The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Jan 30 2025

“My Blood Shed for You”

I can remember becoming “blood brothers” with my best friend, Bunky, when we were six years old. We took something sharp and each of us cut the tip of one finger and put them together, declaring ourselves “blood brothers forever.” It remains a sacred memory for me.

The recognition of blood as sacred, as a symbol of life, is probably as old as humanity. All life belonged to God. When Cain slew Abel, God said to him, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil” (Genesis 4:10). It was the blood of animals that Moses sprinkled on the altar and the twelve pillars, symbols of God and the people, and then on the people themselves as they entered into cov

enant with the God who was leading them to a new life.

Today’s second reading presents Christ entering the heavenly sanctuary not with the blood of animals but with his own blood that brought about our redemption, providing cleansing from sin and access to God. Later, this author notes how much more eloquently the blood of Christ speaks than that of Abel; where the latter cried for vengeance, Christ’s blood cries for mercy.

Mark puts us in the upper room with Jesus the night before he died, and we hear once again the sacred words: “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many”.

He continues to give the cup to his disciples, so we might have his life in us. Jesus is the Lord of Life.

Consider/Discuss

How do you experience “giving your blood,” whether at the doctor’s for a blood test or when contributing to a blood drive?
What do Jesus’ words at Mass mean to you:

“Take this, all of you, and drink from it,

for this is the chalice of my Blood,

the Blood of the new and eternal covenant

Which will be poured out for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins.”

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, at baptism we were washed in the blood of the Lamb; at every Communion, we eat your Body and drink your Blood. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we continue to live with your life, sharing in your divinity as you have shared in our humanity. For this we give you praise and thanks.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

In preparation for the sacrifice that would seal the covenant, Moses erected symbols that represented the partners of the covenant: an altar, which generally connoted the presence of the deity; and twelve pillars that stood for the totality of the people. Two sacrifices were offered, the holocaust and the peace offering. Blood was poured. This was the most solemn and binding part of the sacrifice that sealed the covenant. Finally the law was read. Moses maintains that the blood ritual ratifies the covenant that the words both describe and fashion. The interplay between word and action is quite clear. Neither can adequately perform its role alone.

Several features of the ritual performed during the Day of Atonement serve as a model of the high priesthood of Christ. He entered the Holy of Holies, just as the high priest did yearly on that solemn occasion to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. Both ritual acts made amends for sin. However, there is a finality to what Christ did. The new covenant promised by the prophet (see Jeremiah 31:31) has been established, and Christ is its mediator. Since some kind of sacrifice is the foundation of any covenant, the action of Christ not only atones for sin, but also inaugurates a new covenant, one that promises an eternal inheritance.

The Gospel reading for today is an account of the institution of the Eucharist, which took place during the Passover meal. The symbolism of the memorial meal recalls the covenant of old and reinterprets it. Eating bread together was an expression of companionship; the reference to the blood of the covenant recalls the ratification of the earlier covenant made through the blood of the sacrifice. Jesus alludes to the messianic banquet of the future, the banquet already present in his body and blood, which will be fully realized when the reign of God is brought to fulfillment.

Jan 27 2025

Cleansed (?) by the Blood

“Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people? Yuck . . . gross.” Her face wrinkled with disgust. As I looked around the room, all of their faces said the same. Sacrifice and the splashing of blood and the slaughter of heifers and goats; the ninth-grade girls whom I taught had no cultural framework for that use of blood. “That’s repulsive,” they grimaced.

We talk about “the bread” on this feast day. But what about “the blood”?

The Hebrews sacrificed an animal for its blood. Blood was life. Life was from God. Sprinkling with blood was to purify, to set things right, to atone for sin. To sin meant to throw things out of kilter, to break a relationship, to miss the mark of what we should be or do, to sever a bond. So the blood was for cleaning things up. But why did they need to do that?

At the core of Jewish theology is the “bigness” of God. God is untouchable. God is inaccessible. The God who is holy is so pure that sin cannot even be looked upon. We who are sinful, therefore, have no access to the Almighty. The atonement of blood made things right again when people messed up and strayed. Think of the psalms: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”

The reading from Hebrews also talks about this cleansing of blood. But goat and bull blood are temporary. Jesus shed his own blood so that we would be made clean eternally; clean so that we could draw near to God. He said, “This is my blood,” then took a cup, and they all drank from it. Did they, like those teenagers, maybe . . . gag a little?

Consider/Discuss:

“Wash up for dinner,” my grandmother used to say. I can still hear her words. “Wash up for dinner;” whenever we say the words, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” Jesus says back to us that we will be healed—also made clean, restored, and sanctified. Have we grown so accustomed to that cleansing of Jesus’ blood that we don’t think about it? Does it (or should it) unsettle us a little bit?
When our image of God grows inordinately small, almost teddy bear–like, we can become presumptuous, as though we ask, God is so nice, how could we not “get through?” What happens to our worldview if we grow blasé about the “bigness” of God? What does that do to reverence and awe?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, Blood of cleansing, you have opened the way for us to be holy. You came to make things right. Yet we are still broken. We still mess up. Life knocks us around. Life knocks around those we love. Wash us this day with your Blood, for we want to be healers as well. You who are infinite have chosen to dwell among us. Let us not take you for granted. Come, Lord Jesus; bring us into your presence, so that we can bring you to others.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

As Israel enters into a covenant relationship with the God who has delivered them from bondage in Egypt, Moses calls upon the people to affirm that they will be faithful to their God, which means— among other things—to be loyal and obedient, observing all of the covenant expectations (especially the Ten Commandments). In the ancient Near East, and so also in ancient Israel, solemn covenants were sealed by sacrifice and blood from the sacrificed animal was sprinkled on both parties. Here, the people are sprinkled with blood along with the altar itself, which represents God. This blood, which binds the two parties into a relationship of mutual loyalty, is thus the “blood of the covenant.”

The central theme of the Letter to the Hebrews is the priesthood of Christ. Formerly, the high priest, as representative of the people, would enter the tabernacle to offer sacrifice to God. This earthly tabernacle was considered an analog to the divine, heavenly dwelling. Some of the sacrifices were instituted to cleanse Israel of the effects of sin through the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificed animals, an act that had to be repeated regularly. Christ, the eternal High Priest, has rendered all of this obsolete by entering into the actual heavenly sanctuary, offering himself in sacrifice, and cleansing away sin with his own blood. Because he is the Son of God, this action surpasses all others in quality and effect.

In Mark, the Last Supper is held on the evening ushering in the feast of Passover, when the lambs were slaughtered. The blood of the Passover lamb in Exodus protected the Israelites from death, and the lamb itself was eaten. Here, Jesus offers his own body to be shared by the disciples and his own blood as “my blood of the covenant,” a reference to the blood of the sacrificial animal of the covenant at Sinai. Thus he draws on two traditions of sacrifice, both closely related to the Exodus, to articulate the meaning of his own imminent death, which both saves from death and seals a new covenant between God and humanity.

Jan 15 2025

Eternal Life-giving Food

God feeding a hungry people is a cherished memory in the Jewish tradition. In his farewell speech to the Israelites, Moses calls upon the people to remember how God gave them food and drink during their many years in the desert. The manna was “something unknown to your fathers,” and the water flowed forth from a “flinty rock.” The water and manna were wondrous signs of God’s presence and care as the Israelites journeyed to a new land.

Jesus proclaimed himself as the living bread come down from heaven, bringing eternal life to all who eat it. We approach the table of the Eucharist to receive the bread and drink the wine, the Body and Blood of Christ made present through the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, something wondrous is happening.

We remember that Jesus did this on the night before he died, and told his disciples to “do this in memory of me.” When we do this, the saving event of Christ’s death and resurrection is made present in the broken bread and wine poured out for us. We enter into communion with the risen Lord and one another.

Through our sharing in the memorial meal, Christ re-members us as his body and sends us out to witness to God’s fidelity in the past and God’s promise for the future: a world renewed, restored, reborn in the Spirit. God continues to feed us on the road from slavery to freedom, from death to life.

Consider/Discuss

Are you able to see beyond the morsel of bread and sip from the cup to recognize God feeding you and drawing you into communion with the Son and all who are fed?
Do you connect the Eucharist with the mission of the Church in the world, when you hear: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”?

Responding to the Word

Today’s feast has a special hymn called a “Sequence” before the Gospel. Some of the images and ideas are: Jesus good shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us; feed us and guard us. Grant that we find happiness in the land of the living. Make us your guests in heaven, co-heirs with you and companions of heaven’s citizens.