Sunday 2nd of June 2024 - Corpus Christi

Exodus 24:3-8/ Psalm 115(116)/ Hebrews 9:11-15/ Mark 14:12-16,22-26

Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, a day to call to mind the wonder of the Eucharist, the gift of himself given to us by Jesus. The very heart of Christian belief that the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life’. The readings of today concern blood, representing life, new life, and eternal life. They concern priestly ceremony, redemption and the replacing of the old covenant with the new.

In the first reading Moses, acting as high priest, carried out the blood rituals that set the seal upon the law of God now written down. The sprinkling of blood on the altar and on the people sounds rather grotesque to us these days until we understand that the sacrificial blood signifies life, life that is given by God and therefore sacred. The psalm continues the theme hinting at the Eucharist to come by the raising of the sacrificial cup. The extract from the letter of Paul to the Hebrews explains that Jesus has taken the place of the High Priest and has used his own blood to bring about the salvation of the world. Through the blood of Christ, the sins that have broken the covenant with God have been cancelled out. The sacrificial blood spilt by the death of Jesus has brought life to the world and through his resurrection we can all be brought through death to an everlasting life. The sacrament that shows God’s love for us and will endure until the promised return of Jesus.

The everlasting life that has been won for us is the eternal heavenly banquet initiated by Jesus at the last supper. The Gospel today recounts how this occurred and started what is the oldest and most documented tradition in Christianity. By the year 50AD the eucharistic celebration that we would recognise as the celebration of Mass was firmly established within Christianity. The feast of Corpus Christi unites us as Christians throughout the world and down the ages.

The Gospel presents us with the short and simple formula that we find at Mass in a cathedral, parish church or the humblest of chapels. It brings us into the moment that the risen Jesus, who died for our salvation, becomes truly present to us in our time and place. In the Mass we come as close as it is possible to be, whilst still on earth, to the eternal heavenly banquet hosted by Jesus. This is why the Mass, the celebration of the Eucharist, is so important for us, why it is described as the source and summit of our faith. Without the Mass, as we found out so markedly during the COVID crisis, we are missing that essential link with the heavenly banquet and the memorial of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Liturgies of the word and of communion cannot be substitutes for living in the moment in the way it was instituted by Jesus at the last supper. We are a community of the Eucharist and only the Mass can fulfil the directive given to us by Jesus.

The importance of the communal celebration of the Sunday Mass cannot be diminished. We have a duty to partake in it and we need priests as celebrants. There is no substitute for the Mass. Jesus purposefully superseded the Passover celebration with the institution of the Eucharistic celebration because of its power of deliverance, the salvation it brings, and the life-giving properties only his body and blood can bring to a fallen world. It is a remarkable fact that the will of God to bring salvation to the world was achieved not even despite the treachery of human sin but because of it. It is human sin that brings Jesus to his death on the cross, leading to his resurrection, his promise to return, and his institution of his Body and Blood as spiritual substance until he returns.

O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption.

God Bless Brendan.