Sunday - 2 June 2024 –Homily- Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus (Year B). Rev. Dr. Fr. Patrick SDB

 

Sunday - 2 June 2024 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus (Year B)

Mass Readings: Ex 24:3-8   Ps 115   Heb 9:11-15   Mk 14:12-16. 22-26

Key Verse to Meditate: While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body" (Mk 14:22).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus, known as the feast of "Corpus Christi" or the commemoration of the institution of the Holy Eucharist. It is a great feast honouring the most precious Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is normally celebrated on the second Sunday after the feast of Pentecost. The sacrament of the Eucharist is the greatest of the signs, the sign that puts us in communion with Jesus himself. It is truly the sign of God’s unfathomable love and his ever-abiding presence. It is this sacrament that purifies everyone, as we will hear in today's second reading, and it is also the sacrament that reflects our participation in the messianic banquet with Jesus.

The First and Second Readings:

The first reading speaks of the old covenant established by Moses, which is sealed by the blood of the covenant: "Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, 'See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words'" (Ex 24:8). Moses built an altar with twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, where the young men of Israel offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the LORD. Then, acting as the priest, Moses sprinkled the blood on the altar and the people. This old covenant is renewed and completed in the sacrifice and offering of blood by Jesus, who becomes the Priest, the altar, and the Sacrifice itself.

In the letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading that Jesus, as the high priest, obtained for us redemption by his own blood, not with the blood of goats and bulls (Heb 9:13). There is a significant difference between the blood of animals and the precious blood of Jesus. The blood of animals offered in sacrifice fulfils the ritual aspect of the sacrifice but has no power to expiate the sins of the people. However, the precious blood of Jesus, offered to God without blemish, has the power and grace to purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God (Heb 9:14). This is what St. John the Baptist reveals as Jesus comes to receive baptism from him: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn 1:29). Much earlier, to the troubled Joseph the carpenter, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and identified Jesus, the infant to be born, as the one who would save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).

The Gospel Reading: Just as in the first reading, the celebration of the old Passover that Moses instituted at the foot of Mount Sinai in the desert is paralleled by Jesus, who, in today’s Gospel, with His disciples, institutes a new covenant made with His precious Body and Blood.

We read at the beginning of today’s Gospel: "On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'" (Mk 14:12). What Jesus did was, on the day of the Jewish Passover, transition from the old covenant of the blood of animals to the institution of the new covenant made with bread and wine, signifying the Body and Blood of Jesus.

The Jewish Passover was the memorial of the Jews' passage from slavery to freedom, from the bondage of Egypt to the Promised Land. On the night when the Lord was passing through Egypt to slay the firstborn of the Egyptians, He protected the Israelites through the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts: "The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (Ex 12:13). Just as the Israelites were protected through the blood of an animal, so too, Jesus, the Lamb of God, protects the world from sin and destruction. That’s why Jesus is called the Lamb of God: 'Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" (Jn 1:29. 36). The disciples, being devout Jews, were familiar with sacrifices where animals were killed, and blood was poured out. They were people of the covenant and therefore understood the saying of John the Baptist. The disciples of John saw Jesus and understood Him as the Lamb sacrificed at Passover, now going to be sacrificed on Calvary to bring about a new freedom of living for God and living in the Spirit.

Eucharist: The source and summit of the Christian life: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1324-1327) states that "the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and oriented toward it. This sacrament unites the Christian community because in it, in the celebration of its liturgy, the faithful come together to hear the word and to relive the presence of the risen Lord among them. In this sense, we can say that the blessed Eucharist contains the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ, our Paschal Lamb. It is through this sacrament that the Church is kept alive and becomes an effective sign in the world. In the Eucharistic celebration, we also unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all. We can believe and affirm that the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith.

The Three Aspects of the Sacrament of the Eucharist:

The sacrament of the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian lives. First, in this great sacrament, we have God’s continual presence. The Christian community is continually blessed with the presence of the Eucharistic Lord. God continues to stay with his people in the form of the consecrated bread, becoming the fountain of life and the source of every other blessing. In encountering this Eucharistic Lord, we believers become partakers of the community’s divine life. God will never abandon us, his children, as taught by the apostle John (1 Jn 3:1). He will never abandon us. Jesus promised to stay with us until the end of the world (Mt 28:20). First of all, He is present with us in His word, which is always a life-giving word leading us to eternal life. Secondly, in accordance with the celebration of today’s solemnity, He is even more concretely present in the sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Secondly, this sacrament nourishes in us that divine life and sustains our faith. Jesus himself has promised that "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life" (Jn 6:54). When we deny ourselves this heavenly food, we do not possess life within us: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves" (Jn 6:53).

Thirdly, this sacrament makes us see, in the form of bread and wine, the one whom the apostles saw—Jesus, the image of the invisible God. Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, we vividly remember the post-resurrection scene at the table in Emmaus, where the risen Lord revealed his divine presence at the breaking of the bread (Lk 24:30-31). At the breaking of the bread, they were able to recognize the Lord, recalling the unforgettable Last Supper before his passion and death: "As he sat at the meal with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them" (Lk 24:30). We may not have seen Jesus of Nazareth as the apostles and others did, but in this sacrament of His Body and Blood, we do see the divine face of Jesus the Lord.

Points for Personal Reflection:

Eucharist Means: The word 'Eucharist' comes from the Greek word eucharistein meaning 'thanksgiving' (cf. CCC 1356-1372). Jesus gave thanks to God the Father at the Last Supper, at which he instituted the Eucharist, and then offered his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving once for all on the Cross. The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God the Father, expressed by the Church through Jesus Christ in the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit. It is Christ Himself, the eternal high priest (Heb 4:14) of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the priests, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. Secondly, the Eucharist is the memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection (1 Cor 11:26). Thus, the Eucharist is the source of grace, for in it, we receive Christ Himself, the Author of Life (Acts 3:15). That’s why Pope St. John Paul II said, "The Church draws her life from the Eucharist."

Eucharist - Many Deep Realities: The Eucharist is a sacrament that contains many deep realities. It helps the Church continue the incarnation of God in history. It is also the new manna that God gives to nurture His people. Above all, it is our family meal together as believers. The act of breaking bread together united the Christian community in Acts (Acts 2:42-46; 20:7). The Mass is intrinsically communal while at the same time a deeply personal experience of one's own union with Christ. In the Eucharist, we really and truly encounter the living Christ in His body, blood, soul, and divinity. That’s why St. Augustine, when he occasionally gave communion, would say, instead of “The body of Christ,” “Receive what you are.”

"Take this; this is My body”: At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood (Mt 26:26-29; Mk 14:12-16. 17-26; Lk 22:14-22; Jn 13:21-30; 1 Cor 11:23-26), which perpetuates and continues His sacrifice on the Cross throughout the ages. He entrusted to the Church the memorial of His death and resurrection in this sacrament of love, a sign of unity and a bond of charity. In every Eucharist, the priest pronounces the same words of Jesus, saying, "Take this; this is My body" and "This is My blood" (Mk 14:22-23), doing this in memory of Jesus. By these words, Jesus, in the person of the priest, tells us, "This is Me" and "Do this in memory of Me (Lk 22:19).

Explaining this Eucharistic mystery, St. John Chrysostom would say, "It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but He who was crucified for us, Christ Himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. 'This is My body,' he says. This word transforms the things offered" (cf. CCC 1375 from St. John Chrysostom).

Jesus came to earth and has stayed with us in the Eucharist. The Christ present in the Eucharist is the living Jesus, and we, the disciples of the Lord, live through Him, with Him, and in Him (Acts 17:28). Daily, Jesus calls us to the Eucharistic table, the source of every gift-spiritual, human, and material. May we continue to repeat the words of the centurion as we step forward to receive the Eucharistic Lord on our tongues: "Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed" (Mt 8:8).

Do I prepare myself to encounter Christ in the Eucharist? How do I adore the Body and Blood of Jesus in the most holy sacrament? Do I accept in faith the lasting presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? Does my Christian discipleship grow day by day through my participation in the Eucharist?

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