Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This week for the feast of Corpus Christi we wanted to take a look not at a half-truth that exists in society but one that exists among Christians. Perhaps you never gave much thought to what the Church teaches concerning the Body and Blood of Christ and for this reason this feast can be a great help for us.
The half truth is that Communion is only a symbol of Christ. It is true that the Eucharist is a symbol, as all the sacraments are symbols of what Christ is doing invisibly inside the person receiving a sacrament. A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality. It is also an outward sign instituted by Jesus Christ to give grace, which helps us our daily lives.
All the sacraments are signs of what God wants to do with us spiritually and even physically. And since we are body and soul each sacrament has a physical sign that shows some kind of healing or nourishment. In baptism, water is the physical sign that God washes away original sin, and all sin when an adult is baptized. In marriage the physical sign is words: I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and honor you all the days of my life. In the Eucharist Christ gives us the signs of bread and wine. It means that he wants to nourish us, to feed us, not just our bodies but also our souls. So to say that the Eucharist or Communion is a symbol is only half true. To see the full truth let us take a look at the gospel we just read (Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26).
Mark tells us that Jesus sent two of his disciples to go and prepare a place for the Passover meal, which is the biggest Jewish celebration of the year. The Jewish feast recalls the awesome delivery of the Jewish people from the slavery of Egypt where they were for over four hundred years. Moses was sent by God to ask for his people to go to the desert to offer a sacrifice to him. Of course, Pharaoh was very opposed to this idea since the Jews were his workers and all would cease if they left. So God sent ten plagues to Egypt to help them change their mind. The final plague was the death of the firstborn child and animals in the land.
To protect the Jewish people Moses told them to slaughter a year old unblemished lamb, take the blood and put it on their door posts, and then eat the roasted lamb standing since they would soon flee. The bread was unleavened since there was no time to wait for it to rise. The angel of death passed over those homes that had the blood on the doorposts, but the firstborn sons without the blood died, including the son of the Pharaoh. As a result Pharaoh told Moses and the Jews to leave and this Exodus of thousands of people and the destruction of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea is celebrated by this Jewish feast of Passover.
This feast is extremely important even today for Jews. And the Jewish people when they celebrate this feast it is not only to remember what happened but to re-live it again. For instance, they ask at the celebration, which are done in the homes: “Is there someone here who is in the slavery of Egypt (or sin) that needs to be delivered? Then come and make Passover with us and you will be set free.” They did not just celebrate the feast but they lived it again.
This is what Jesus did the night before he died since he and his followers were very observant Jews. Jesus celebrates the Passover with all the rituals present at the time recalling the freedom from Egypt, and from all slavery. The fact that it was truly a Passover meal and not just a solemn meal to say good-bye to this apostles is a recent discovery due to the scholarship of many scholars who gave their lives to study ancient texts and show us more clearly what happened at the Last Supper.
Jesus only slightly changes the Passover celebration. When the father of the family raises the unleavened bread shown as a sign of their slavery escaping from Egypt he now says: “This is my body.” And also raising the one of the Passover cups Jesus says: “This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed for many.” He does not say this is a ‘sign’ of my blood, or of my body, but it is the real Jesus whose body and blood are now present under the appearances of bread and wine. Jesus now changes the celebration from rejoicing over the freedom from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom from the slavery of sin and death.
The Jewish people still today believe that by participating in the Passover feast they are being released from a current slavery. Perhaps a slavery to money, affections, a bad habit, whatever, but they are being released from this addiction by the power of God. We believe that in the Eucharist Christ is made present, and we actually re-live his death and resurrection. In every Eucharist Christ enters death and destroys it so that no form of death can ever kill us. This is why you ought to leave every Mass rejuvenated and happy.
Today in this feast of Corpus Christi the Church reinforces this truth that the Communion we receive is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is not a symbol. We consume the left over precious blood at each mass and reserve the consecrated hosts in the tabernacle to bring to the sick or the homebound. The Host and Precious Blood are symbols of the Exodus out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, but they are not just symbols. They are truly the Body and Blood of Christ. So what am I inviting you to do about this?
First, I hope you grow in understanding how important the Old Testament is in helping us to understand truly what Jesus did, and how God has been acting in history for thousands of years. And to have a greater appreciation of what you are receiving when you come forward. It is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
For those who cannot receive since you are not Catholic or married in the Church out of respect for Christ fold your hands over your chest and receive a blessing; please know that you have my utmost respect. Your action shows that you understand deeply what is going on here.
Second, that in understanding more deeply what is taking place here you make it a higher priority for your week. For many the best way to step forward in faith would be more regular attendance to Sunday Mass. Jesus humbled himself to die on a cross and now he humbles himself even more to take on the appearance of mere bread and wine. Jesus desires a relationship with you so much that he makes himself food for you.
Finally, that you sense more deeply what Jesus wants to do for you. Just like bread and wine are transformed into Christ Jesus wants to transform you into himself. The more we receive worthily the more we become like Christ. Food becomes us after eating it, but in the Eucharist we become like Christ. Why would anyone miss such a great opportunity?