Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
Claretian Publications, Macau
6 June 2021 – Solemnity of Corpus Christi- Year B
Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
The introductory lines of the gospel of today give us two symbols from the Old Testament. The Unleavened Bread. The Passover Lamb. Going through these two symbols will provide us with most of the theology connected with Corpus Christi.
The unleavened bread is a jar of manna that Israelites kept in the Ark of the Covenant from the time they were fed with Manna (Exodus 16:33–34) as a sign of God’s unceasing providence. It is the symbol of God’s desire to live with humanity forever.
The other symbol is that of the Passover Lamb. Passover is the most significant Jewish feast that commemorates the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The last supper was a Passover meal, the lamb of sacrifice is Jesus himself. At the time of the last supper, the unleavened bread and the Passover lamb merge into one. “This is my flesh,” Jesus says, taking the bread. This lamb delivers Israel from the Egyptian slavery (sin symbolically) and leads them into the promised land (eternal life). As Jesus mentions, this is my body, take and eat, the entire import is, I am the new Passover lamb and eat my flesh that you will be saved from the bondage of sin (Egypt) and you will pass over to liberation. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever is in the context of the Passover lamb.
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi evokes four unique aspects of Catholic Faith, all derived from the Biblical foundation. 1. The Eucharist is a sacrifice. 2. Eucharist is a meal. It is a covenant 3. Eucharist is the real presence of Christ.
The name for the Eucharistic bread is ‘host,’ which means ‘victim.’ That term refers to the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, where Christ the victim is sacrificed for the eternal forgiveness of the sins of humanity. The sacrifice ritual of the scapegoat during the Yom Kippur (Lev. 16, Heb. 9) is the antecedent of this Eucharistic concept. The second part of that ritual is sprinkling the sacrificial animal’s blood on the participants to seal the covenant. In the new covenant, the sins of humanity are transferred to the new sacrificial lamb (Jesus Christ), and the disciples share his blood as a sign of agreeing to the covenantal terms. Usually, in a sacrifice, someone else chooses the victim of the sacrifice. Here Jesus by himself chooses to be the victim of the sacrifice. When he gives, he distributes his own body; he becomes the priest of the ceremony.
Eucharist is a meal. Christ shares his own body to be eaten. Sharing a meal with someone is the expression of a very close friendship. Although the concept of setting a feast with one’s own body is a little scary concept to imagine, given its ritual and symbolic import, we understand that it is the greatest expression of love. Someone who wants to live with humans forever chooses to live in and among them as the Eucharist. Like the food that digests and becomes part of our body, so does Christ in the species of the body, and blood becomes part of us. We carry in our bodies the strength of that food and drink given from above.
Eucharist is a covenant. It is a challenging and risky covenant. Jesus, one party in the covenant, leaves his body to be victimized in the hands of the other party for the forgiveness of their sins. He makes that generous offering of his body with the risk of being disrespected, desecrated, and destroyed by the undiscerning humans. Yet, he makes that risky offering of his body and blood to humanity. In that offer is an invitation to respect the body, especially when it is fragile and defenseless.
It is applicable not just for the body of Christ. The body of the other is the symbol of God’s love for us. Everybody is fragile. Protecting everybody, born, unborn, dead, or alive, and treat with respect as the Holy Eucharist is a responsibility for anyone who shares in the Eucharist.
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