Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
First Reading
Exodus 24,3-8
Moses went and told the people all Yahweh's words and all the laws, and all the people answered with one voice, 'All the words Yahweh has spoken we will carry out!' Moses put all Yahweh's words into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent certain young Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks to Yahweh as communion sacrifices. Moses then took half the blood and put it into basins, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey.' Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has made with you, entailing all these stipulations.'
Second Reading
Hebrews 9,11-15
But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, not made by human hands, that is, not of this created order; and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement, may restore their bodily purity. How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God. This makes him the mediator of a new covenant, so that, now that a death has occurred to redeem the sins committed under an earlier covenant, those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Mark 14,12-16.22-26
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?' So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, "The Master says: Where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?" He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.' The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover. And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. 'Take it,' he said, 'this is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, 'This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many. In truth I tell you, I shall never drink wine any more until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.' After the psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. It was established at a time in European Christianity when many doubted the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, thus emptying of its power the holy liturgy, the heart of Christian life. With this feast, the Church wanted to urge her children to discover the strong sense of the real presence of Jesus among his own also in the consecrated bread and wine. She re-proposes it every year so that we can all rediscover the concrete meaning of Jesus' love. The reading from the Gospel of Mark links this feast to its true origin, to that last supper that Jesus wanted to celebrate with his disciples before his passion. The first Christian community understood for its own life the centrality of the words Jesus said, on that supper, when he took the bread, broke it, then gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my body." Then he took the cup with the wine so that they may drink it and said and said, "This is my blood."
The words spoken by Jesus at that supper - and which the priest repeats on the altar verbatim - suggest that Jesus is not present in any way in the consecrated bread and wine. He is present as a body "broken," as a blood "poured out" for all; a body that keeps nothing for itself, a body that becomes bread and drink to nourish and quench our thirst throughout our lives; a body that is distributed generously and freely: that bread and wine cannot be bought, they have no price. It is a Body that loves and gives its life for others. It is the body of God's love, the Body of Jesus that gives itself totally, that knows no avarice, no calculation, no saving. And he teaches the disciples to love always, to give their lives for others, as he did and continues to do. That consecrated host is a scandal for us who always try to spare ourselves, for a world used to making a market of everything, for a society that does nothing for free. That host is also a lesson for the Church to be a community that lives for the salvation of others and not to preserve itself.