Body to be eaten and Blood to be drunk
Holy Eucharist as a Sacrificial Meal
During the liturgical year there are at least two feasts that invite us to meditate on the mystery of the Eucharist: the Maundy Thursday and the Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord (that is today!). On the Maundy Thursday, the reflection on the Eucharist is centred on the Passover meal and the institution of the priesthood. In the context of the Easter triduum (the three days of preparation towards Easter), the celebration of the Eucharist of the Maundy Thursday is also emotionally coloured by the impending passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The feast of today gives us yet another opportunity to contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist.
Allow me to begin our reflection with a very concrete structure in the Church: the altar. Normally, the tabernacle in which the Holy Eucharist is enshrined is the focal point of any Catholic Church, and the tabernacle lamp draws our attention to this. However, during the celebration of the Eucharist (the Holy Mass) there are two focal points in the Church: the lectern – where the Word of God is broken; and the altar – where the bread is broken. In many Catholic Churches today, this distinction is very clearly brought out in the manner of the celebration of the Eucharist: the Introductory Rite begins at the Chair of the presiding priest, the Liturgy of the Word is celebrated at the lectern (or the Ambo), the Liturgy of the Eucharist is celebrated at the altar, and the concluding rite is again taken back to the Chair. Let us now focus on the altar. What is the altar? I expect a spontaneous answer: it is the place of sacrifice. What else is the altar in our church? Now if the answer is not forthcoming, let me give you a hint. When the first Eucharist was ever celebrated by Jesus in the company of the apostles, where was it celebrated? In the Upper Room! What was the altar like in that celebration? The altar in the Upper Room was a table. A Dining Table! It is important not to forget this simple history. (My history teacher used to say: if only people study history seriously most of humankind’s present mistakes could be avoided, and most disputes easily resolved. This is also so true in the Church today, even regarding the Liturgy!) So the altar is also the table of a meal.
The Eucharistic celebration is the enactment of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. Sure, the Holy Mass is a sacrifice. Now if it is only a sacrifice then the proper place for the priest during the Mass is on the side of the people. He offers the sacrifice together with the people on behalf of the people. But St Paul reminds us,
The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1Cor 11:23-25).
The Eucharistic celebration is at once a sacrifice and a meal. (That is why the priest stands on the other side of the altar to create a circular appearance of a meal.) Eucharist is a sacrificial meal. This is not a contradiction. Even in traditional religious sacrifices, even if part of an animal was burnt in sacrifice, and the blood poured out in libation, the remaining part of the animal was eaten by the participants of the sacrifice. In this way the cycle of the sacrifice was completed: humans offer food to God; God returns that food to humans; and humans eat that sacrificial food. Thus the convent is sealed between God and humans. That is why, St Paul recalls Jesus’ saying in his Letter to the Corinthians: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Eucharistic bread: the enactment of the incarnation
The Eucharistic celebration is a meal. And the Holy Communion is food. I find this very awesome. I would like to develop two brief reflections on the fact that Jesus used bread and wine – objects of food – to institute the Eucharist.
Just as Jesus was ‘God who came down from heaven’ but did not fall from the skies. He took his flesh from another human person – a woman, Mary, the Eucharist is bread that comes down from heaven, but it does not fall from the skies. It takes the form of the bread that we offer in blessing to God. Therefore, every time we celebrate the Eucharist we are celebrating the enactment of the mystery of incarnation. In the mystery of incarnation, “The Word became flesh, he lived among us” (Jn 1:14); in the mystery of the Eucharist, God takes flesh, so that He could become part of our flesh and blood. And this awareness is so awesome: God takes flesh, so that He could become part of our flesh and blood.
What could this mean? What could the mystery of the incarnation and the mystery of the Eucharist mean?
As St Francis de Sales says, we humans are like caterpillars. God in Jesus becomes a caterpillar, dies, enters the tomb (the pupa), and rises again to life like a butterfly. The mysteries of incarnation and the resurrection offer us a sense of hope that we can also become like butterflies.
In the mystery of the Eucharist, God in Jesus takes on the form of bread and wine, so that we who participate in them could become more God-like. During the Eucharistic celebration, as the priest prepares the wine, he adds a drop of water into the chalice and he silently prays:
By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
As we participate in the Eucharist, on this feast of the precious body and blood of our Lord, may we so worthily partake of the body and blood of Christ, that we may come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Sermon for the Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus – Cycle B