Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
SOLEMNITY OF THE
BODY AND BLOOD—CORPUS CHRISTI (Cycle B)
In the universal
Roman calendar, we celebrate this Solemnity on the Thursday after the Solemnity
of the Most Holy Trinity. The United States and Canada celebrate this Solemnity
on the Sunday after the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
Readings:
Exodus 24:3-8
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
Hebrews 9:11-15
The Sequence Laud, O Zion (Lauda Sion in Latin)
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments. Therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and
Blood of Jesus (Corpus Christi): Sharing in the life of Christ in the
Blood of the Covenant
When we partake of the sacred meal of the Eucharist, we
receive and celebrate the mysterious Presence of Jesus Christ within the
community of the Church: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live
in me and I in him, says the Lord" (communion antiphon). When first
established, this Solemnity was called Corpus Christi, Latin for "Body of
Christ." In the Middle Ages, Christians wanted to joyfully celebrate Jesus's
precious gift of the Eucharist in a solemnity that echoed Holy Thursday. The
Church inaugurated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus in c.
1254, purposely choosing the spring of the year so congregations could use the
good weather to hold processions, street fairs, and other outdoor events to
express joy in the gift of the Eucharist. The faithful carried the precious Bread
of the Lord's Body outdoors under a canopy in processions with music, and the
people joined in singing their favorite hymns of praise. Catholic communities
still celebrate this Solemnity with processions and religious displays in Latin
America and Europe.
All the readings for this Solemnity are in the context of blood sacrifice and the Old Covenant feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The First Reading recalls the covenant ratification ceremony at Mt. Sinai after the first Passover in Egypt, which led to the children of Israel's liberation from slavery. In the Bible, covenant ratification ceremonies included oath swearing, sacrifice, and a sacred meal. At Sinai, the Israelites swore their allegiance to obey Yahweh's commands (Ex 24:3). They offered animals in communion sacrifices, followed by sprinkling the animal's blood on the altar of sacrifice (representing God), repeating the oath of obedience and then sprinkling the remaining blood on the people (Ex 24:5-8). Sprinkling the sacrificial blood on the altar and the people united the Israelites to God as one covenant family, sharing "one blood" like all families. This ceremony was followed by a sacred communion meal of peace and thanksgiving in the presence of God, sealing the covenant (Ex 24:9-11). The name for the communion meal is Toda (Todah), meaning "thanksgiving" in Hebrew. The same elements are part of our New Covenant commitment. In the Mass, we swear an oath of allegiance to the Most Holy Trinity in our profession of faith. Then, Jesus transforms our offerings of bread and wine into His Body, Blood, and our sacrifice. Finally, we complete the covenant ceremony by eating the sacred communion meal of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist (a transliteration of Eucharistia, "thanksgiving," in Greek), the New Covenant communion Toda, in the Divine Presence of the Most Holy Trinity.
The Responsorial Psalm Reading is one of the psalms the faithful sang during the Liturgy of the Passover worship service in the Jerusalem Temple. It recalls the Exodus liberation and Israel's gratitude to God for the people's salvation. The "thanksgiving" sacrifice promised in verse 17 is the communion sacrifice of the Toda, the Eucharistia in Greek. The psalmist promises to show his gratitude for God's salvation by participating in the Liturgy of worship in the presence of God and the covenant community.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote about Jesus's role as the New Covenant High Priest in the heavenly Temple. As our New Covenant High Priest, He does not offer the blood sacrifice of bulls or goats like the Jewish high priests of the Sinai Covenant. Instead, He provides His precious Blood to ratify the New Covenant of God with a "new Israel," God's people of the Universal Church of Christ's eternal Kingdom (CCC 877).
The Gospel reading recalls the events on the night Jesus and His disciples ate the Passover victim in the sacred feast of the Last Supper. At the meal, Jesus repeated Moses's words at the ratification ceremony at Mt. Sinai (Ex 24:8) as He offered "the blood of the covenant" and passed the cup of His Precious Blood, becoming the covenant mediator of a new and eternal covenant promised by the prophet Jeremiah (Heb 9:13-15; Jer 31:31; 32:40; 50:5). Our sacred meal of the Eucharist not only looks back to Jesus's Last Supper, but it also looks forward in time. At every Eucharistic meal, the faithful look forward to eternal life in the Presence of the Most Holy Trinity and the communion of Saints in the heavenly banquet of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church (Rev 19:6-9).
Today's remembrance of our redemption through the self-sacrificial offering of Jesus's Body and Blood on the altar of the Cross is an appropriate time to recall what redemption means to a Catholic. Some Protestants believe that God punished Jesus for the sins of humanity, and in Christ's Passion, the Father saw not His divine Son but our sins and vented His wrath upon Jesus. This view of redemption is not what Catholic Christians believe. Jesus did not serve as our penal substitute to receive the retributive punishment for countless lifetimes of sin since the fall of Adam and Eve. God did not abandon Jesus to suffer the fullness of the damnation humankind had earned for itself. Jesus did not take on the world's sins to become sin Himself, but offered Himself as a sacrifice for humanity's sin remaining the sinless Lamb of God. If that were the case, that Jesus became sin Himself, Peter would not have called the Resurrected Christ "a spotless Lamb without blemish" (1 Pt 1:19), and Jesus could not have ascended to Heaven soiled by the sins of humanity.
For the Catholic Church, redemption was always about love. The Father never loved the Son more than as He hung on the Cross. "God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son" to give His life for our salvation. Therefore, Jesus was not our substitute; He was our representative. He did not exempt us from suffering; instead, He endowed our suffering with meaning and divine power. Christ's sufferings are not punishments; they were the result of a pure and holy offering of love in obedience to the will of the Father that extended to every human in every age, including His persecutors. Jesus's act of divine love in offering up His Body and Blood on the Cross makes us a new creation in His Kingdom of the Church! See CCC 613, 616 and the book "What is Redemption?" by Father Philippe de la Trinite, published by Emmaus Road.
The First Reading Exodus 24:3-8 ~ The Ratification of the
Sinai Covenant
3 When Moses came to the people and related all the words
and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, "We will do
everything that the LORD has told us." 4 Moses then wrote down all the words of
the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain
an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then, having
sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice
young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD, 6 Moses took half of the blood and
put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. 7 Taking the
book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, "All that
the Lord has said we will heed and do." 8 Then he took the blood and sprinkled
it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has
made with you in accordance with all these words of his."
After the Exodus liberation, at the rendezvous at Mt. Sinai, Yahweh courted Israel like a bridegroom courts His bride, inviting the Israelites as one people to be His holy partner in the divine plan for humanity's salvation. In the centuries before this point in salvation history, Yahweh formed covenant bonds with individuals and their families (Adam, Noah, and the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). But at this crucial point in salvation history, in a radical departure from the previous pattern, Yahweh took the descendants of Jacob/Israel and formed them into a unified covenant nation. He called Israel to be His first sacred assembly, His holy covenant kingdom, and a people called out of all the other nations of the earth to fulfill their destiny as His priestly people, telling them, "Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Ex 19:5-6a).
Yahweh appeared to the people of Israel in fire and thunder on Mt. Sinai. He spoke out of the thunder, giving them the Ten Commandments. Then Moses went up the mountain into the presence of God to receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the expanded articles of the moral and civil laws, and promised the reward of God's divine protection for the people's obedience and loyalty. Moses then presented Yahweh's offer to make a covenant with the Israelites. The people agreed, swearing an oath with one voice saying, "We will do everything that the LORD [Yahweh] has told us" (Ex 24:3). Moses then wrote down all the words Yahweh had spoken that became the first section of the Laws of the Torah called the Book of the Covenant. The following day, Moses, acting as the covenant mediator, carried out the ratification ceremony of the Sinai Covenant between Yahweh and the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sinai. The ratification ceremony unfolded in seven parts:
The text does not reveal the identity of the "certain young men" mentioned in verse 5 that Moses chose to present the sacrifices on behalf of the people. They were probably the younger members of the generation of firstborn sons redeemed by the blood of the Passover victims (lambs and goat-kids) the night of the tenth plague in Egypt (Ex 11:4-5, 7; 12:23-24; 13:1-2). Scripture records that the young men doing priestly service offered two types of blood sacrifices: the 'olah (whole burnt offerings), entirely consumed in the altar fire, and the shelamim (peace sacrifices), the communion sacrifices designated for eating in a sacred shared meal.
However, there was also a communal sin sacrifice in the blood ritual. A sacred communion meal could not occur without first offering a sacrifice in atonement for sins. A holy God can only receive a spiritually purified believer into fellowship in the sacred meal of the communion sacrifice in which peace is re-established with God. At the ratification ceremony, through a blood sacrifice that united God and His people and the communion meal of kinship that followed, Yahweh sealed the covenant and Israel. The children of Israel became Yahweh's covenant children: the "called out" (kahal/qahal in Hebrew) ones, and as His "firstborn sons (and daughters)," they became His holy representatives to the other nations of the earth (see Ex 4:22, Israel is Yahweh's "firstborn" among the nations of the earth).
6 Moses took
half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the
altar.
Moses, the covenant mediator, took the blood of the sacrifices
and ritually splashed half of the blood against the altar's sides. He kept the
other half of the blood in chalices. The word translated as "bowls" in verse 6 is
misleading. In verse 6, the Hebrew term is 'aggan (also see Is 22:24 and
Song 7:3), a word found in several other Semitic languages and established through
archaeology to be a large and deep two-handled cup or chalice (JPS
Commentary: Exodus, page 152).
According to the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, using a hyssop branch, Moses then sprinkled blood on the altar, the Book of the Covenant, and the people (Heb 9:19-20 and Ex 24:8). The altar represented Yahweh, the book symbolized the covenant treaty in which the Israelites swore an oath to bind themselves to Yahweh in a covenant union. The blood of the sacrifice cleansed the people of their sins. These actions united the purified Israelites and Yahweh as one covenant family in the blood of the sacrificial victim like the link of shared blood unites human families.
This event foreshadowed the uniting of Yahweh and the New Covenant people in the sacrificial blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is the New Covenant mediator and the unblemished sin sacrifice who provides the sacred meal of His Flesh and Blood for His covenant family (Jn 6:53-56). The covenant ratification began at the Last Supper when Jesus announced, "This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me." And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you" (Lk 22:19-20). In the ritual at Mt. Sinai, the blood and the sacred meal united God and the children of Israel into one covenant family. In the same way, Jesus's blood sacrifice on the altar of the Cross makes the New Covenant people of God one family through the sacrifice and in sharing the sacred meal of the sacrificial victim, which we call the Eucharist ("the Thanksgiving").
Responsorial Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18 ~ The Cup of
Salvation
The response is: "I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord" or "Alleluia."
12 How can I repay the LORD for all the good he has done
for me? 13 I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
Response:
15 Dear in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his devoted.
16 Lord, I am your servant, your servant, the child of your maidservant; you
have loosed my bonds.
Response:
17 I will offer a sacrifice of praise and call on the
name of the LORD. 18 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his
people.
Response:
Psalm 116 is one of the Hallel ("praise God") psalms (Pss 113-118) that pilgrims sang during religious processions and in the Temple liturgy of the three annual pilgrim feasts that all men of the covenant had to attend (Ex 23:14-15; Dt 16:16; 2 Chr 8:13). The Passover sacrifice took place in a daytime liturgical worship service on the 14th of Nisan. That night at sundown, Nisan the 15th, was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the Jewish day began at sunset). These feasts celebrated Israel's origins as a free people united to Yahweh as their only God. They were joyous occasions, so whole families attended if they lived within reasonable traveling distance from Jerusalem. All religious males had to participate in the seven-day-long pilgrim feast of Unleavened Bread (Dt 16:16; Lk 2:41-42). The Hallel Psalms recalled the Exodus liberation and Israel's gratitude to God for their salvation and ended with a messianic psalm that promised the coming of the Davidic Messiah (Ps 118:26-27).
Psalm 116 expresses thanksgiving for divine rescue and the people's promise to show gratitude with vows and Temple sacrifices. The "cup of salvation" in verse 13 may refer to the blood ritual that signified atonement for the people's sins when the chalice holding the blood of the sacrificed animal was either poured out, splashed, or sprinkled against God's sacrificial altar (depending on the kind of blood ritual). It could also refer to the ritual cup of wine consumed during the Toda ("thanksgiving") communion meal with the meat of the sacrificed victim and unleavened bread, eaten within the Sanctuary in the presence of God (Lev 7:11-15, 19b-20; Num 15:7-10). It might also point to the third cup of the four communal cups of the sacred meal of the Passover victim on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The third cup was the "Cup of Salvation/Redemption," or the "Cup of Blessing," as St. Paul identified the cup of Jesus's precious Blood (1 Cor 10:16; St. Luke mentions two of the four ritual cups of wine in Lk 22:17-18 and 20). Therefore, verse 13 might point to the Christian Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Jesus Christ's flesh and blood became the Toda ("thanksgiving') communion sacred meal in the New Covenant liturgy of worship. According to Jewish tradition when the Messiah came, all sacrifices would cease except one, the Toda "thanksgiving" communion offering and sacred meal of peace with God (Levine, JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, page 43; Joseph Ratzinger, Feast of Faith, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1986, pages 58-59). It was a prediction fulfilled in Jesus Christ's continuing Toda of the New Covenant sacred communion meal He instituted at the Last Supper and which Catholic Christians call by the Greek word Eucharistia (Eucharist), which means "the thanksgiving" (Mt 26:26-29; Mk 14:22-25; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26).
The Second Reading Hebrews 9:11-15 ~ Jesus is the High
Priest and Mediator of the New and Eternal Covenant
11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things
that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, 12 he entered once
for all into the Sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his
own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and
bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our
consciences from dead works to worship the living God. 15 For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant
since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the
first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal
inheritance.
The central point of the passage is that in His Ascension to the Father, Jesus arrived as the High Priest of the heavenly Sanctuary, an honor to which He was divinely elected. He did not presume to aspire to His priestly prerogatives (Heb 5:4-5). He entered the heavenly Sanctuary with the acceptable sacrifice of Himself as the unblemished Lamb of God who "takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29). Jesus became the mediator of a new and everlasting covenant that was able to free humankind from sin and offer the promise of eternal salvation, something the Sinai Covenant, with its imperfect animal sacrifices, was incapable of accomplishing.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling
of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is
cleansed, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead
works to worship the living God.
The Old Covenant was good and necessary for its time as a
tutor and a guide, but it was imperfect (CCC 1962-68). The sacrifices of the
Sinai Covenant only offered outward cleansing of the flesh. But the perfect
sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the necessary internal and supernatural cleansing
that all animal sacrifices were incapable of accomplishing. The Sinai Covenant
could not sanctify believers for entrance into Heaven and could not give the
indwelling power of God the Holy Spirit (CCC 536, 1026, 1983).
These verses present the image of Jesus shedding His blood on the altar of the Cross like a high priest making an offering to God in a sacrifice of atonement, similar to the blood ritual in the First Reading. Jesus's blood gives the internal cleansing for which the psalmist cried out to God in Psalm 51: Behold, I was born guilty, in sin my mother conceived me. 8 Behold, you desire true sincerity; and secretly you teach me wisdom. 9 Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. [...]. 18 For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it; a burnt offering you would not accept. 19 My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn (Ps 51:7-9, 18-19 NJB). Notice the reference to original sin in Psalm 51:7 (see CCC 389; 396-406).
The heifer's ashes and scarlet wool in verse 13 refer to purification rites of the Sinai Covenant (see, for example, Num 19:1-22). The "red" heifer and the "red" wool signified humanity's impurity and sinfulness (Num 19:9, 17). The prophet Isaiah wrote, Come, let us set things right says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool (Is 1:18). The ancient red dye was a permanent dye and impossible to remove. However, for God, nothing is impossible. Even if the stains of one's sins upon the soul are as deep as red-dyed wool, the purifying holy water of the red heifer was to remind the faithful that God can purify His people from every sin. Jesus is our red heifer whose blood cleanses us of the sins that stain our souls.
15 For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant
since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the
first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal
inheritance.
Like Moses, the mediator of the old Sinai Covenant, Jesus
Christ is the mediator of the New and eternal Covenant promised by the prophet Jeremiah
(Jer 31:31; 32:40; 50:5). The Greek word for covenant, diatheke, also
has the same meaning as "last will and testament," which is how the inspired
writer used diatheke in Hebrews 9:16-17. However, in 9:15 and verses
18-20, he used the word diatheke in the sense of "covenant," making a
play on the word's double meaning. The double meaning allows the inspired
writer to argue that a covenant suggests the death of the one who initiated the
covenant as the death of a testator results in his "last will and testament."
The inspired writer links Jesus's deliverance of humanity from the ravages of
sin and death by comparing His gift of salvation to the inheritance one leaves
to family and friends upon one's death. For the testament or will to take
effect, proof of the testator's death is required. Jesus had to die to deliver
the inheritance promised under the New Covenant to His heirs: His brothers and
sisters reborn into the family of God through the sacrament of Baptism.
Therefore, Christ's death was necessary to establish the New Covenant and the
promises it contained as the eternal inheritance of His heirs (i.e., Gal 3:29;
Titus 3:7; Heb 1:14; 1 Pt 3:7).
Unlike the Old Covenant high priests whose ministerial service ended upon their deaths, Jesus's priestly service begins with His self-sacrificial death and Ascension to the heavenly Sanctuary. In Heaven, He begins His service as Priest-King and mediator of the New Covenant people of God (see Heb 8:6). According to Hebrews 9:15, the purpose of Jesus's death on the altar of the Cross was to offer the one perfect sacrifice to deliver humanity from bondage to sin and death, a deliverance the first corporate covenant (the Sinai Covenant) was incapable of fulfilling. Because of the salvation made possible by Jesus's death, "all those who are called" (verse 15) may receive the promise of eternal life. The point is that one must have faith to answer the call to grace to receive deliverance and the promised eternal inheritance.
The Sequence Laud, O Zion
We sing this hymn in praise of the Eucharist before the Alleluia. St. Thomas
Aquinas wrote this hymn (c. 1264) at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new
Mass of the Feast of Corpus Christi. In the sixth stanza of the hymn, we sing: "for
on this solemn day is again celebrated the first institution of the Supper"
(referring to the first Eucharistic celebration in Christ's Body and Blood at
the Last Supper).
Lauda Sion long form:
Laud, O Zion, your salvation, Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:
Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.
Special theme for glad thanksgiving
is the quick'ning and the living,
bread today before you set:
From his hands of old partaken,
as we know, by faith unshaken,
where the Twelve at supper met.
Full and clear ring out your chanting,
joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
from your heart let praises burst:>
For today the feast is holden,
when the institution olden
of that supper was rehearsed.
Here the new law's new oblation, by the new king's revelation, ends the form of ancient rite: Now the new the old effaces, truth away the shadow chases, light dispels the gloom of night. What he did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, his memorial ne'er to cease: And his rule for guidance taking, bread and wine we hallow, making thus our sacrifice of peace.
This the truth each Christian learns,
bread into his flesh he turns,
to his precious blood the wine:
Sight has fail'd, nor thought conceives,
but a dauntless faith believes,
resting on a pow'r divine.
Here beneath these signs are hidden
priceless things to sense forbidden;
signs, not things are all we see:
Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
yet in either wondrous toke, Christ entire we know to be.
Whoso of this food partakes,
does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:
thousands are, as one, receivers,
one, as thousands of believers,
eats of him who cannot waste.
Bad and good the feast are sharing,
of what divers dooms preparing,
endless death, or endless life.
Life to these, to those damnation, see how like participation is with unlike issues rife. When the sacrament is broken, doubt not, but believe 'tis spoken, that each sever'd outward token doth the very whole contain. Nought the precious gift divides, breaking but the sign betides Jesus still the same abides, still unbroken does remain.
The shorter form of the sequence:
Lo! the angel's food is given
to the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us, Jesu, of your love befriend us, You refresh us, you defend us, your eternal goodness send us in the land of life to see. You who all things can and know, who on earth such food bestow, grant us with your saints, though lowest, where the heav'nly feast you show, fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
The Gospel of Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 ~ The Sacred Meal of
the Last Supper
12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb*, Jesus's disciples said to him, "Where
do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" 13 He sent two
of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water. Follow him. 14 Wherever he enters, say to the master
of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the
Passover with my disciples?"' 15 Then he will show you a large upper room
furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there." 16 The disciples then
went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they
prepared the Passover. [...] 22 While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave
it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." 23 Then he took a cup, gave
thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, "This
is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. 25 Amen, I say to
you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink
it new in the kingdom of God." 26Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to
the Mount of Olives.
*The word "lamb" is not in the Greek text of Mark 14:12, and
nowhere in Scripture is it associated with the word "Passover" but was added by
modern translators. The Passover victim could be a lamb or a goat kid (see Ex 12:5, where the Hebrew word seh refers to an animal "of the flock").
St. Mark identifies the day of sacrifice for the Passover victims at the Temple's liturgical worship service: On the first day of the Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover, his disciples said to him, "Where do you desire that going we may prepare that you may eat the Passover?" (Mk 14:12; literal translation IBGE, Vol. IV, page 140, underlining added for emphasis). John 12:1 identifies the Passover sacrifice as the sixth day from Jesus's Sabbath meal with friends in Bethany (as the ancients counted with Saturday counting as day #1). According to the Law, the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Passover sacrifice, was to take place in a liturgical service (Ex 12:6; Lev 23:6; Num 28:16). Jesus's crucifixion was on Friday, the day before the next Jewish Sabbath called "Preparation day" (for the Sabbath) in the Gospels (Mk 15:42; Jn 19:14, 31; since the Jewish day ended and began at sundown, their "evening" was our afternoon and early evening until sunset).
The Old Testament lists the Passover and the week-long celebration of Unleavened Bread as two separate feasts (i.e., Ex 12 -13; Lev 23:4-8; Num 28:16-25). Unleavened Bread was one of three pilgrim feasts that required every man of the covenant, no matter where they lived, to attend the seven-day feast that began at sundown the day of the Passover sacrifice (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:5-17; 2 Chr 8:13). However, in the time of Jesus, the names of the two feasts were interchangeable and referred to the entire eight holy days (Lk 22:1). The Jewish priest and historian, Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) recorded that in his time, the term "Passover" came to mean the celebration of both feasts as one festival event: "As this happened at the time when the feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated, which we call the Passover" (Antiquities of the Jews 14.2.1; also see 17.9.3; Jewish Wars, 5.3.1). Like Josephus, St. John only refers to the two feasts as "Passover," as Jews do today. However, modern Jews do not technically keep Passover. They keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the 15th-21st because there is no longer a Temple, sacrificial altar, or even a priest to legitimately offer a Passover sacrifice.
In the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Old and New Testaments, the Passover victim is never referred to as the Passover "lamb," as in many English translations. The animal could be a lamb or a goat-kid (Ex 12:5). The instructions for selecting the victims in the first Passover in Egypt required the people to choose: A flock-animal, a perfect one, a male, a yearling shall be to you. You shall take from the sheep or from the goats. And it shall be for you to keep until the fourteenth day of this month. And all the assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the evenings [twilights] (Ex 12:5-6, IBHE, vol. I, page 170). Between the "twilights" is a time marker for between dawn and dusk, which is noon.
St. Luke tells us the two disciples Jesus sent to make the necessary preparations were the Apostles Peter and John Zebedee (Lk 22:8). The residents of Jerusalem generously opened their homes to Jewish pilgrims during the Passover (Nisan 14th)/Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15-21). They also provided rooms for the sacred meal of the Passover victim, which had to be eaten within the walls of the holy city on the first night after the Passover sacrifice earlier that day. Sundown on the day of the sacrifice was the beginning of the next day, Nisan the 15th, the first day of the seven-day pilgrim Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The owner of the banquet chamber must have already secured the Passover goat-kid or lamb for Jesus, perhaps on the 10th of Nisan when God commanded the selection of the Passover lambs and kids for the first Passover (Ex 12:3). The 10th of Nisan was the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as the "chosen" victim of sacrifice. John 12:1 identified the day for the Passover sacrifice as six days from Jesus's dinner with friends in Bethany, which was the day before Palm Sunday. Since the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place-value, that makes the day of the Passover sacrifice Thursday of Holy Week, a Christian tradition for 2,000 years.
When Peter and John arrived at the house, they discovered an upper room already arranged with the banquet tables and the couches for reclining at the meal (Mk 14:15a). However, Peter and John still needed to make some necessary preparations (Mt 26:19). They needed to secure an adequate supply of red wine for the banquet's four ritual communal cups and the wine the guests were to consume individually during the meal (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:1C). They needed to ensure that there were stone vessels filled with enough water for the three ritual hand-washings during the meal. They also had to provide the other necessary foods for the women to prepare for the dinner. And, if not already prepared, they needed to set up a roasting pit and spit of pomegranate wood to roast the Passover sacrifice (Mishnah: Pesahim, 7:1B).
In addition to all those arrangements, Peter and John had to personally inspect the premises to be sure that all leaven, a sign of sin, had been removed (Ex 13:7). According to Mosaic Law, before noontime on the day of the Passover sacrifice, it was necessary to remove all leaven from their homes for the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex 13:6-7; Mishnah: Pesahim, 1:3-1:4). They were also required to begin a fast at noon: On the eve of Passover [meal] from just before the afternoon's daily whole offering, a person should not eat until it gets dark (Mishnah: Pesahim, 10:1A).
The "afternoon's daily whole-burnt offering" mentioned in the Mishnah passage above was the afternoon liturgical worship service and sacrifice of the Tamid. The Tamid was the sacrifice of two unblemished lambs offered as a "single sacrifice" (Ex 29:38-42) in two liturgical services (morning and afternoon), seven days a week. God ordained the Tamid a perpetual sacrifice for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant people (see the book "Jesus and the Mystery of the Tamid Sacrifice," or order at Amazon). The "eve of Passover" refers to the Passover meal eaten on the first night of Unleavened Bread (the Mishnah and the writings of the Rabbis only refer to the entire eight days as "Passover," as does the Gospel of John). That night Jesus's disciples were going to begin a journey that would reveal the fulfillment of Jesus's prophecy concerning His Passion and Resurrection and change the destiny of humanity forever.
The Temple hierarchy always set the date of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th of Nisan according to the lunar calendar on the night of the first full moon of the spring equinox (Ex 12:8; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16; Mishnah: Pesahim, 1:1; Philo, Special Laws, II, 151, 155). Before Jesus offered Himself in the transformed bread and wine at the meal that night, St. Mark records that they reclined at table and were eating (Mk 14:18, 22, IBGE Vol, IV, pages 140 and 142; emphasis added). They were eating unleavened bread, bitter herbs, a fruit mixture, the meat of the festival communion offering, and the Passover victim in the traditional feast of the Passover. Sharing a meal was a sign of communion among friends and with the Lord God (Gen 26:30; 31:54; 1 Sam 9:24 and Ex 24:9-11; Lev 7:11-21; Dt 12:4-7, 11, 26-27).
Mark 14:22-26 ~ The Last Supper and the Institution of the
Eucharist
22 While they were eating, he took bread, said the
blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."
23 Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank
from it. 24 He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be
shed for many. 25 Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the
vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." 26 Then, after
singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Notice that Jesus did not offer His disciples the sacred
meal of the New Covenant until after they had already been eating (verse
22; also see Mt 26:26; Lk 22:14-18); then, He offered them the gift of the
first Eucharist:
According to the rules of the meal, after everyone ate the Passover sacrifice, no other food was to be consumed, and the last two communal cups of wine were offered to the guests. The last two cups were the third cup, called the Cup of Blessing or Salvation/Redemption (1 Cor 10:16), and the fourth cup that concluded the meal was called the Cup of Consecration or Acceptance.
It was necessary to offer the sacred communion meal of the New Covenant in the context of the Old Covenant sacred meal. The Apostles needed to understand that Jesus was instituting a new sacred meal to replace the Old Covenant meals of the Passover and the communion toda/thanksgiving. Jesus broke with the ritual traditions for the second time that night by offering more food after eating the Passover victim. The first break with tradition was washing the Apostles' feet at the beginning of the meal (Jn 13:4-10), probably replacing one of the three ritual hand-washings. Priests washed their hands and feet before entering the Temple Sanctuary. This addition to the meal and the fact that Jesus was wearing a seamless priestly garment identifies the Last Supper as a liturgical celebration (Jn 19:23).
22 he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave
it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."
The Greek verb translated as "gave thanks" is euchristeo.
It is the origin of the Church's name for the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which
commemorates the Last Supper and becomes the New Covenant Toda. The Greek text
of the Old Testament translates the Sinai Covenant ritual communion of the Toda
as eucharistia.
24 He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
The phrase "blood of the covenant" is the same that Moses used
in the covenant formula he announced at the ratification of the Sinai Covenant
(Ex 24:8). The Last Supper is not only the New Covenant sacred meal but a
covenant ratification ceremony in the presence of God the Son in the same way
the representatives of the covenant people ate in the presence of God at Mt. Sinai
(Ex 24:9-11).
Take a moment to reflect that Jesus's statement is absolutely shocking. Not only does it suggest His violent death in the shedding of His blood, but He asks them to violate a prohibition of the Noahide and Sinai Covenants against consuming raw flesh or drinking blood (Gen 9:4; Lev 3:17; 7:26-27; 17:10-12, 14; 19:26; Dt 12:16, 23-24). It is as shocking as His statement in the Bread of Life Discourse that caused many of Jesus's disciples to walk away from Him (Jn 6:60, 66) when He said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day" (Jn 6:54).
The blood of a living creature was the means God provided for the atonement of humanity's sins; therefore, consuming blood was a prohibition for the people of God, and the punishment for the violation of this prohibition was ex-communication (Lev 7:27; 17:14b). To drink the blood of animals as the pagans did was base and demeaning, but that was not His meaning. Jesus was inviting them to drink the glorified, supernaturally transformed Flesh and Blood of the Son of God to elevate them to a share in His own divine life!
Drinking wine symbolized joy, festivity, abundance, and covenant union (Ps 4:8; 23:5b; Is 62:9; Mt 27:27-28; Lk 22:20). In offering His disciples what He identifies as His Body and Blood, Jesus fulfills what He preached in the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:35-56. He promised to give them the living bread that came down from heaven with the promise that whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world (Jn 6:51). Jesus's gift of Himself carries the promise: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (Jn 6:54-56; see CCC 610-11).
In the Penitential Rite of the Mass, we confess our venial sins and receive forgiveness through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, in the Eucharist (CCC 1393-95, 1414; mortal sins must be confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation). It is then that we become cleansed and able to move from the Outer Courtyard of the Introduction Rites of the Mass and into the Holy Place of the Liturgy of the Word.
In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we move forward to receive Christ in the sacred meal of the Eucharist, entering the Holy of Holies of the Mass and the Presence of God. St. Paul warned the faithful that before receiving the Eucharist, one must come to the altar cleansed of sin and believe that Christ's Body and Blood are present or risk condemnation by God's judgment. He wrote, Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:27-29).
In the Eucharistic banquet of the New Covenant faithful, after the priest in "Persona Christi" (in the Person of Christ) offers the Body and Blood of the Christ that is a genuine, pure, and holy sacrifice, the congregation moves forward toward the altar of sacrifice (spiritually mid-way between Heaven and earth) into God's presence. The assembly of the faithful, while still on earth, joins the presence of Christ in the heavenly Sanctuary. The faithful eat a sacred communion meal in the Presence of God, just as Moses and Israel's covenant representatives ate in the presence of God on the slopes of Mt. Sinai (Ex 24:9-11) and as Jesus's disciples did at the Last Supper. Our sacred meal of the Eucharist looks back, remembering Jesus's Last Supper, but also looks forward, anticipating eternal life in the Presence of God when we will celebrate the communion of Saints in the heavenly banquet of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church (Rev 19:6-9). Until then, in the New Covenant Toda of the Eucharist's sacred "thanksgiving" meal, we renew our commitment to our covenant with the Holy Trinity in the Body and Blood of the Living Christ.
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Exodus 24:3-8 (CCC 2060*);
24:7 (CCC 2060*);
24:8 (CCC 613*)
Psalm 116:12 (CCC 224); 116:13 (CCC 1330*); 116:17 (CCC 1330*)
Hebrews 9:11 (CCC 586*, 662); 9:12 (CCC 1085); 9:13-14 (CCC 1962*, 1963*, 1964*, 2100*); 9:14 (CCC 614*); 9:15 (CCC 522, 579*, 580, 592*)
Mark 14:12-25 (CCC 1339*); 14:18-20 (CCC 474*); 14:22 (CCC 1328); 14:25 (CCC 1335*, 1403*); 14:26 (CCC 474*)
The Holy Eucharist (CCC 790*, 1003*, 1322-1419)
The Eucharist and the communion of believers (CCC 805, 950, 2181-2182, 2637, 2845*)
The Eucharist as spiritual food (CCC 1212, 1275, 1436, 2837*)
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