06-11-2012, 09:30 AM
10 June, 2012, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
THE EUCHARIST AS THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: EXODUS 24:3-8; HEBREWS 9:11-15; MARK 14:12-16.22-26
The History of Salvation is the story of God’s love. This love was celebrated in the Incarnation when God assumed our humanity and became one of us. This love was brought to its full expression in the Paschal Mystery, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. As if not enough for God to reveal His love for us concretely in His death and resurrection, He desires that this love of His be in us. And so at Pentecost, He poured forth His love into our hearts in the Holy Spirit. This enables us not just to love our brothers and sisters but most importantly, it makes it possible for us to enter into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, sharing their love. The feast of Corpus Christi continues to make present the love of God celebrated in the paschal mystery of Christ, which leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit be forever available to us who live in history.
Accordingly, the scripture readings present to us the love of Christ for us in the shedding of His blood. This motif of blood is underscored in all the three readings. In the gospel, Jesus at the Last Supper said, “’This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many.” The letter to the Hebrews contrasts the blood of Christ shed for us to that of the blood of bullocks that Moses sprinkled over the people and towards the altar. How can the blood of Christ redeem us from our sins and reconcile us with God? Surely, it was not so much the blood itself that saves us but what it symbolizes, the full meaning of love.
In the first place, blood symbolizes life. If the Israelites were not permitted to kill or to take the life of another person or to consume blood, it is because God is the source of life of which blood is the symbol. As Jesus tells us in the gospel, no greater love can one give than to lay down one’s life for His friend. And Jesus declared that we are His friends. So the blood of the Eucharist reminds us of the total love that Christ has for us. He paid the price for our sins and died for us whilst we were still sinners so that we might have life. The greatest act of love is that of martyrdom, giving up one’s life for others so that others might live.
Blood, which is a symbol of life, is closely associated with the symbol of love. When we are willing to shed our blood, the expression of our labour and sweat and even our very life, it means that we are willing to give something of ourselves or even our entire self. To shed your blood for someone is to give your life to that person because of love. It is really an act of total giving and total love. Only love will make us give our life for another person. It is God’s love for us in Christ that caused Jesus to give of Himself even unto death for our salvation. When we love, we will not reserve anything for ourselves, just like parents who sacrifice for their children’s education and well-being; and spouses or friends who sacrifice themselves for the other.
Blood symbolizes total commitment in love. If the Bible portrays that a covenant, both the Old and the New, must be ratified in blood, it is because the death of a victim is a total commitment. One cannot die halfway. Death is a total giving of self without reservation and forever. This idea helps us to understand why when a covenant is signed with blood, it is irrevocable. To speak of the blood of the New Covenant therefore means that Jesus’ death on the cross for us symbolizes God’s total love for us for all eternity. With Christ’s shedding of His blood, God is forever committed to us. This explains why the New Covenant is an everlasting covenant because it is signed and sealed with the blood and death of God’s only begotten Son.
Blood is also a symbol of sacrifice. Offering a sacrifice is the expression of someone who wants to demonstrate his total commitment to carry out the terms of the covenant. When we love someone or something, we are willing to pay the price of whatever it takes to attain it. When there is no desire, sacrifice is lacking. The death of Christ is considered a sacrifice because for the love of humanity, Christ had to sacrifice His life and suffer the sins of men. Not only was it a sacrifice for Christ but the Father too had to sacrifice His Son on the cross. With the sacrifice of His only Son, we know that God will not reserve anything from us. In the same vein too, the Church encourages us to make sacrifices such as doing good works, penance and mortifications such as fasting for our prayers to find favour with God. The sacrifices are not needed by God. Our God is not a pagan god that needs to be appeased by our sacrifices. Rather, these are means by which we show our sincerity and commitment to our prayer requests. Through the sacrifices we offer, we open our hearts to God’s love and grace.
The symbol of blood is always that of suffering. To pour out our blood for someone because of love entails suffering. Commitment, sacrifice and dying entail suffering. So the shedding of blood means that we have to die to oneself and sometimes, not only in spirit but also in body. The blood of Jesus reminds us therefore of the sufferings of Christ for us, not just at His passion on the cross but throughout His life when He suffered persecution, hostility, rejection and pain for the love of us all. There can be no real love for another if there is only passion without suffering. True love is both passionate and passion, as it entails suffering.
Finally, blood speaks of intimate relationship. When we come from the same parents or are related biologically, we speak of blood relationship. Normally, we would think that blood relationship is the highest form of relationship since blood, as it is said, is thicker than water. Many of us are ready to die for our loved ones, our family members and relatives. Jesus, who considers us as His brothers and sisters, chose to die for us all so that we can enter the Kingdom of His Father. It is Jesus’ desire that we all belong to the family of God by being members of His body. He sees us all as His brothers and sisters, and thus was ever ready to die for us all. He wants to reconcile us with His Father.
However, it is not enough to understand the symbol of blood and therefore what Christ has done for us. We are called to be participants, not just observers, of the sacrifice of Christ. Unless we become participants, the Covenant is not yet ratified. In the Old Covenant, Moses ratified the covenant by having the blood of animals sprinkled on the people and at the altar, which represents Yahweh. In a similar manner, Christ’s sacrifice requires our cooperation and acceptance. The covenant will have no effect on us unless we ratify it by endorsing it and abiding by the agreement. That was what Moses and the Israelites did. “In answer, all the people said with one voice, ‘We will observe all the commands that the Lord has decreed.’ Moses put all the commands of the Lord 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.”
How can we be participants of the New Covenant if not by drinking the cup of this saving event? Drinking the cup is an invitation to participation. The psalmist invites us to drink the cup of salvation. “How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.” Drinking the cup is the way we share in the life of Christ. It means that we too want to share in the sacrifice of Christ by giving up our lives for the service of God and humanity and carry the cross after Him. We are now called to offer and shed our blood for others. This too would entail suffering, sacrifice and love.
Negatively, to drink the cup would require us to die to our sins. Christ our High Priest of the New Covenant achieved for us our eternal salvation through His blood on the cross. It behooves us therefore that we come to the Eucharistic celebration atoning for our sins. To receive the Eucharist without repentance is to disregard the purpose of the shedding of His blood for us for the forgiveness of sins. It is to make a mockery of what that sacrifice was meant to be, namely, for the forgiveness of sins. Today, there are many Catholics who have no qualms about receiving the Eucharist in serious sin. Many more are totally immune to the sins they have committed. The reception of the Eucharist has become more of a ritual and an external practice. If that were the case, then the blood of Christ cannot “purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.” We can receive the Eucharist, eat His body and drink His blood, but we will not be saved by this act since it is a blatant denial of the need for repentance of our sins and not truly an expression and a celebration of our union with Christ and His body, the Church. If there is no desire to live a life of holiness in Christ, drinking the cup in hypocrisy, as St Paul says, is a drinking unto our death.
Indeed, the celebration of the Eucharist must be seen as an integral part of the once-for-all sacrifice of Calvary. We cannot detach the cross from the Eucharist. For this reason, the Church is insistent on the mass being called a sacrifice and not just a meal. Both are connected, sacrifice and meal. The words of Jesus, “This is my Blood” are a clear reference to the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist. He presents Himself at the Last Supper as the true and definitive sacrifice, in which the expiation of sins takes place. We too, if we were to reap the fruits of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, must immerse ourselves in His death by dying to sins and to self as we give ourselves in love and service to God and our fellowmen.
THE EUCHARIST AS THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: EXODUS 24:3-8; HEBREWS 9:11-15; MARK 14:12-16.22-26
The History of Salvation is the story of God’s love. This love was celebrated in the Incarnation when God assumed our humanity and became one of us. This love was brought to its full expression in the Paschal Mystery, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. As if not enough for God to reveal His love for us concretely in His death and resurrection, He desires that this love of His be in us. And so at Pentecost, He poured forth His love into our hearts in the Holy Spirit. This enables us not just to love our brothers and sisters but most importantly, it makes it possible for us to enter into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, sharing their love. The feast of Corpus Christi continues to make present the love of God celebrated in the paschal mystery of Christ, which leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit be forever available to us who live in history.
Accordingly, the scripture readings present to us the love of Christ for us in the shedding of His blood. This motif of blood is underscored in all the three readings. In the gospel, Jesus at the Last Supper said, “’This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many.” The letter to the Hebrews contrasts the blood of Christ shed for us to that of the blood of bullocks that Moses sprinkled over the people and towards the altar. How can the blood of Christ redeem us from our sins and reconcile us with God? Surely, it was not so much the blood itself that saves us but what it symbolizes, the full meaning of love.
In the first place, blood symbolizes life. If the Israelites were not permitted to kill or to take the life of another person or to consume blood, it is because God is the source of life of which blood is the symbol. As Jesus tells us in the gospel, no greater love can one give than to lay down one’s life for His friend. And Jesus declared that we are His friends. So the blood of the Eucharist reminds us of the total love that Christ has for us. He paid the price for our sins and died for us whilst we were still sinners so that we might have life. The greatest act of love is that of martyrdom, giving up one’s life for others so that others might live.
Blood, which is a symbol of life, is closely associated with the symbol of love. When we are willing to shed our blood, the expression of our labour and sweat and even our very life, it means that we are willing to give something of ourselves or even our entire self. To shed your blood for someone is to give your life to that person because of love. It is really an act of total giving and total love. Only love will make us give our life for another person. It is God’s love for us in Christ that caused Jesus to give of Himself even unto death for our salvation. When we love, we will not reserve anything for ourselves, just like parents who sacrifice for their children’s education and well-being; and spouses or friends who sacrifice themselves for the other.
Blood symbolizes total commitment in love. If the Bible portrays that a covenant, both the Old and the New, must be ratified in blood, it is because the death of a victim is a total commitment. One cannot die halfway. Death is a total giving of self without reservation and forever. This idea helps us to understand why when a covenant is signed with blood, it is irrevocable. To speak of the blood of the New Covenant therefore means that Jesus’ death on the cross for us symbolizes God’s total love for us for all eternity. With Christ’s shedding of His blood, God is forever committed to us. This explains why the New Covenant is an everlasting covenant because it is signed and sealed with the blood and death of God’s only begotten Son.
Blood is also a symbol of sacrifice. Offering a sacrifice is the expression of someone who wants to demonstrate his total commitment to carry out the terms of the covenant. When we love someone or something, we are willing to pay the price of whatever it takes to attain it. When there is no desire, sacrifice is lacking. The death of Christ is considered a sacrifice because for the love of humanity, Christ had to sacrifice His life and suffer the sins of men. Not only was it a sacrifice for Christ but the Father too had to sacrifice His Son on the cross. With the sacrifice of His only Son, we know that God will not reserve anything from us. In the same vein too, the Church encourages us to make sacrifices such as doing good works, penance and mortifications such as fasting for our prayers to find favour with God. The sacrifices are not needed by God. Our God is not a pagan god that needs to be appeased by our sacrifices. Rather, these are means by which we show our sincerity and commitment to our prayer requests. Through the sacrifices we offer, we open our hearts to God’s love and grace.
The symbol of blood is always that of suffering. To pour out our blood for someone because of love entails suffering. Commitment, sacrifice and dying entail suffering. So the shedding of blood means that we have to die to oneself and sometimes, not only in spirit but also in body. The blood of Jesus reminds us therefore of the sufferings of Christ for us, not just at His passion on the cross but throughout His life when He suffered persecution, hostility, rejection and pain for the love of us all. There can be no real love for another if there is only passion without suffering. True love is both passionate and passion, as it entails suffering.
Finally, blood speaks of intimate relationship. When we come from the same parents or are related biologically, we speak of blood relationship. Normally, we would think that blood relationship is the highest form of relationship since blood, as it is said, is thicker than water. Many of us are ready to die for our loved ones, our family members and relatives. Jesus, who considers us as His brothers and sisters, chose to die for us all so that we can enter the Kingdom of His Father. It is Jesus’ desire that we all belong to the family of God by being members of His body. He sees us all as His brothers and sisters, and thus was ever ready to die for us all. He wants to reconcile us with His Father.
However, it is not enough to understand the symbol of blood and therefore what Christ has done for us. We are called to be participants, not just observers, of the sacrifice of Christ. Unless we become participants, the Covenant is not yet ratified. In the Old Covenant, Moses ratified the covenant by having the blood of animals sprinkled on the people and at the altar, which represents Yahweh. In a similar manner, Christ’s sacrifice requires our cooperation and acceptance. The covenant will have no effect on us unless we ratify it by endorsing it and abiding by the agreement. That was what Moses and the Israelites did. “In answer, all the people said with one voice, ‘We will observe all the commands that the Lord has decreed.’ Moses put all the commands of the Lord 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.”
How can we be participants of the New Covenant if not by drinking the cup of this saving event? Drinking the cup is an invitation to participation. The psalmist invites us to drink the cup of salvation. “How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.” Drinking the cup is the way we share in the life of Christ. It means that we too want to share in the sacrifice of Christ by giving up our lives for the service of God and humanity and carry the cross after Him. We are now called to offer and shed our blood for others. This too would entail suffering, sacrifice and love.
Negatively, to drink the cup would require us to die to our sins. Christ our High Priest of the New Covenant achieved for us our eternal salvation through His blood on the cross. It behooves us therefore that we come to the Eucharistic celebration atoning for our sins. To receive the Eucharist without repentance is to disregard the purpose of the shedding of His blood for us for the forgiveness of sins. It is to make a mockery of what that sacrifice was meant to be, namely, for the forgiveness of sins. Today, there are many Catholics who have no qualms about receiving the Eucharist in serious sin. Many more are totally immune to the sins they have committed. The reception of the Eucharist has become more of a ritual and an external practice. If that were the case, then the blood of Christ cannot “purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.” We can receive the Eucharist, eat His body and drink His blood, but we will not be saved by this act since it is a blatant denial of the need for repentance of our sins and not truly an expression and a celebration of our union with Christ and His body, the Church. If there is no desire to live a life of holiness in Christ, drinking the cup in hypocrisy, as St Paul says, is a drinking unto our death.
Indeed, the celebration of the Eucharist must be seen as an integral part of the once-for-all sacrifice of Calvary. We cannot detach the cross from the Eucharist. For this reason, the Church is insistent on the mass being called a sacrifice and not just a meal. Both are connected, sacrifice and meal. The words of Jesus, “This is my Blood” are a clear reference to the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist. He presents Himself at the Last Supper as the true and definitive sacrifice, in which the expiation of sins takes place. We too, if we were to reap the fruits of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, must immerse ourselves in His death by dying to sins and to self as we give ourselves in love and service to God and our fellowmen.