“The New Covenant”

BIBLE READINGS

Ex 24:3-8 // Heb 9:11-15 // Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

N.B. This new series of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY presents a biblico-liturgical study of the First Reading of each Sunday Mass to serve as background for a better understanding of the Gospel proclaimed in the liturgy. For a biblico-liturgical study of the Gospel for each Sunday, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

When I was a student in elementary grades, one of my favorite subjects was Social Studies. I enjoyed Philippine History and was enthralled when I saw a painting entitled, “The Blood Compact”. It showed the Spanish conquistador, Legazpi and a local chieftain, Rajah Lakandula seated at a table, with a cup and a knife lying on top of it. Their arms were bleeding. According to the explanation of our teacher, they were having a blood compact. They were sharing a drink, mixed with each other’s blood, from a common cup to ratify a compact or a covenant. They were to treat each other as blood brothers and share a life at the level of intimate friendship. The succeeding events of Philippine history, however, would show that the meaning of the blood compact they have made was not really respected. Spain subjugated the Philippines and made it a colony.

Today is the solemn feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The core of this Sunday’s Gospel (Mk 14:12-16, 22-26) is the account of Jesus’ actions and words at the Last Supper, which he shared with his disciples. He broke the bread and shared the cup of wine, saying: “This is my body … This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed for many” (verses 23-24). The breaking of the bread signifies the saving event of the body of Jesus being broken and wounded at the paschal sacrifice for the life of the world. The drinking of the cup signifies the redeeming event of his blood being poured out on the cross – the blood of the eternal covenant - which ratifies God’s intimate relationship with the new, redeemed people he was constituting as his own.

The Church invites us today to focus our attention on the meaning of the new and eternal covenant that Christ ratified with his sacrificial blood. The Old Testament reading (Ex 24:3-8) provides us with a deeper perspective on the meaning of the new, definitive and everlasting covenant in his blood.

The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly comments on the Exodus reading: “ This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you … When Moses pronounced those words at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they must have struck an awesome note in the minds and hearts of the Hebrew people standing about. They had just seen Moses splash half of the blood of the young sacrificed bulls on the altar that symbolized God. The rest of the blood he sprinkled on them. That strikes us as a strange rite, indeed. But it had a powerful meaning for those people. The blood, as always in the Scriptures, symbolized life. Sprinkled on the altar and on the people, it symbolized a community of life shared by God and Israel. God, moved only by love, was making a covenant with them. He shared his life; they responded by keeping his law. The religious experience was what constituted Israel as a unique people, God’s special people. Though they did not realize it at the time, that covenant was an anticipation of another and new covenant, whereby a new people of God would be constituted, this time with no restrictions as to race or nationality. Blood was to be a symbol of the new covenant, too. The new covenant is, of course, the one made by God through Jesus Christ with all people. And the blood of Christ, shed on Calvary, symbolizes the new life God shares with us.”

Blood is life in its most elemental form. The Italian born, liturgical theologian Romano Guardini explains: “Blood belongs to God, the Lord of all life. The flowing of the sacrificial blood in the Old Testament is an acknowledgment of His sovereignty … It is simply the recognition and prayerful acknowledgment that God alone is Lord! Upon the conception of streaming blood as an expression of ultimate obedience, then, God places His covenant … We are Christians because of a covenant. This thought must complement the other, more familiar concept of rebirth and the new creation. Covenant and rebirth: individual dignity and responsibility, and the abundance of the new life. The two great concepts belong together, for they mutually sustain one another.”

The salutary feast of Corpus Christi – of the Body and Blood of Christ – reminds us of the tremendous depths of our faith and helps us consider the challenging implications as a people of the new and eternal covenant. The celebration is an invitation to respond and to surrender ourselves completely to the loving God who had initiated this covenant and had brought it to fulfillment through the outpouring of the blood of his Son Jesus Christ.

Romano Guardini concludes: “Holy Mass is the commemoration of God’s new covenant with men. Awareness of this gives the celebration an added significance that is most salutary. To keep this thought in mind is to remind ourselves that Christ’s sacrificial death opened for us the new heaven and the new earth; that there exists between Him and us a contract based not on nature or talent or religious capacity, but on grace and freedom; that it is binding from person to person, loyalty to loyalty. At every Mass we should reaffirm that contract and consciously take our stand in it.”

PERSONAL REFLECTION: Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

By Rev. Fr. Paul Griesgraber

St. Andrew Parish. Pasadena CA-U.S.A.

What would you rather have, your debts paid off, or to receive an inheritance? Well, I guess that would depend on what’s in the inheritance. How about if you could have both?

The readings from Mark and Hebrews show us that the new covenant that Jesus gives us has two parts: paying off our debts and receiving an eternal inheritance. In the feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrate Jesus’ gift to us of the covenant of his blood. By this, he cleanses us of our transgressions, forgiving our debts of sin. And that’s just for starters!

What’s more, we are called to receive His promised eternal inheritance! Besides the wonderful gift of being saved from our sins, Jesus, by offering us his body and his blood of the covenant, also offers us his own glorious inheritance as the Son of God who has suffered, died and is now risen in glory.

We are called to cash-in on Christ’s covenant gift to us in his body and his blood – the covenant for the forgiveness of our sins and, we are also called to begin living in our new, real and true inheritance as children of God.

When Jesus taught us how to pray, he told us to pray for both parts of the new covenant, freedom from our debts and our new, eternal inheritance. In the Our Father, we pray for the forgiveness of sins, and we also pray for our inheritance of the kingdom. Because Christ has shared his inheritance with us, the kingdom of his Father has become our kingdom too. And we want to live his kingdom on earth just as Jesus encourages us to pray: “… your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

In the new covenant of his blood Jesus offers us the forgiveness of our sins and his glorious inheritance as the Son of God. In the feast of Corpus Christi we celebrate and are delighted to have our sins forgiven and being true children of God. With our sins forgiven, we don’t mind forgiving. And because we are so wealthy in our new divine inheritance we don’t mind sharing.

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

Do I try to glean the true meaning of God’s covenant love for us? Do I render praise and thanksgiving for the saving body and blood of Christ that brought us liberation from sin and constituted us into God’s holy people? How does the reality of God’s gift of forgiveness of sins and the eternal inheritance of his kingdom shape my daily life as a Christian?

What are concrete implications for me as a participant in the body of Christ and in the blood of the new eternal covenant? How do I share the body and blood of Christ in today's distressed world and anguish of human society? Is my life “bread broken and shared” and a “cup of eternal covenant” poured out for the life of the world?

What do I do to make the celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ more meaningful for the life of the worshipping community? Do I spend time to glean the incredible riches of the Eucharist? Do I spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament? Am I willing to participate in “Forty Hours Adoration” and Eucharistic processions meant to manifest our devotion to the Eucharist publicly?

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD

Leader: Father,

you have brought to fulfillment the work of our redemption

through the Easter mystery of Christ your Son.

May we who faithfully proclaim his death and resurrection

in these sacramental signs

of “bread broken and shared” and of “the cup of eternal covenant”

experience the constant growth of your salvation in our lives.

May the Eucharist be for us

the sign of unity and the bond of charity.

By the body and blood of Christ

join all peoples of all races and diverse cultures in brotherly love.

May we be faithful to your covenant love

and observe your law and commands which lead to everlasting life.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Assembly: Amen.

IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD

The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.

“This is my body … This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed for many” (Mk 14:23-24).

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

ACTION PLAN: Resolve to incarnate the saving mystery of the death and rising of Jesus, the Eucharistic Master, in your daily life. Endeavor to protect the rights of all people for whom his body was broken and his blood poured out. Make an effort to participate in private and public manifestations of love for the Eucharist on this feast of Corpus Christi.

ACTION PLAN: To help us glean the vital significance and the urgent implications of the gift of the body and blood of Christ to the Church, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 2, n. 30): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.

Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM

PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI

SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER

60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314

Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323

Website: WWW.PDDM.US

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