Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year B

“This Is My Blood Of The Covenant”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

 Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Today, many people will frown and protest against animal sacrifice, but in the ancient world, it was a common religious practice. Slaughtering of animals and offering their bloody parts to the gods or to God was a basic and necessary part of ancient religious life. In fact, in African Traditional Religion, Afro-American religions, Islam, Hinduism etc. animal sacrifice persists even to the present day. More to it, bloody animal sacrifice runs through the Bible, including biblical passages that speak about the death of Jesus. In the Bible, blood is life. To offer blood was to offer life. When someone is engaging in animal sacrifice, which is the ritual killing and offering of an innocent animal and the sprinkling of its blood to the gods or God, the person is in essence offering his own life and is also saying that what is happening to this animal, the cruelty being meted on this animal should have been meted on him. The animal is shedding its blood, is giving its own life in exchange and atonement for his sins. 

In our first reading for today (Exodus 24:3-8), we are told that after Moses has presented the Commandments of the Lord, the people of Israel answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us.” God has given his Commandments to Moses. Moses accepts the Commandments, brings it and presents it to the people. The people accept it with delight. It’s now time to seal the covenant God and Israel have made. We are also told that Moses sent young Israelite men “who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen of offerings of well-being to the Lord.” Moses then “took half of the blood and put it in large bowls, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. And then he sprinkled the blood upon the people.” You might be wondering, what’s going on here? Why is Moses sprinkling blood on the altar and on the people? It’s an exchange of life: the lifeblood of God and the lifeblood of his people. When we say, this person is my blood brother, we mean we share blood with each other. That’s the powerful symbolism going on here. Now, this event carried out by Moses established much of Israelite liturgical life, which is centered around the sacrifice of animals. It is said that people smelled the temple in Jerusalem long before they saw it. What they smelled was the burning of the flesh of animals being offered to the Lord. So, the temple was a slaughterhouse of animals.

The most important sacrifice that took place in the temple happened on Yom Kippur, on the Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the Jewish year when the high priest, not a minister or a preacher, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. The Holy of Holies was strictly seen as the dwelling place of Yahweh. It was considered so sacred that no one could approach it, except on that one day, the Day of Atonement. In that Holy of Holies, the high priest would place upon the scapegoat, symbolically the sins of Israel, and then the scapegoat would be sent out into the desert to die, bearing with him, symbolically the sins of the people. After that, the high priest would slaughter another animal and he would sprinkle the blood around the Holy of Holies, just like Moses did. And also in the manner of Moses, he would come out from the Holy of Holies, passing through the curtain that separated that place from the rest of the temple proper, and he would sprinkle the people there with blood. What was happening on Yom Kippur? It’s a bloody sacrifice that symbolized people’s life, their reparation, the pouring out of their hearts and also the pouring out of God’s own life. God’s own lifeblood is being poured out. This was central to Israelite life for the thousand years of the temple. 

Our second reading for today is taken from the Book of Hebrew. The author of the book of Hebrew is still unknown. But whoever wrote it was somebody who was well acquainted with the sacrifices of the temple. In Hebrews 9, the author says, “When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, he entered once for all into the Holy Place not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” Any Jewish audience that hears those words would know exactly what the author is talking about. The author of the Book of Hebrew is interpreting Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, not just a Roman execution, but as a great act of temple sacrifice. On that terrible cross, Jesus acts as our mediator. He offers his blood as an atonement for sin. Just as the blood of calves and goats were poured out, so also the blood of Christ himself. On the cross, when the blood and water flowed from the side of Christ, as it were splashing on those who were standing by, it is not only human blood that is offered in expiation for sin, but also God’s blood offered to us. In the Gospels, we are told that the moment Jesus died, the curtain in the temple mysteriously tore from top to bottom. What does that mean? That’s the moment when the high priest comes out from the Holy of Holies. That’s Jesus Christ, the true and eternal High Priest coming out from the Holy of Holies, but not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own Blood to sprinkle it upon the whole world. It is the Blood of God. Yes, Christ is divine. It is also our own blood. Yes, Christ is human. 

With all of this, we look at the Gospel (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26), which is the institution narrative of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, Jesus solemnly says, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.” I tell you, that’s a temple language. It’s a language of blood sacrifice of animals. In that language, Jesus is anticipating what he would do the next day. On this day that we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, I have a question: What is the Mass? Is it just a chance for us to get together and fellowship? Is it just an opportunity to get together, sing together and fondly remember Jesus? Not at all! If that’s all the Mass is, it won’t bother me when you don’t come to Mass because it means it is not all that important. Coming together to fellowship and remember a pivotal figure is what Abraham Lincoln Society does. As a priest, I come to Mass vested not simply as a minister or a preacher or a spiritual care provider. I am wearing the robes of a temple priest. I am called not a minister or doctor. I am called a priest. The bishop is a high priest, that’s why a bishop wears miter (the tall headdress) which you can find in the Book of Exodus. The work I do at Mass is not simply remembering what a great figure Jesus was. Acting in “persona Christi,” in the very person of Christ, I realize, I make possible in an unbloody sacramental manner, the death of Jesus. At Mass, I offer to the Father, the Blood of the Son, Jesus Christ. When does this happen at Mass? When you see the priest or the bishop elevate, raise up the chalice, that is the moment when the Blood of Christ is being offered as an atonement for our sins. At that moment, think of the priest like the high priest on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. But he’s in the Holy of Holies not with the blood of goats and calves, but with the very Blood of Christ, the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity. More to it, at Mass, we don’t just perform the consecration and then go home. Not at all! After the consecration, the priest, bearing in his hands the Blood of Jesus, comes down from the altar, comes out from the sanctuary. What is that? In the Jewish religion, the high priest on the Day of Atonement, comes out from the Holy of Holies. To do what? To sprinkle the blood of slaughtered animals on the people. But at Mass, when the priest comes down from the altar and walks through the sanctuary, he comes not to sprinkle the people with Blood, but to offer the Blood of Christ to be drunk, to be consumed. At Mass, the priest offers a sacrifice of atonement for sins and offers the lifeblood of God to the people of God. What is the outcome of this atonement and the offering of the life-giving blood of Christ? Our salvation! It effects our salvation. That’s how we are saved, that’s how we are reconciled with God. This great priestly act, which is re-presented sacramentally at every Mass makes salvation possible. So, don’t come to Mass simply to see your friends and buddies. Don’t come to Mass expecting to be entertained. Don’t come to Mass just to look around and see what you can criticize. Come purely and chiefly to be saved by the good God. My fellow Catholics, when you come to Mass, realize that what we are doing, this densely rich celebration, goes all the way back to Moses sprinkling blood on the altar and on the people. It goes all the way back to the high priest on the day of Yom Kippur offering animal blood for the expiation of people’s sins, and then coming out and sprinkling the people with the blood. In Jesus, we have a true high priest who goes into the Holy of Holies not made with human hands, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood. All of that informs what we do, which takes place at every Mass. And that’s what this Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus is meant to bring us. 

God bless you!