What do we do when we come together to celebrate Eucharist?
We say, “YES!”
This Sunday’s readings highlight what it means to say yes to
relationship with God, to accept the covenant God offers God’s people. When, in Exodus, Moses brings the Ten Commandments down to the people, they say yes, twice: We will
do everything that the LORD has told us, and, All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do. Moses joins ritual action to the words
spoken, sprinking the people with the blood of a young bull; blood thus seals
the covenant between God and man.
If the blood of animals constituted effective sacrifice in
the Old Testament, how much more so the blood of Christ? This week’s Gospel presents the Words of
Institution we hear every week at Mass:
Jesus takes bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to the disciples,
then shares a cup of wine, the blood of the covenant, with them as well.
In this foundational act of our faith, Jesus broadens the meaning of
covenant, drawing the disciples – then and now – into a new covenant, a
permanent covenant with God that promises salvation to those who are called. Hebrews
tells us that it is Jesus’ blood, shed for us, that obtains our eternal redemption. It is a new covenant that offers a sufficiency the
disciples never knew was possible.
Sunday’s celebration, the Feast of the Most Holy Body and
Blood of Christ, celebrates our faith in Jesus’ real presence in the
Eucharist: God is present in the flesh,
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, in Eucharist.
This is why it is so, so important that we do our part, that we respond
to the call with a resounding YES! Our
Amen, our affirming prayers, our participation in singing a hymn (just like the disciples in the Gospel) – our YES,
in other words, tells everyone around us that we are participants in the
sharing, that we are fully invested in the action that is Eucharist, a sacrifice of thanksgiving… in the presence
of all God’s people (Psalm 116).
(The above reflection is based on notes from Fr. Pat's Thursday night Scripture class.)
No comments:
Post a Comment