Mass readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ:
Exodus 24.3-8 Psalm 118.12-13, 15-18 Hebrews 9.11-15 Mark 14.12-16, 22-26
I have a little card on the bulletin board in my office. On it is a quote from St. John Paul II. It says,
“In that little Host is the solution to the problems of the world.” He’s referring, of course, to the Eucharist.
That seems an unbelievable claim. The problems of the world, really? This will sort out Gaza? Ukraine? Sudan? Nigeria? For that matter, Canada?
My problems? Your problems? The problems of us little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Sadly, most Catholics share in this scepticism. We know that because 4 out of 5 do not regularly attend mass, and so, don’t participate in the Eucharist in any way.
Christianity is a victim of its own success. I’ve mentioned the historian Tom Holland before, his scholarship makes a persuasive argument that the people of the Western World are Christians through and through even as they eschew membership in the Church or any other Christian community; even if they are members of other religions! The values they hold are derived from Christianity, and they are either unwittingly faithful or heretics, but whatever they are, they can only be understood in reference to Christianity. That is, I think they know what the Eucharist is about, but dare not give themselves over to it, admit a need for our Lord.
It’s within this context I speak about the Eucharist on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. Some scoff at the idea that bread is changed in its substance into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ; and then, we literally consume the substance of the divine in the communion rite. For others still, the idea that it is a sacrifice is troubling; and we get distress over the idea that God would have his son killed, no matter how worthy the cause – why could God not find another solution? Others would prefer this simply be “the Lord’s Supper,” as it is congenial to the idea of the Church as community – why not move past the idea of its being an actual sacrifice and that we eat the victim, and look at it more as a commemorative event like the funeral receptions we have today? Let’s remember the good times, the love we have for Jesus, raise a glass and break bread together as he would want us to… if he were here.
Many have forgotten that blood sacrifice is a meal; it always has been. Catholicism has not mashed two things together: the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the Last Supper – these were always one thing. Today the only religious communities that have sacrifice as the primary form of worship are either relatively obscure indigenous cults or Christianity as expressed in Catholicism and Orthodoxy (sorry, not Protestantism). However, in the ancient world that the apostles knew most religions had sacrifice, indeed blood sacrifice, at their heart. To an observer, what the Jews did in the Jerusalem Temple and pagans did at their own temples was the same.
And it worked basically like this:
If I sensed I had offended a god; or that I had received a blessing, I would go to that god’s temple and make either an atoning sacrifice for my offense, or a thanksgiving sacrifice in appreciation. I could also make a sacrifice as a gift to a god in hopes of having a prayer answered.
The sacrifice, an animal I would provide, would be taken by the priest, be killed on the altar, then butchered into pieces, and placed on the holy fire – and be cooked. A portion would come to me; a portion would be kept by the priest, and the remaining choicest portion would be left to be consumed by the flames, the smoke carrying the offering up to the god. I, and perhaps others, would consume my portion, the priest consumed his, or gave it to the poor, whatever; and the understanding is that we had a meal together: me, the priest and the god. The ancients understood that eating together was a profound act of intimacy and trust. Friends eat together, reconciled enemies eat together, partners enter into contracts, and consummate them in a meal. Meals are important in the deep psychology of human beings.
Occasionally, the one offering a sacrifice had offended profoundly. So, the whole animal must be consumed in the flames and sent up to the god. As a consequence of the horrors of the last century, we actually know the Hebrew word for this total sacrifice: a Holocaust.
I mentioned that the Church, Catholic and Orthodox communities, alone possesses the capacity to sacrifice to God through the Eucharist. Saint Paul tells us that the sacrifice of the Eucharist is Christ, and that the bread we break, is a sharing in the body of Christ. That is, we have that meal I spoke of, that meal of thanksgiving, of reconciling, of consummation of covenant, with God, and as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, with the high priest who is Christ. We’re all at this table.
And so successful has the Eucharist been, that it has driven out from the world, with small exceptions, blood sacrifice as a religious practice while retaining for the Church a sacrament that effects all those things that humanity sought to have through the uncounted years of sacrificing animals, and sadly at times, human beings, to false gods and demons.
The Muslims do have the festival of Eid – but that isn’t the same thing. It’s expressly commemorative of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of, well not Isaac, but rather that of Ishmael. There’s no understanding of an actual participation in a heavenly meal such as we have. It does not reconcile; it does not forge or renew a covenant. Perhaps, it can be interpreted as a thank offering.
Judaism once had blood sacrifices, but those ended with the Temple’s destruction; the Passover meal is not a sacrificial meal, but again, a commemorative one.
On the margins of Hinduism we find blood sacrifice, but these are propitiatory acts not participatory ones – there’s no meal with the gods, but rather an attempt to satisfy a hungry deity and avert his anger.
It’s really only in the Eucharist that we break bread with God, are fed by God, and fed from God. Through the flesh of Christ under the species of bread, the substance of God is consumed; and by this regular, consistent nourishment, we are nurtured toward holiness as we are reconciled with God and our neighbour.
And we know this has transformative power, but also that this is a gradual transformation. Our conversion may begin in an instant, when we give ourselves to God in humility, contrition, joy and thankfulness, but our total sanctification is not instantaneous. This is no more the case than when we look in the mirror, notice how unhealthy we are and resolve to eat better. If we only have one good meal a month, the rest of the time eat fast food, our health will not improve.
Now that’s about individual transformation. Recent polling shows that more than a third of Canadians anticipate a world war in the next ten years, such is the rising sense of crisis. In the urgency of our present hour, with the tide of violence rising even in our local communities, how can we speak of the Eucharistic Host being the solution?
We look at the conflict in the Middle East and it appears as intractable as it is tragic. From a Christian perspective, we see all involved, not unlike ourselves, as sinners in need of redemption; but those nations and factions trapped by their cultures and their creeds, and without the means to transcend their humanity and actually bring God in his mercy and his grace among them, they cannot bring about the needed reconciliation in charity.
Briefly, to say that Palestinian Arabs were the first inhabitants of the land of Israel is false. Indeed, the actual indigenous peoples of North Africa, the Levant and Mesopotamia are the Berbers, the Copts, the Syrians, Samaritans and the Jews. They were forcefully conquered by the Arabs. Conquering peoples cannot become indigenous simply through conquering other indigenous people. They can, however, coalesce with others and form a new community – and that would be my hope for Canada. We don’t see that in Egypt or Syria where the indigenous communities, Christian by religion, shrivel over the centuries to a small minority as they are persecuted generation upon generation. The Berbers converted to Islam, but are still a minority. The particular strain of Islam that is practiced by the mullahs who dominate Iran, is virulently, violently, opposed to Judaism. Their understanding of their faith compels them and their surrogates toward an intolerance of those who refuse Islam. This appears as an offense against God, a sacrilege. If this is all they know, if this is the truth for them, the elimination of Israel is a necessity.
More than half the Jewish population of Israel are descended from families that have been there for at least 3000 years. Another million or so come from those expelled from neighbouring Muslim countries; the rest are descended from those who came from Europe at the end of the Second World War, from the Nazi death camps or from where they were hiding. Judaism has no belief in resurrection. Their mandate from God, as popularly understood, is to survive. And that informs a lot of what is going on, the decisions being taken. And yes, some of these decisions are disturbing, even horrifying. I would not say that genocide is being done, but rather the morally distasteful practice of ethnic cleansing. They want the Gazans to leave and remove the ongoing moral dilemma they believe they face: to become what they abhor, or to be destroyed.
In my preaching, I often make reference to the political context in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. A not dissimilar dilemma faced people, Jew and Gentile alike. They saw a harsh, violent world, one of dog-eat-dog, and concluded that as beautiful as the vision of the peaceable kingdom was, in this world, it is naïve. Only by violence can the nation survive, and for the individual, self-concern is best. Yet Jesus offered something radically different: the surrender of one’s life to others, even unto death, death on a cross. But this sacrifice wasn’t to an angry god, but was a demonstration of God’s love that is life giving, life nurturing.
I know it is regarded now as a sign of intolerance, of a lack of genuine inclusivity to suggest to others, of other faiths, of no faith, that there is a better life for them as individuals, but also as community, and for us all as a world community, that the Way of Christ is the answer. It is in the Eucharist, the Body of Christ offered, sacrificed, broken and then given, that we have sign, symbol, and sacrament that saves. We see the example, the image resonates with profound meaning, and then we literally take its truth, its justice, its love within us, make Christ a part of us as we are made part of Him. By it we are strengthened for service, sanctified for God’s glory, and prepared to sacrifice with Christ our Lord for the redemption of the world. Amen.