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Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Year B, June 7, 2015
Ex 24:3-8; Ps 116:12-13, 15-18; Heb 9:11-15; Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
The Blood of the New and Eternal Covenant
Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, the body and blood of Christ —a
celebration of the importance of the Eucharist in our lives. This year the
readings center on the blood of Christ given to us in the form of wine. The
gospel from Mark tells us that on the night before he died, Jesus “took a cup,
gave thanks, gave it to them and . . . said, ‘This is my blood of the
covenant.’” These words are echoed in every Eucharist, when the priest
recalls Jesus’s words: “This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new
and eternal covenant.” Let’s reflect on two key words here: covenant and
blood. What do they mean, and why does Jesus link them together?
Covenant is perhaps the central theme of the Old Testament. The
very identity of the people of Israel results from the covenant God has made
with them. A covenant is a promise. In the ancient Near East a covenant
was a treaty that created peace between peoples through promises of mutual
respect. At Mount Sinai God made a covenant with Israel, a promise to
continue loving them as he did when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt.
The kind of covenant most familiar to us today is probably the
promise husband and wife make to each other in marriage. They promise to
continue loving each other, to be there for each other whenever there is need.
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The covenant God made with Israel is just like this. In fact, the Prophet
Isaiah says God’s covenant with his people is just like a marriage. In an
extraordinary image, Isaiah proclaims to Israel: “Your husband is your
Maker.” Through covenant God and Israel have become spouses to each
other. The God who created the whole universe is not far off, but has
become our spouse. God is bound to us through a promise to love us always
and to be there for us always. This love of God for us is what we celebrate
when we drink the cup of the new covenant at the Eucharist.
But why does Jesus proclaim his renewal of this covenant of love by
giving his disciples a cup of wine and telling them that “This is my blood of
the covenant.” Why blood? Think of what happens when we donate blood
to someone. Giving blood to someone is giving that person life. Blood also
stands for intimate bonds with another person; so we speak of those closest
to us in our families as blood relatives. These biological relationships are
among our most cherished bonds. That’s why two people who want to show
how close they are sometimes become “blood brothers or sisters” by
pricking their fingers and mixing their blood.
Today first reading builds on these powerful symbolic meanings of
blood when it tells of the covenant between God and Israel made at Sinai.
Moses symbolizes the covenantal union of God with God’s people through a
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blood ritual. He first sacrifices young bulls and pours half their blood on the
altar, which represents the invisible God. Then he sprinkles the other half of
the blood on the people. The same blood binds God and the people in union
with each other. The sprinkling of the blood represents God saying: “My
people, I will share your life and care for you always, as I cared for you and
set you free from oppression in Egypt.” Most radically, through this
sprinkling with the blood of the covenant, God says: “I will give you my
own life. I will give you my very self.” In other words, this strange ritual
brings us some truly good news—God wants to be our blood brother or
sister. Or, as Isaiah says, God wants to be our spouse—your maker has
become your husband, your wife.
So when Jesus says “This is my blood of the covenant” he is saying
something truly extraordinary. He is telling us that the covenant invites to
share his Jesus’ life—to become blood brothers and sisters of Jesus. In the
covenant we are invited to become spouses of God. What an extraordinary
way of telling us how much God loves us. So as we take the cup of the
Eucharist today, let us give thanks to God for this extraordinary gift of love.
David Hollenbach, S.J.
St. Ignatius Church
June 7, 2015