June 22, 2000 -- Feast of
Corpus Christi "B" -- Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland, UK
Exodus 24, 3-8; Hebrews 9, 11-15; Mark 14, 12...26
H O M I L Y
What
we celebrate on this Feast of Corpus Christi is the mystery of life, the
triumph of life over death. That triumph was realised through two covenants
between God and humankind; and each one of them was sealed in blood.
In
the creation God gave humankind the gift of life, which was a participation in
His own divine nature. Through sin, the
first man and woman brought death on themselves and their descendants, and one of their sons shed the blood of his
own brother. From that time on God
wanted to redeem humankind -- to bring man and woman back to life -- to the
fullness of life. In that process of
restoration, God first made a covenant with Abraham our father in the faith, a
man who spoke to Him face to face, as with a friend. Later on, after the flight from Egypt, God made a Covenant with
the whole people of Israel. The story
of that Covenant was explained to us in the first reading. Because man is profoundly violent, and is
prone to shedding blood, the people of Israel, in that ritual of Covenant with
god, is called to live out its violence by shedding the blood of animals rather
than shedding the blood of his brothers.
Then,
in the end of times, a new Covenant is established between God and humankind.
and this new Covenant is also sealed in blood, since blood is the most basic
expression of life. But it is not
sealed in a symbolic sacrifice, nor in the blood of animals and their
offering. It is sealed in the blood of
the Son of God.
Jesus'
death was not a ritual sacrifice. It
was a murder as was that of Abel. When
Cain killed Abel, violence and death began to prevail in the history of
humankind. But when Jesus was killed
and when his blood was spilled, his body and his blood became the source of
life for all those who believed in him.
This
connection between the life that is given as food in the Eucharist and Jesus'
death, is well expressed in the last sentence of today's Gospel. Jesus and his disciples go, indeed, straight
from the Cenacle to the Mount of Olives. By his death Jesus realised what he
had come for. He was sent by the Father
and was born so that we may have life and have it to the full. Which is what he brought us through his
death.
The
description of the last Supper in Mark is very striking. That moment was prepared from the very birth
of Jesus. This is somewhat expressed in
the New Testament in the very use of vocabulary. (I beg you to allow me a few words of exegesis). In the first
chapters of his Gospel, Luke shows Mary offering us her Son as food by placing
him in a manger already wrapped in bands of cloth as it is normally done with a
dead body. Luke says that Mary did that
because there was no place for them in the "guest house". Now the
word used here by Luke and that the New Testament translations usually
translate by "inn" or "guest house" is a rare Greek word (katalyma)
that is used only one other time in the New Testament. it is used (both in Luke and in Mark) to
describe the room where Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples. In
today's gospel Jesus says to his disciple to ask the man whom they will meet in
the city : "Where is my guest room, my kataluma. At the beginning
there was no place, because the time had not come ... Now there is place for
Jesus and his disciples in that guest room.
And therefore the time has come for him to die. And it is by making
himself voluntarily the victim of men's violence that He will free all of us of
our own violence.
When
we celebrate the Eucharist, we do not only commemorate the Last Supper. We draw from the life that was given to us
by Jesus through his death and Resurrection.