.
In sprinkling the blood of the covenant on the Israelites, Moses was symbolizing God’s desire in this covenant to make them His family, His “blood” relations.
Quoting Moses’ words in today’s Gospel, Jesus elevates and transforms this covenant symbol to an extraordinary reality. In the new covenant made in the blood of Christ, we truly become one with His body and blood.
The first covenant made with Moses and Israel at Sinai was but a shadow of this new and greater covenant made by Christ with all humankind in that upper room (see Hebrews 10:1).
The Passover that Jesus celebrates with His 12 apostles “actualizes,” makes real, what could only be symbolized by Moses’ sacrifice at the altar with 12 pillars. What Jesus does today is establish His Church as the new Israel, and His Eucharist as the new worship of the living God.
In offering himself to God through the Spirit, Jesus delivered Israel from the transgressions of the first covenant. And, as we hear in today’s Epistle, by His blood He purified us, and made us capable of true worship.
God does not want dead works or animal sacrifices. He wants our own flesh and blood, our own lives, consecrated to Him, offered as a living sacrifice. This is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that we sing of in today’s Psalm. This is the Eucharist.
What we do in memory of Him is to pledge our lives to Him, to renew our promise to live by the words of His covenant and to be His servants.
There is no other return we can offer to Him for the eternal inheritance He has won for us. So let us approach the altar, calling upon His name in thanksgiving, taking up the cup of salvation.
The blood offering, as the seal of the Covenant, tied the chosen people more publicly and more firmly to God. We for whom Christ has shed his blood have been bought at a price that infinitely surpasses any ever paid; we belong to him, we are no longer our own and must from now on live for him (cf. Fourth Eucharistic Prayer). A sign of our loyalty to Christ is to "do everything the Lord has told us", like the people at Sinai (First Reading; cf. John 15:10), with the difference that the blood he has already shed for us sustains us so we can be faithful to that promise.
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