June 15, 2006 -- Feast of Corpus Christi "B" -- Caldey Abbey, Wales, UK

Exodus 24, 3-8; Hebrews 9, 11-15; Mark 14, 12...26

H O M I L Y

The Evangelist Luke, at the beginning of his Gospel, has two beautiful introductory chapters that are apparently a description of Jesus’ birth and childhood but are rather, in fact, a presentation, in very symbolic terms, of all the great themes of the Gospel. In his chapter 2 (v.7), he presents to us Mary offering to us Her Son as food by placing him in a manger, already wrapped in bands of cloth as it was normally done not with a baby but with a dead body. Luke says that she did so because there was no place in the guest-house. The word that he uses here is a very rare Greek word (kata,luma) that means guest-house, resting place or dining room, and that we find only twice in the New Testament : there in the second chapter of Luke and in today’s Gospel, both in Luke’s gospel and in the parallel text of Mark that we just read – in the passage when Jesus sends his disciples to the town and tells them to say to the man they will meet : “The Lord asks : where is my dining room (my kata,luma)?” There was no place there at the time of his birth because his hour had not come. Now his hour has come.

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 Covenant with God, is called to live out its violence by shedding the blood of animals rather than shedding the blood of their own 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; not in the blood of animals. 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.

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.

Armand VEILLEUX

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