Body And Blood

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" 

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. 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?"' Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there." The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover. 

While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. 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." Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26)

Ronald Rolheiser gives us another insight into the Eucharist. He said, “Both bread and wine are paradoxical.  Bread is both a symbol: of joy, togetherness, health, and achievement (the smell of fresh bread and the primal beauty of a loaf of bread) even as it is made up of broken kernels of wheat that had to be crushed in their individuality and be baked in fire to become that bread. 

Wine is both a festive drink, the drink of celebration, of wedding, even as it is the product of crushed grapes and represents the blood of Jesus and the blood and suffering of all that is crushed in our world and in our lives.” [from Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist, 2011]

We are all broken and crushed in one way or another.  The Eucharist should remind us of that reality and that Jesus shed his blood for many.  He offers us hope and shares our suffering.  

Deacon David Pierce