“Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites

to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls

as peace offerings to the LORD,

Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;

the other half he splashed on the altar…

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,

‘This is the blood of the covenant

that the LORD has made with you

in accordance with all these words of his.’”

“When Christ came as high priest

of the good things that have come to be,

…he entered once for all into the sanctuary,

not with the blood of goats and calves

but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

“While they were eating,

he took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, gave it to them, and said,

‘Take it; this is my body.’

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,

and they all drank from it.

He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant,

which will be shed for many.’”

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), I have quoted above from each of today’s three readings. It is important for us to understand what (or more precisely, who) the Eucharistic species (bread and wine) become and are. The National Eucharist Revival encourages our recognition and devotion to the reality of the full body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus present under the species of bread and wine. We eat and drink all of Jesus as an effective sign, a sign that is what it signifies. Jesus gives us all he has to give, namely himself, not just on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago, but every time we enact the memorial of his sacrifice and are given and receive his body and blood. It is on our altar that heaven and earth meet, where time and eternity intersect, and when the veil of the separation of 2,000 years is pulled back and we stand before Jesus’s sacrifice of love upon the cross. It is that sacrifice we encounter in communion and it is the mystery of Jesus’s death and resurrection that we receive. It is all that Jesus has to give, all that he has given, and all that he eternally gives for us. 

The Eucharist is the covenantal sign of the new and eternal covenant in Christ’s blood. It is the covenant of mercy and redemption. In a covenant, as in marriage, both parties give themselves 100% to the other. Jesus has given himself completely for us and to us so that we may give ourselves completely to God. St. Paul writes, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). As the veil of time is pulled back, we also see that it is for love of us, in the midst of our sin, that Jesus willingly gives his life. In the movie he directed, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson appears once. It is his hands that hold the nail and swing the hammer that nail Jesus to the cross. It is for me in my sinfulness and you in yours that Jesus lays down his life. It not taken from him, he gives it freely: his life for mine and yours, that we may have life in his name. It is the gift of his life, the giver himself, that we receive.