Corpus Christi, 2 June, 2024: Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14 :12-16 ; 22-26
In Jesus’ Day, the Passover meal could only be celebrated in Jerusalem, feasting on the lamb which had been sacrificed in the Temple. So when Mark notes those facts, he is describing a supper which is fundamentally a sacrifice.
Jesus blesses the bread and wine, a standard part of the celebration, but identifies them as his body and blood, reaffirming the sacrificial character of his action. Every animal sacrificed is the totality of the creature, described by the merism “body and blood,” a physical and living being. The Passover Lamb is sacrificed in the temple where the blood, the animating life-force sacred to God alone, is poured out at the base of the altar.
Isn’t Jesus’ action disconcerting? Not only does he identify himself with the sacrifice, but he invites his communicants to Divinity. If it is normal for a Jew to consume the sacrificial body, what is normal about partaking of his blood? Since Jesus is one with the Father, our communion with Jesus invites us to share in the sacramental blood, God’s portion of the sacrifice.
This is not only an enormous privilege but an enormous responsibility to commit to this covenant and become what it communicates: the totality of Christ.
This is no instantaneous transformation; it is not magic but sacrament, inviting my intentional engagement. Didn’t both Judas and Peter betray Jesus soon after this supper? I am not forced to become what I consume, though what I consume could transform me.
Like Peter and Judas, don’t I bear the responsibility of what I receive?
Couldn’t my communion be a curse, as it was for Judas, or a blessing, as it was for Peter when he turned back to his Lord in tears and repentance?