No Ordinary Passover
The Solemnity Of The Most Holy Body And Blood Of Christ, B
2009-06-14
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26This was no ordinary Passover meal.
I don’t know if they realized at the time the significance of what was happening, but my guess is…they didn’t.
Certainly it all started in the typical fashion. Whenever they came together to eat, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples. But, on this night, it was a bit different.
When Jesus said, “Take it; this is my body,” there might have been a few subtle, questioning glances between His apostles gathered at the table in the upper room. “He’s never said THAT before,” they must have said to each other with only their eyes.
Then Jesus continued. “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”
The apostles, steeped in the Jewish Scriptures, realized the reference to Exodus and the Jewish ritual of the sacrifice, but His language was simple and straightforward. There was no mistaking what He could have meant: “This is MY body, this is MY blood.”
They may not have realized at that very moment, but soon after His crucifixion the following day, and His Glorious Resurrection at Easter, they would all realize that Jesus was to be the Perfect Sacrifice, the perfect offering to reconcile us with Almighty God.
And, as the New Covenant, Jesus was establishing His Real Presence – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the Eucharist.
No, this was no ordinary meal.
All the apostles knew it. They knew that Jesus was born in a little town called Bethlehem, a name that, in Hebrew, means “House of Bread.”
The apostles knew that Jesus was laid in a manger. What is a manger? It’s literally a feeding trough for animals. He was born…to be eaten.
They knew that Jesus turned water into wine and multiplied loaves of bread to feed all to satisfaction.
They heard John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God, and recalled the unblemished lamb to be slain and eaten only by those in the household of God.
And, they realized later that Jesus was the good fruit of the tree of life, that tree was His Cross of crucifixion.
All of these things, when taken separately may seem coincidental, but when viewed through a Catholic lens, paint a vivid picture of Christ’s purpose and intent for His Divine Presence in the Eucharist.
I’ll say it again. The is no ordinary meal.
And indeed, the entire Early Church knew it as well. If you don’t believe me, listen to the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. He asks, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” He went on to warn them, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”
And, if you don’t believe St. Paul, hear the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch from his letter to the Smyrnaeans in 110AD, only 80 short years after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus.
St. Ignatius tells us, “Heretics abstain from Eucharist…because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ….”
Then there’s St. Justin Martyr from 150AD. He wrote, “For we do NOT receive these things as common bread or common drink, but as Jesus Christ our Savior, being incarnate by God’s Word, took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him…is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.”
And it doesn’t stop there, the list of great saints and doctors of the Church who wrote of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist include St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John of Damascus, and hundreds, if not thousands, more. From the earliest of days, the Catholic Church has been rock solid in her teaching on the Eucharist. The Church’s teaching has not, nor ever will, change.
Even today, our Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the Coucil of Trent when it says, “In the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ, is truly really and substantially contained.” (CCC1374)
So, why the lesson in Church history? Why am I going on and on about what the Church has always taught and believed about Holy Communion?
Quite simply, the answer is…because we live in a time of spiritual crisis within the Church.
There are far too many Catholics who don’t know what the Church teaches, who don’t understand what the Church teaches, who don’t believe what the Church teaches…or, who don’t care what the Church teaches about Christ’s Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament!
What was so sure for so long, what has always been real, genuine and true, is now plagued by questions and stained by suspicion, ignorance and uncertainty.
This is so incredibly sad. In fact, this is a travesty. More and more, we live in a world of doubt. We don’t know what to believe in, what is good, and what is right. And the things we SHOULD believe in…we DON’T believe in.
Now, more than ever, we need what Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. We desperately need Him to be here, spiritually and physically in us.
In fact, this is the very reason Jesus gave us the Eucharist. This was His perfect way of being with us until the end of time, and filling each of us with His grace – with Himself – as food for our journey to Heaven, to live in glory with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus established the Church, built on the rock of St. Peter, and placed in her authoritative, but loving, care the Eucharist, the True and Living Presence of Jesus. Not something like Jesus, but the REAL Jesus…
…The same Jesus born of the Virgin Mary…
…The same Jesus who turned water into wine…
…The same Jesus who taught in the Synagogues…
…The same Jesus who ate with sinners and tax collectors…
…The same Jesus who healed the sick and raised the dead…
…The same Jesus who fed thousands with only a few loaves and fishes…
…The same Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on an ass…
…The same Jesus who died on the Cross for OUR sinfulness!
THAT SAME JESUS will be here on this altar in just a few moments as Father, acting in the person of Christ, recalls the events of that Last Supper, and makes present for us the Lord of Lords and King of Kings!
Not so long ago, I was one of those who doubted the Real Presence. More accurately, I just didn’t know any better. Because of ignorance, selfishness and a lack of faith, I never really realized what the Church was saying when she told me that Jesus was really and truly present in the Host.
When my Protestant friend at work asked me if Catholics really believed that little wafer was Jesus, I remember replying, “Of course we don’t! That’s silly!” Then this beautiful, young and smart Catholic girl next to me, poked me in the ribs and said, “Uhhh, Jeff, yes we do.” (By the way, I married that girl.)
That was over 20 years ago. And I guess a little has changed since then. OK, a lot has changed.
I prayed, I searched and I studied. But, most importantly, I opened my heart in faith. I tore down the walls of doubt, and allowed the Holy Spirit to build instead a sturdy fortress of Truth: the Truth that is revealed by God through the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I know now what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. I know now what Jesus intended when He said, “This is my body, this is my blood.” I know now where grace, strength and love come from. I know now that Jesus Christ IS present in this Sacrament.
I know now that this is no ordinary meal.
Lumen Gentium tells us that the Holy Eucharist is “the source and summit of our Christian life.” All life, all grace flows from Christ in the Eucharist, and, as the Body of Christ, we are then, in turn, drawn back in to Christ the Eucharist. It is a beautiful and never-ending cycle. And, it is the greatest of the Eternal Mysteries of Christ and His Church.
In short, if we have no Eucharist, we have no life.
Pray with me that all doubt will be erased from our hearts; that in a spirit of yearning for Truth, we realize the blessing we have in Christ’s gift of Himself in this Sacrament.
Pray that all faith communities come to know the oneness of the Body of Christ bound together in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
Pray that the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ nourish, heal, protect and sustain our world and bring it ever nearer a life of eternal bliss with our Heavenly Father.
O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine!