The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Ex. 24:3-8; Psalm 115; Heb. 9:11-15; Mk. 14:12-16, 22-26

Read: Then he sent two of his disciples and told then: “Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, ‘The Master says: Where is my dining room in which I can eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.”

As they were eating, he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing, he broke it and gave it to them saying: “Take it, this is my body. Then he took a cup, gave thanks and said: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many”.

Reflect: The Eucharist is a community meal, it is bread that is distributed to brethren, because, the community is a sign of a new humanity, that was born with Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. The door of the “large upper room, all prepared” that is mentioned by Christ, which is wide open for everybody to enter. The meal of God’s kingdom, proclaimed by the prophets, is prepared “for all people” (Is. 25:6).

Everybody is welcomed therein; nobody is denied entry. For God, nobody is limpid or profane, those who are deserving and those who are not; in the presence of the Eucharist everybody is at the same level; everybody is a sinner, we are all undeserving, but we are all invited to enter in communion with Christ.

The bread is Christ and the chalice containing His blood creates a community of brethren with Christ and with one another, so that thus they form a new people whose only law is to serve brethren up to the point that, like Christ, they render their lives as “food” that satisfies every form of mankind’s hunger.

Pray: You are the good shepherd, the true bread, our Jesus, have mercy on us, feed us and take care of us. You show us bounty in the blessed land of the living.

 Act: “Everyone who believes that we are fed by the Body given him and the Blood that was bled for him, will acquire the strength with which, on his part, transforms himself into a gift, as is said by St. Augustine: “Be that who receives, and receive what you are”. (Discourse 272,1) (St. Pope John Paul II)