Corpus Christi, June 7, 2015

(Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26)

The Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord flows naturally from
the Easter (baptismal) season, and Pentecost with its gifts of the Holy
Spirit. The Eucharistic gathering for the breaking of Bread, as it was
called in the early days of the Church, was among the earliest rituals of
the Christian movement. As they gathered in memory of Jesus, they
began to realize the transforming power of this most basic of human
celebrations, gathering together to eat.
In imitation of the Israelites, who announced We will do
everything the Lord had told us, after receiving the Law from Moses,
the early Christians commemorated what the Lord Jesus had given
them on the night before he died. The bizarre ritual described in
Exodus with the people being sprinkled with the blood after hearing
the book of the covenant being read, indicated their commitment to
their promise. They were saying by this action, in effect: May what
happened to these bulls and worse happen to us, if we do not keep this
covenant. The sprinkling on the altar bound the Lord to remain their
God, thereby symbolizing that both parties were bound to the covenant
that was established between Israel and the Lord.
In Exodus the leaders also ate a sacrificial meal in the presence of
the Lord to celebrate the covenant which seals the deal in many of
the ancient covenant rituals in the ancient Near East. Whether this
meal aspect of the covenant was known by Jesus (and/or Mark) is not
known but it certainly adds an Old Testament element to the
sacrificial nature of what Jesus does at the Passover meal with his
disciples.
The Letter to the Hebrews continues to use sacrificial language
but connects it with the blood of Christ Jesus. Modelled on Jewish
patterns of worship and the structure of worship, Christ Jesus is
presented as the high priest of the good things that have come to be.
The ancient high priest could enter the inner tabernacle only once a

year. The more perfect tabernacle to which the author refers is the
heavenly realm, which is not made by human hands. By means of this
passing through, the perfect high priest Jesus cleanses us from sin,
offering us eternal redemption, which enables us to worship the
living God.
Because blood carried the life principal of a being (human or
animal), blood was to be avoided at all costs. The high priest of
Judaism offered the blood of bulls and goats in the sanctuary. In
contrast,
Christ offered his own blood once for all, thereby entering
into the true sanctuary of Gods own holiness. We note that Christs
redemption cleanses our consciences from dead works to worship the
living God. This means the one who believes that he/she is redeemed
from sin by Christ forever after possesses a clear conscience and no
longer has to worry about doing this or that to make up for sins. Christ
did that once for all by shedding his blood. This becomes a central
focus therefore of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Catholic who scurries away from the cup because it
represents some new thing into the Mass misses altogether the
reason the precious blood of Christ was restored to the Eucharist. It
was done not only to present a fuller symbol of the sacrament of the
Body and Blood of Christ, but to impress upon us all, the nature of our
belief in Christs redemption. Pity the poor folks who refuse to
acknowledge this as they hurry by the cup without at least pausing to
acknowledge that the cup contains the very means of our redemption.
Fr. Lawrence Hummer