Body and Blood June 15, 2009 Cycle B

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Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (B) 06-15-09Scripture ReadingsFirst

Exodus 24:3-8

Second

Hebrews 9:11-15

Gospel

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26Prepared by: Fr. Allen B. Moran, O.P.1.

Subject Matter

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Each of the readings involves the establishment of a covenant through the offering of asacrifice. Each involves a people chosen by God to live in accord with his wisdom, a peoplewhose sins are forgiven through the propitiation of the sacrifice. With Moses there was aforeshadowing of what was to come: the Law that pointed to what was true and right withoutgiving the capacity to live it and animal sacrifices that of their own have no capacity to makeatonement. The perfect sacrifice instituted by Jesus Christ and made present at each HolyMass in the Eucharist is that reconciliation between God and his chosen people.

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The re-presentation of this one sacrifice, in which the only Son of God as both priest andvictim offered himself on the Cross for our salvation and is present among us now in a realand sacramental sense in his Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine, isour true Exodus from the land of slavery to sin and gives the grace to live according to theLaw of the Spirit.2.

Exegetical Notes

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The institution of the Eucharist in the Gospel of St. Mark takes place on Passovercrowning the Gospel’s portrayal of Christ’s mission as a new Exodus. The Last Suppertakes place when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Just as the Passover lamb of Exodusis replaced by the Lamb of God, the Passover meal is transformed into the banquet of theNew Covenant.

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Moses’ splashing of half of the blood from the sacrificed bulls on the altar of presence andhalf upon the people after reading from the book of the covenant eternally binds Israel tothe LORD. Here worship and obedience cannot be separated. It is God’s initiative, andimmediately following this passage from Exodus are a meal on the mountain eaten by the12 tribes that ratifies the covenant (Exod. 24:9-11) and the giving of the tablets of the Law(Exod. 24:12-18). (Beale and Carson)

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Blood, according to Jewish thought, contained the life-breath. The blood on the altarspeaks of life as God’s gift, and the fact that the people are sprinkled with this blooddemonstrates their dependence on this gift.

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In Mk. 14:24 Jesus speaks the words, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will beshed for many.” This harkens back to the institution of the Mosaic covenant in Ex. 24:8(blood of the covenant) and the suffering servant in Isa. 53:12 (shed for many).

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The pouring out of blood in the Old Testament is used in various places to denote both aviolent and unjust death beginning with the death of Abel (Gen. 4:10; 9:6; Deut 19:10; 2Kgs. 21:16; Ps. 106:38) and an act of sacrificial atonement and sanctification (Exod.29:12; Lev. 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34).

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Through the institution narrative, in which Jesus combines the pouring out of his blood toestablish the covenant from Exod. 24:8 and the self-sacrifice for the remission of sins ofthe many in Isa. 53:12, Jesus effects the true Israel’s eschatological redemption. Hisdeath alone is efficacious. The entire covenant is reoriented around this new and eternalsacrifice. Jesus’ death constitutes the new Passover and the atonement/purificatorysacrifice of Exod. 24. (Beale and Carson)

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This sacrifice also reveals something deeper about God himself. In the self-offering ofJesus Christ, true God and true man, the Son of God obedient to the will of the Fatherlays down his life for his enemies. It is the presence of this self-offering in the Eucharisticelements that we profess and celebrate in an emphatic way in this feast.

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In Heb. 9:15, Jesus is described as “the mediator of a new covenant.” The Old Covenantis indissoluble yet fulfilled when the one mediator who is both God and man comes beforethe Father with his own blood to atone for the unfaithfulness of the human partner in thecovenant. This feast is profoundly Trinitarian since the Son of God offers himself throughthe eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), and it is the Spirit who draws believers into this one body ofChrist offering the Sacrifice and true worship. “If Jesus presents us with his eternaloffering not merely for reception but also for “doing” …is there any limit to the awesomereverence with which we must carry out this “doing” of the “eternal redemption”?” (vonBalthasar)3.

References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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CCC 1323

"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted theEucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice ofthe cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his belovedSpouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign ofunity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filledwith grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"

(SC 47)

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CCC 1364

In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. When the Churchcelebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it is made present thesacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present.

(Cf. Heb 7:25-27.)

"As oftenas the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated onthe altar, the work of our redemption is carried out."

(LG 3; cf. 1 Cor 5:7.)

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CCC 1365

Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice.the sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: "This ismy body which is given for you" and "This cup which is poured out for you is the NewCovenant in my blood."

(Lk 22:19-20.)

In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which hegave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgivenessof sins."

(Mt 26:28.)

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CCC 1367

The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice:"The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who

then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "In this divinesacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in abloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner."

(Council of Trent (1562): DS 1743; cf. Heb 9:14, 27.)

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CCC 1368

The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body ofChrist participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole andentire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist thesacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of thefaithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with histotal offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes itpossible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.

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CCC 1372

St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever morecomplete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate in the Eucharist: Thiswholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universalsacrifice by the high priest who in the form of a slave went so far as to offer himself for us inhis Passion, to make us the Body of so great a head.... Such is the sacrifice of Christians:"we who are many are one Body in Christ" the Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice inthe sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident to them that inwhat she offers she herself is offered.

(St. Augustine, De civ Dei, 10, 6: PL 41, 283; cf. Rom 12:5.)

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CCC

1373 "Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the righthand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in many ways to his Church:

(Rom 8:34;cf. LG 48.)

in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name,"

(Mt18:20.)

in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned,

(Cf. Mt 25:31-46.)

in the sacraments of which he isthe author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is present .. . most especially in the Eucharistic species."

(SC 7.)

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CCC 1377

The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration andendures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in eachof the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking ofthe bread does not divide Christ.

(Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1641.)

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CCC 1378

Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the realpresence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflectingor bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offeredand still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass,but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them tothe solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession."

(Paul VI, MF 56.)

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CCC 1380

It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Churchin this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visibleform, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself onthe cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us"to the end,"

(Jn 13:1.)

even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remainsmysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us,

(Cf. Gal 2:20.)

andhe remains under signs that express and communicate this love: The Church and the worldhave a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let usnot refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open tomaking amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration nevercease.

(John Paul II, Dominicae cenae, 3.)

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