June 6, 2021

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year B)

After all the celebrations and feast days of this Easter season it may seem as if we are going backward in time with a Gospel reading about the Last Supper. But there is a very important reason for this as we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ and its meaning for the covenant established by Jesus for the salvation of the world.

By looking at the First Reading for today we can find one of the foundations for the meaning of this feast. The event in this passage from the book of Exodus (Exodus 24:3-8) occurs following the release of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt by God with the help of Moses. After a three-month journey in the wilderness, the Israelites have arrived at Mount Sinai where they are offered a special covenantal relationship with God. Here they must agree to stipulations which will make them a holy nation worthy of residence in the Promised Land. After several sets of laws attached to this covenant, including the Ten Commandments, are dictated by God to Moses (Exodus 20-24), the Israelites swear an oath and pledge obedience, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” (Exod. 24:3b).

After the agreement has been made, a ceremony takes place to ratify the covenant. Moses builds an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel and has two young bulls sacrificed. Then he takes the blood and sprinkles half of it on the new altar, representing God (Exod. 24:1-7) and the other half on the people, saying: “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.” (Exod. 24:8).

This sacrifice that Moses makes on behalf of the people reflects a common tradition during the time of the ancient Israelites. In general, the ratification of a covenant, or solemn agreement with God, included the sacrifice of an animal and the sprinkling of its blood. A similar ritual was also performed for other types of sacrifices, such as those for atonement on the day of Yom Kippur. This was because the blood represented the very life force of the animal. Thus, offering its blood meant presenting the life of the animal to God as a substitute for the lives of the people in order to sanctify them.

In today’s Gospel (Mk. 14:12-16, 22-26), Jesus and his disciples are celebrating Passover, a feast reminiscent of the Exodus and the ritual sacrifice of lambs whose blood spared them from death in Egypt. During this celebration, the lambs would be sacrificed by the priests in the Temple, the blood would be poured out as a sacrificial offering and the people would then eat the lamb at the Passover meal.

Here it is important to emphasize that the Passover was not completed by the death of the lamb, but by eating the flesh of the sacrifice as at the time of the first exodus. In this way, for the Jewish people at the time of Jesus, this feast became more than a mere remembrance of the first exodus, but a way of participating in the deliverance that had been won for their ancestors by God.

Another part of the Passover feast, continued by Jews today as a Seder meal, was the retelling of the events of the Exodus by the father or other leader of the family. This was another way that the event could be experienced in the present moment by those celebrating. But at his final Passover on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus did something different. Instead of describing the past Exodus, Jesus spoke of his future suffering and death to his disciples as a way of bringing meaning to the crucifixion which was about to take place on Good Friday.

Here Jesus performed the actions and said the words that are familiar to us from the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass: “While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.’” (Mk. 14:22-24).

In place of the blood of the Passover lamb that was shed at the time of the Exodus and the flesh that was eaten along with unleavened bread, Jesus substitutes the bread and wine as his own body and blood which will be sacrificed on the cross and as such inaugurate a new Exodus for his disciples and all others who consume his body and blood. This new Exodus is not just an escape from slavery in Egypt like the first time, but rather it is a liberation from the sinful condition of humanity.

Moreover, when Jesus performs these actions and speaks of the blood of the covenant which will be shed for many, he also recalls Moses’ sprinkling of the blood on God’s altar and on the Israelites in the ratification ceremony on Mount Sinai. But unlike the covenant on Mount Sinai, which was eventually broken, Jesus establishes a new covenant with his disciples, and all who come to believe and accept the laws of God into their minds and hearts, so that they will receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews in the Second Reading for today explains how this happens (Heb. 9:11-15). He describes Jesus as a great high priest, much like those of the Temple in his day who offered sacrifices for the people of Israel. But in contrast to these priests, Jesus enters a “greater and more perfect tabernacle” (Heb. 9:11b), which is God’s realm in heaven. The author further explains, “For if the blood of goats and bulls can sanctify those who are defiled how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason, he is mediator of a new covenant. (Heb. 9:13-15).

This is the reason we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Israelites made covenants and performed sin offerings with the lives of animals, but these did not change their interior dispositions nor their capacity for sin. A much greater power was needed, one not of human origins but of the divine essence of God in the person of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross was the only one worthy enough to bring about the reconciliation and redemption of humanity in a fallen world.

As Christians every time we attend Mass and receive the Eucharist, we receive a share in this redemption offered by Christ. For just like the Passover celebration, the recitation of the words of the institution of the Eucharist is not just a mere remembrance of what Jesus did at the Last Supper. Rather, it is a celebration which makes present for us everything that happened with the disciples on that evening over two thousand years ago. For consuming the body of Christ, the flesh of the new Passover lamb and sharing in the sacrifice of his blood offers us a share in the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus and effects a change in our hearts that can fully redeem us.