June 22, 2003
Exodus 24:3-8 + Hebrews 9:11-15 + Mark 14:12-16,22-26
The Old Testament gives us the source of our reflections today as the Church celebrates the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. With the reading from Exodus we are drawn deeper into the mystery and wonder of Covenant with God. With the images and memory of Exodus fresh in our minds, we move into the heart of this Feast to acknowledge that the Body and Blood of Christ is about Covenant first and foremost. The constant risk and challenge this annual feast puts before us is the risk of stopping short of what is revealed and failing to move through the symbols toward the truth to which they lead.
Exodus focuses on the ritual of blood and word. It is familiar to us. We do it in the place. This ritual is not about the Last Supper, Consecrated Bread and Wine, Transubstantiation, or any of those related things. The ritual of blood and word that we follow here is for the same purpose as the ritual Moses and the people of Exodus followed. It is for the sake of Covenant with God. Consecration of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is for the sake of Covenant, not for the sake of taking Holy Communion. We take Holy Communion because we are a people of the Covenant. To focus on the symbol and not go where it points is to trivialize or neglect the real revelation found in the symbols. This is a present reality. We are not re-enacting something that happened in the past. This is not an instant replay. Every year in certain historical locations, people dress up in costume and re-enact battles of the Civil war or the War of Independence. This is not like that. This is the real thing for today and for this hour.
Our times and culture day in and day out bear witness to covenants broken and disposed of. As a consequence, it is a good thing to celebrate this Feast and acknowledge what it proclaims. Unlike the oaths we take only to perjure ourselves, and the treaties we sign only to ignore when the powerful partner finds it unprofitable or inconvenient, this is Covenant, not contract, nor oath, nor treaty.
This is about relationships and identity. It is more about being than doing. Ancient peoples used a ritual of sacrifice that involved blood because of its once and for all nature. The finality of death for the victim sacrificed, and the mutual sharing of its blood made the covenant a “once and for all” – “no going back” kind of statement. Those ancient people split the victim of their sacrifice and walked together between the halves – agreeing that a similar consequence should befall the one who breaches the covenant. Those ancient ones understood “blood” as the essence of life. The blood of the victim bound them together in life and for life. Then those ancient peoples shared a meal in the belief that those who ate together were bound as partners and protectors of one another for life.
When the Church assembles for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, it assembles for more than an affirmation of the symbols. We are not here simply to affirm our belief in the presence of Christ in Bread and Wine. We are not here to casually stroll up the aisle and take a piece of consecrated unleavened bread. We are here for the sake of Covenant, the Covenant that this Body and Blood establishes. There is nothing casual or informal about what happens here. It is awesome and profound. It is divine. This is the essential, distinct Catholic experience of the Eucharist. We are not re-enacting the Last Supper. We are not “taking” communion, nor are we having a private and intimate personal experience with the historical Jesus. We are being swept up into divine life, transformed in the very depths of our being into a relationship that is blood – like family. God makes a binding pact with us. It makes us partners and companions assuring us of a place at the table and a share in the everlasting banquet of heaven. It is a costly, painful, and lonely covenant, but its consequences are greater than its demands. This is a covenant in our flesh because of what we eat in this place. It is a covenant in our lives because of what we become in this place. The Body and Blood of Christ do not simply appear to be bread and wine. They also appear to be the flesh and blood of those who eat. This feast leads us through the symbol to the reality. Those who make that passage can never kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and then turn their back on the hungry, the poor, or the homeless. To do so disconnects the symbol from that to which it points: the transforming Covenant into which we are invited by a God who chooses to be with us, in us, and for us, for always and forever.