A Cycle – Feast of the Body and blood of Christ 23

Ex. 8: 2-3; 14b-16a

Do not forget, the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of slavery. How many times did Moses during the Exodus encourage the Israelites to never forget.  He continually was frustrated by the grumbling, the doubting, and their lack of faith in God.  He constantly wase reminding them to remember the times God showed up and encouraged them not to be overwhelmed by those times God seemed to have forgotten them.  He tells them to never forget how God guided them through the desert where there was no water, no food and how everything seemed to be worse than the slavery they begged him to free them from.

We too should remember because our own lives are filled with struggles and disappointments.  We too need someone to remind us of what God has done for us.  That is exactly what we do each time we gather to celebrate the Pascal Mystery. We remember and we give thanks for the gift of freedom from the slavery of sin. 

God who identified himself to Moses as a God of mercy, kindness, fidelity and who is slow to anger and abounding in love.  Yet when we are thirsty, or hungry or simply tired of walking in the desert year after year it is easy to forget God’s desire for is to “restore what the locust have eaten” (Joel 2:25).  In fact, I would bet most of us have doubts about God’s desire to free us because we have never felt the freedom of total and complete forgiveness.  Freedom is a fleeting emotion for us because the obstacles become our focus not the God who is always there offering us freedom and a new life.

I love the fact we begin our Liturgy of the Word with this passage from the Old Testament.  I love it because I see in this story how the death of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb is a repeat of the story of the Exodus. We are in bondage to so many things that hold us captive and enslave us. We want the freedom God offers us and we acknowledge God sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin.  Yet, at the same time we long for something to happen within us, allowing us to feel God’s knows and cares about what we are seeking. 

That is where the Israelites were when God compelled Moses to go and set his people free.  Let jump forward to when Moses confronted Pharaoh and at each confrontation the conditions of the Israelites grew worse.  Yet as plague after plague hit Egypt, Pharaoh stubbornly resisted and rained havoc on the Israelites.  The final plague was the first born of all Egyptians would die but the Israelites would be spared because the blood of a sacrificial lamb would protect them and allow them to escape the wrath of the angel of death. 

Freedom came that night and the afternoon of Good Friday another lamb’s blood set us free from the wrath of the angel of death seeking to kill our relationship with God. 

What we do here today, on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, is to give thanks for that gift.  More than giving thanks we once again remember, and we can allow that sacrifice to touch us and give us new life.  I do not want to get into how this happens because the truth is the concept of transubstantiation. It is confusing enough, and we are not the first to wrestle with the concept of eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ. Those who heard Jesus say, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you walked away for it was too impossible a thought (Jn.6:60).  

Even with our limited understanding of what is happening each Sunday one thing is certain, we are there to give thanks and yes receive what Christ offers us as we eat his body and drink his blood.  Life, freedom and yes understanding and faith in the Holy Spirits power to change us just as He changes bread into the flesh of Jesus.  Every Sunday, we are participants in a miracle in which we can embrace the gift of new life by acknowledging what Peter acknowledged when asked the disciples if they too would leave.  Peter responded, where would we go, you have the words of everlasting life (jn.6:68).

The entirety of the Liturgy of the Eucharist is centered on this transformation of ordinary bread into the Body of Christ.  This is not symbolically happening, but it is happening on the altar as the Priest repeats the words of Jesus. Think about the promise of God to change our hearts so that we would follow His laws and commands by the action of the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:33).  If God can change us from sinners into saints, then God can change anything He desires to change.  Then how hard is it to believe God will achieve something to allow us to eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus so we can have eternal life. 

Pay attention and listen as the priest in prayer repeats the same words Jesus used at the Last Supper and says, “this is my Body this is my blood.”  Those words are just as powerful as when at creation when the Spirit hovered over a vast and empty waste land and God said, “let there be light.”’  Instantly what was changes into something very different and at the same time very life giving.   

That creative power of the Holy Spirit is present at every liturgy as God once again offers up for us His Son so that we may have life.