Eucharist: The Essence of Life
by Paulist Fr. Rich Andre
June 3, 2018

Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Year B) on June 7, 2015 at St. John XXIII Parish and Catholic Center in Knoxville, TN. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116; Hebrews 9:11-15; and Mark 14:12-16, 22-26.



We commonly call today’s feast day by its Latin shorthand name, Corpus Christi. That literally means “the Body of Christ.” However, our readings this year seem to emphasize the part of the formal name that is omitted in the shorthand. The full title of today’s feast is “the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.” And all of our readings today talk about blood.

It’s OK if that freaks us out. What we think about blood today, and what our Jewish ancestors thought about blood 3200 years ago, are very different. Many Americans love violent shoot-‘em-up movies. Sometimes it seems as if the box-office rating is directly proportional to the amount of blood spilled!

In ancient times, when two tribes in the Middle East made a covenant with each other, the leaders of both tribes would often dip their hands in the blood of an animal as a ritual of sealing the covenant. (This is similar in society today when two people ceremonially mingle their blood to become what is called “blood brothers.”) But the early Israelites saw blood as sacred. So many of the laws of the Torah – about the treatment of animals, about food, about ritual purity, and about health – revolve around the belief that all blood belonged to God. It was the source of life. So, when we hear about the Israelites being sprinkled with blood to signify their acceptance of God’s covenant, let’s not think of violent, profane movies. Let’s think of a ritual of purifcation and sanctification.


May is perhaps the most refreshing month of the year for those of us who work at St. John XXIII Parish. It was definitely true for me this year. This was due in part to the temporary departure of many of our undergraduate students, two weekends when I did not have to prepare a homily, and Andrea Sirek’s enthusiasm for helping me to organize and purge. I doubt that I’ll ever be completely organized, but I’m definitely more organized than I was a few weeks ago!

Fortunately, my theology notes are easier to access, so I was able to locate some comments I remembered Professor John Burkhard making in my Christology class seven years ago. We need to understand the Jewish respect for blood as sacred before we talk about this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Our reading from Hebrews today makes reference to something all Hebrew-speaking people would have been familiar with at that time: the rituals associated with holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Yom Kippur was the day for the nation of Israel and all individual Israelites to atone for their sins. It was a day of fasting and abstaining from all normal human activities, to return to an unblemished state before the Fall in the Garden of Eden. On Yom Kippur, the high priest presented two goats to the people at the door of the tabernacle. He then slaughtered one of them called “The Lord’s Goat.” Then he entered the holy of holies of the Temple – the only moment of the year that anyone stood before the ark of the covenant – and sprinkled the lid, called the “mercy seat,” with the blood of the Lord’s Goat. Later in the day, the high priest confessed the sins of the people and symbolically placed them on the head of the other goat, called the scapegoat. The scapegoat was then sent off into the wilderness, carrying off the sins of the people, never to be seen again.

So, with all that in mind, let’s pray again with part of our second reading:

When Christ came as high priest
of the good things that have come to be,
passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves
but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.

Does this make more sense now?

What does all of this have to do with the Eucharist we gather to celebrate every week? After Jesus ascended to the Father and the disciples received the Holy Spirit, they had to figure out how they would carry out Jesus’ Great Commission. Of all the things that Jesus did while he was on earth, the disciples chose that their weekly gathering would focus on the actions recounted in just five verses of Mark’s gospel. “Take it; this is my body.” “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”

Every time we gather for Mass, we place all of who we are – our hopes and dreams, our talents and our failings – on the bread and wine on the altar. And then, through a miracle of God, they are transformed into the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, our High Priest who has permanently entered God’s sanctuary. In our singing the great Amen together and in our individual “Amen”s as we come forward to receive the body and blood of the Lamb of God, we assent once again to the covenant God has made with us.

We take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. And as the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ once more touches our lips, we are purified. We are sanctified. We receive the source of life. We are infused with the Holy Spirit. We receive the grace to continue to live out the covenant with God and with one another.

All that the LORD has said, may we continue to heed and do! Amen.