THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
Scripture:
1st Reading- Genesis 14:18-20
2nd Reading- 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel- Luke 9:11b-17
This Solemnity today should touch each of us very deeply. Today is a day that the Father’s love for us is exemplified through Jesus Christ. Today is a day where we are reminded of what happens at every Mass throughout the world. Just as real as Jesus at the Last Supper, the priest, in our case, Father Rick, stands in “Persona Christi” in the person of Christ, consecrating and bringing life to all of us through Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist.
I know this is nothing new for us, that we believe that this is not bread and wine but for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ. But do we really understand the consequences of our belief and do we experience it?
We just heard in Luke’s gospel about the feeding of the 5,000, a miracle so important it is the only miracle performed by Jesus that is told in each of the 4 gospels. From the Old Testament we heard, both in the reading and the psalm, about Melchizedek, and from the New Testament in Paul’s letter we heard about the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist.
In Fact, as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is one of the earliest written, and was written well before the gospels, so we have in today’s readings the earliest quotation of Jesus in the bible, “This is my body that is for you, do this in remembrance of me”. And I think this line which we hear in every Mass during the consecration is where I should start.
We all know the meaning of the word Memorial or Memory. If you looked it up in the dictionary it would say something like “the power of retaining and recalling past experience”. We can remember special things: your first school, your first bike, your first dance, your first kiss, your wedding day, and for some like Father Rick and myself, our ordination day. And something as special as our First Communion must be remembered, but memorial or memory is not what Paul wrote, but it is how it has been translated into English.
What Paul wrote is even more special than memory. Paul used the word “Anamnesis”. These are things you know, that you have always known, that are true and have been and will be true for all eternity. The problem is you can’t remember them. A good teacher can help you remember these eternal truths. And this remembering an eternal truth that you think you didn’t know is Anamnesis.
So, when we here the words “Do this in memory of me” Jesus is saying; know me in the past, know me now, in the future, for all eternity. In a few minutes time as we witness bread and wine become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not watching a re-enactment of the Last Supper with Father Rick pretending to be Jesus Christ.
We are actually there, all of us. Father Rick, in “Persona Christi” is Jesus at the Last Supper and we all stand with the disciples ready to receive our Lord’s body and blood. We are also at the foot of the cross, watching His sacrifice as he gives himself for us all. And we are with Him in heaven at the end of time when He welcomes us to his banquet. All these things are known, are experienced, are remembered from across time, because they are eternal.
If we think about this moment of Anamnesis, the Last Supper and Jesus’ death on the cross, we see Jesus in two roles. First, as the priest at the Last Supper taking the bread and wine and giving thanks for them, and also as the priest during his passion as he offers his life for us. It isn’t taken from Him but offered as a once and for all sacrifice for us.
We also see Jesus in both events as the sacrifice, in the place of the Passover Lamb; His life offered to God the Father for our sins. On the cross we see his life offered up and in the Last Supper, our Eucharist, we see it offered to us.
This twin role of Priest and Sacrifice can be difficult for us to understand. But it was almost impossible for the early Christian theologians to understand. The problem was Jesus was from the line of David, and therefore from the line of Kings, so he could be accepted as the King of the Jews. But, He wasn’t from the line of Aaron, the tribe of Levi, and therefore was not a priest.
If He was not a priest how could he offer sacrifice to God. And this is why Malchizedek is important today. Malchizedek lived at the time of Abraham before the Isaac, before Jacob, before the founding of the 12 tribes of Israel, and before God, through Moses, gave the priestly duties to Aaron and the tribe of Levi.
Malchizedek, as we heard today, was both King of Salem, the original name for Jerusalem, and a priest of God most high. So, as today’s psalm tells us, Jesus was “a priest for ever, a priest like Malchizedek of old” and therefore able to offer his sacrifice for us.
Jesus, in our gospel today, gives a simple message that he taught the disciples and one we have the privilege of learning from today. Jesus had just spent the afternoon with a huge crowd of people, healing and teaching them. As the disciples realized it was getting close to evening darkness, they realized that the people would start getting hungry.
The disciples didn’t believe that they had enough food to help, so they asked Jesus to send the crowd away. Maybe they were hoping that someone else would take on this problem. Then, Jesus shows them that no matter how small what they have to offer is, when offered in the service of God, it can be used to solve huge problems.
Five loaves and two small fish are used to feed 5,000 people. We all have gifts, and even if we think they are small and of little value, if we offer these gifts to God, what would he do with them. The point is not really knowing what God will do with these gifts. The point is we first must offer them.
Our readings today are particularly packed and rich. I hope that they will add some richness to your experience of the Eucharist and some challenges to your Christian life. In a few minutes we will stand in the presence of our Lord, his body and blood offered to us in total loving sacrifice. When we leave from this Mass and every Mass, no matter where we find ourselves, we accept that gift, the source of our Christian existence, and we take the strength of Jesus in us to face the world bringing the gospel message with us to enrich lives.
Are we up to the challenge, are we up to the sacrifices needed to spread the Good News? With Jesus’ body and blood in us as our strength, the answer definitely is yes. It is not for us to wonder what God will use all this for, however, He always shows us.
We will never have a chance unless we accept the offering from our King and High Priest, Jesus Christ, by receiving Him in the Eucharist, his ultimate sacrifice and thereby joining the sacrifice of ourselves with him to God the Most High in thanksgiving and praise.