Sunday
Gospel Reflection Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
What
is Passover?
Passover celebrates when Moses freed
the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God told Moses that the Jewish people
were to mark the outside doorposts with the blood of a young lamb and to eat
the lamb with unleavened bread. They didn’t have time to add yeast and let the
bread rise because the next morning they were to flee from Egypt. During the
night the Angel of Death passed through the town and literally passed-over
(Passover) the houses where people had eaten the lamb and put blood on the
doorposts but killed the firstborn son of the houses which did not celebrate
the meal. God saved His people from slavery and this event is remembered as a
perpetual institution with Jews even till today.
Why
did Jesus choose to celebrate the Last Supper on the Feast of Passover?
Jesus
gives a new and deeper meaning to Passover by freeing us, not from the land of
Egypt as Moses did, but freeing all of His followers from sin and death; Jesus
promises us eternal life! Jesus continues the tradition of Moses by sharing
unleavened bread with His Apostles at Passover, yet curiously, Jesus did not
have a lamb on the table to eat. Instead of sacrificing a lamb to God Jesus
allows Himself to be sacrificed for us.
How
do we share in the sacrifice of Jesus so that we can enter into eternal life?
We share in the sacrifice of Jesus by
eating of the Passover meal of Jesus at the Last Supper. Jesus told us what to
do at the Last Supper: “Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he
broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’” At
the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was put to death, Jesus instituted a
ritual action using bread and wine to make Himself present with us even after
His death and resurrection, He is made present through our ritual action of
doing what Jesus did. From the earliest Christian writings we have accounts of
the followers of Jesus gathering on Sundays to break bread; they celebrated
Eucharist so that they may be strengthened by the Body and Blood of Jesus.
How
can I make sense of the Eucharist?
We receive the
Eucharist every Sunday to become what we already are, both individually and as
a community: the Body of Christ. Sometimes it is difficult to see God’s
presence within ourselves or in others; we need to see God’s presence in the
deepest part of ourselves and others with eyes of faith. Sometimes too it is
not easy to see Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist, but we are invited to take
Jesus at His word that this is my body
which was given up for us on the cross and continues to be given for us each
Sunday. We can never fully understand how bread and wine are transformed, which
is why we call the Eucharist the mystery
of faith, it is a mystery like love is a mystery. The challenge is not that
we can’t know anything about it, but that we can never fully explain it even
when it defies logic. Jesus loves and cares intimately about you, wants to be
near to you and has given us a way to nourish our bodies and souls.
Traveling for the Summer?
-Visit Masstimes.org to find a Catholic
Church in your area ANYWHERE in the world!
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