My dear Sisters and friends, we come once again to this great
feast of Corpus Christi—the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus.
This year we come to this celebration as
we celebrate the parish year of the National Eucharistic Revival, which calls
us to reflect on and renew our devotion to the Eucharist: both the celebration
of the Eucharist (which, according to the Second Vatican Council, is the “source
and summit” of the Christian life) and to the Real Presence of Jesus, Body, Blood,
Soul, and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament.
I’m guessing that in most parishes today clergy are preaching very animating
homilies in an attempt to further “wake up” their parishioners to these awesome
realities. Perhaps it’s presumptuous of me,
but I don’t suspect that I have to awaken a Eucharistic devotion in any of you
here. I think you all “get it”, eh? Nonetheless, there is still something to say about
this profound mystery that we celebrate. When I looked at the readings, one thing in particular
stood out to me that I thought could be the focus of our reflection. That one thing? Blood.
In the first reading, we heard how Moses declared to the
Israelites all of the “words and ordinances” that the Lord had given to him and
how the Israelites responded, promising to abide by all that the Lord had
pronounced. This was important, however,
so Moses knew that there had to be some sort of ritual that solidified this
promise between God and the Israelites: a covenant, sealed in blood. Therefore, after recording all of the “words
and ordinances” of the Lord, Moses built an altar and, with the help of certain
young men (it wouldn’t be a stretch to call them “priests”, by the way),
offered sacrifices on that altar, including young bulls, whose blood was
preserved so as to seal the covenant. Then,
after reading the “words and ordinances” of the Lord that he had recorded and
after he, again, received the assent of the people, Moses sprinkled the blood
of the bulls that were sacrificed both on the altar and on the people. In doing so, Moses sacramentalized the
offering for the people, connecting the promise that the people voiced with
their lips with the sacrifice offered on the altar, thus sealing the covenant
between God and the people.
Now imagine that I stood before you here and read to you the
commandments of God and then, after you all agreed to follow those
commandments, imagine that I sprinkled you with the blood of a bull that was
burnt up on this altar. My guess is
you’d probably remember both the commandments that were read to you as well as
your promise to keep them. /// A covenant sealed
in blood is serious business.
In the Gospel we heard St. Mark’s account of the Last Supper
in which Christ institutes the Eucharist and offers for the first time his Body
and Blood to be consumed by his followers.
In the account, we see that Christ is both priest, who mediates the
offering between God and his people, and victim, in that it is his Body that is
sacrificed and his Blood that seals the covenant. Interesting in Mark’s Gospel is that the
disciples are recorded as having drank from the cup before Christ says “This is my blood of the covenant.” I imagine that the last of the Twelve was
finishing his drink just as Christ was saying these words, and that his eyes,
and the eyes of the other eleven apostles, probably looked stunned in realizing
that something big just happened. They
knew as well as their ancestors before them that a covenant sealed in blood was
serious business.
Finally, in the second reading, we heard from the letter to
the Hebrews. In it, we hear confirmation
from the early Church that the blood that Christ poured out sealed a new and
eternal covenant and that those who have been called to enter into this
covenant are thus prepared to receive its eternal inheritance.
A covenant between God and man. The blood of a sacrifice that seals the
covenant. And a priest who mediates the
covenant. These are all to be found in
Christ. These are to be found when we
contemplate Christ’s presence among us in the Blessed Sacrament, his Most Holy
Body and Blood. ///
My dear Sisters and friends, the baptismal covenant we enter
into with God demands that we pour out our blood for the life of others: husbands
and wives for their spouses, fathers and mothers for their children, priests and
consecrated religious for the life of the Church. No matter what the vocation to which God has
called us, our consecration to God in
baptism calls us to be a source of life for others, laying our lives down
for theirs so that not one of God’s children may be lost. As a priest, I take seriously the call I have
received to lay down my life—that is, to pour out my blood—to be a mediator of
sacramental grace between God and all of you, his children.
At my ordination, Bishop Doherty handed me a paten and a
chalice with the bread and wine to be offered in the Mass and instructed me to
“receive the oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God.” I knew that what I received was more than
just bread and wine. I received also
your bodies and your blood—the sacrifices you make daily and the sufferings you
endure for the good of others and for the sake of God’s Kingdom. By virtue of my ordination, I have been
called to unite your offerings to Christ’s Body and Blood here, on this altar. It is a call for which I am continually grateful
and one which I take very seriously.
You, Sisters, also participate in this mediation between God
and men, in an analogous way. People bring
to you their needs and ask for your prayers before God. In many ways, your sacrifices are much more “bloody”
than any of ours (in a metaphorical sense).
You shed the “blood” of your penances—rising in the middle of the night
to worship God while we sleep, separating yourselves from the comforts and conveniences
of the modern world, and, most significantly, separating yourselves contact
with others outside the walls of the monastery—and you unite the intentions
that are brought to you to them so that those intentions might find favor before
God. It is humbling to me to know that
you then bring all of these here and present them to me (and to the other priests
who serve here) so that they might be united to the one perfect sacrifice of Christ:
the source and fullness of mediation
between God and men.
Dear Sisters and friends, a covenant sealed in blood is serious
business. The new covenant formed by Christ
and sealed with his Blood shed on the Cross is the most serious of them all. In baptism, we entered into this covenant with
Christ and so received the call to imitate him in shedding our blood (metaphorically
and, perhaps, literally) for the life of others. Today, as we celebrate and honor his most holy
Body and Blood—and seek to renew our devotion to it—let us be renewed in our own
vocation: for, through it, we will find Christ; and, in him, we will find the revival
that we seek.
Given
at the Monastery of the Poor Clares: Kokomo, IN – June 2nd, 2024
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