Alberic Jacovone OSB
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YEAR B
THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST - 18.6.06
Ex 24,3-8; Hb 9,11-15; Mk 14,12-16.22-26
Christ’s abiding presence with us
Christ’s
cup of suffering: & ours. Jesus’ last words to his apostles are: I am with you until the end of
times. they conclude His Mission Statement, to be handed to all nations. Across
the centuries, as people came to believe, Christ’s abiding presence was
expressed in many powerful & varied ways; and the most amazing presence was,
is & will be, his “real presence” in the Eucharist, which we lovingly
call: Sacrament of love & Holy Communion. Today, we celebrate the feast of
the Body & Blood of Christ, & reflect on the story of its institution at the Last Supper, taken from
Mark’s Gospel. Jesus made it possible to remain with the believers of all time
(& with us) even as we live here on earth. And the place He chose to come in
communion with us, is the action of ‘eating the bread of heaven & drinking
the cup of suffering’. Today’s Liturgy is full of reverence & gratitude:
we are urged to ‘take & eat, take & drink’, while we long with Psalm
115: ‘How can I repay the Lord, for his goodness to me?- The cup of salvation
I will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name’. Peculiar to Mark’s account
of the ‘Lord’s Supper’, is that he dwells more on the symbol of ‘blood of the covenant’ as ‘cup of suffering’. At the
time of Jesus, & even for us today, blood has special connotations: we speak
of shedding blood, sweat & tears, when we invest our whole being in a person
or a project. On tough occasions, we follow the example of Jesus, who literally
poured his life-blood on the cross so we may have life in abundance, & we
too -like Jesus- are called to pour our life out, so others (especially the
oppressed & defenceless) may have life & dignity. The logic behind this
is that Christ is our life & that we -like Him-, are called to be
life-givers
God’s
presence in the mystery of suffering. The feast of Jesus’ Body & Blood (Corpus
Christi) proclaims to us that the Eucharist gives meaning to our hurts &
suffering. Jesus himself felt the repulsion of suffering: on the very night of
his betrayal, he prayed that the cup of suffering be taken from him, though he
added: ‘not my will but yours be done’.
In the Eucharist, Jesus makes present the mystery of Calvary, namely, his suffering, death & resurrection; - & calls us to live-out this sacrifice in our own life each day. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we re-enact Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary & to it, we join our own sufferings & joys, hurts & preoccupations. Then, we bind ourselves closely to God & commit ourselves to the covenant of love which Jesus calls: ‘covenant in my blood’, & it demands that we too -in our turn- pour out our lives for the good of others. Mark has a peculiar way to stress that a strong interaction operates between Jesus’ presence among us & our response to become life-givers, for His sake. Take today’s Gospel for example: he sets in the present tense the parts of the story where we are challenged to be as committed & involved as -at Jesus’ time- were the apostles. Just think: Passover is near - the apostles ask Jesus: where do you want us to go & prepare? Jesus sends 2 apostles, saying (remember how in the same way he has sent 2 of them to find a donkey for Jesus’ march in Jerusalem as a king): go to town & a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him home & ask the owner: where is the room where our Master may eat Passover with his disciples? He will show a room upstairs: prepare everything there..... So, when it comes to the Eucharist, Jesus’ message for us today, is the same as it was for the apostles Jesus says: go into today’s society & create the circumstances where people may come to know & love & meet Jesus - put yourself out for others today - the Lord is with you.
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