Eucharist Implies Service

Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

The symbolism of blood in the Hebrew Scriptures, with its references to sacrifice and covenant, is not only strange but also repugnant to our contemporary consciousness. Yet we cannot understand what the New Testament is saying about the death of Jesus and about our link with that death in the Eucharist without considering the ancient symbolism of blood.

The reading from Exodus presents that symbolism starkly. The people have been summoned to the solemnizing of the covenant with God. The 10 Commandments and the ritual code have been formally proclaimed, and of the people have accepted them: “We will do all that the Lord has told us.” It has been unofficially recorded in writing, and the time has come for the sacrificial ceremony that completes the covenant. An altar is set up at the foot of the mountains, and animals are slaughtered as offerings to be consumed. The blood is drained from them and divided into two parts. Half is poured over the altar –  which represents God. The covenant terms are read again in God’s name and are accepted again by voice vote of the people. When that is done, the remainder of the blood is poured or sprinkled over the people. Moses declares solemnly that this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with the people according to the terms that were proclaimed.

The ninth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews refers to this covenant and its ordinances, especially its ritual observances. Recalling particularly the sanctuary and the high priesthood with the annual offering of blood in the inner sanctuary, the text offers an analogy that interprets the meaning of the death of Jesus. This is the passage that is selected for today’s liturgy. Jesus is depicted as entering once for all into the true inner sanctuary of God’s presence, joining the human and the divine in his own sacrificial blood, thereby dedicating a new people. It is all couched in the language and imagery that looks back to the ritual tradition familiar in Israel. It demands that we try to imagine and understand the analogy so that we may consider what it may mean in terms of our own experience. Meanwhile the author of Hebrews has already broadened his cultural context by mixing another metaphor into the discourse – that of a dying man leaving a “last will and testament” which is set in motion by the death itself.

St. Mark’s Gospel gives us a terse description of the farewell supper. The conflict is come to a head; all that is wanting is the convenient moment for the betrayal that will take Jesus to his death. Passover arrangements are made secretly and swiftly, and Jesus gathers his disciples for a Last Supper that is built around the covenant theme. The traditional blessings of the unleavened bread of Passover and of the last four ritual cups of wine recall the ancient covenant of God’s people but are also invested with the entirely new significance of a covenant about to be completed in a new outpouring of blood. It is, in one sense, always the same covenant renewed and expanded to include more people though in another sense it is a new covenant. It is new because it has come to the heart of the matter, and old because the matter in hand is still the reconciliation of the human community to its God by a promise and commitment to be God’s chosen people.

I’m sure that we are all familiar enough with the story of the Last Supper. It is recounted in detail by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Matthew. However, in the Gospel of St. John, nothing is said about the bread and the wine. Instead, St. John sets the new covenant in terms of service exemplified by Jesus as he washes the feet of the disciples. They are upset by this because this is traditionally a service that is relegated to a slave. Yet Jesus tells them in no uncertain terms that they are to follow his example of service. We might ask why St. Mark and his fellow evangelists ignore this particular aspect of the new covenant. However, we would be mistaken if we think that to be true. All of the synoptic Gospels tell us how Jesus prepares for the Last Supper by sending Peter and John to find a place for their Passover supper. They are to look for a man who is carrying a jar of water who will then tell them where they can find an adequate place for their celebration. This little detail is often times overlooked or relegated to signifying some kind of prophetic insight on the part of Jesus. However, seeing a man carrying a jar of water would have been exceptional in first century Israel. Women were asked to do this task. Women were to go to the communal well and draw water which they placed in earthen jars and carried on their shoulders. This is not to say that men did not carry water in this culture. However, men carried water in animal skins, not in jars.

What John has signified in the washing of the feet, a job that is usually performed by a slave, the synoptic evangelists signified by this man carrying a jar of water – a man doing the work of women, a man who is serving the needs of his family. In this community, women were the servers. They prepared the meals, they drew the water, they baked the bread in the communal ovens. However, Jesus points toward a man who is taking on this task himself. The Eucharist which followed the form of the Passover meal was also invested with the notion that the Eucharist would not be complete unless the participants also offered their lives in service to one another.

As we come to this solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, we are asked to recall two important aspects that sometimes get overlooked. First of all, the covenant is sealed in the blood of Jesus. Unlike Jewish sacrifices in the temple which had to be repeated year after year, Jesus shed his blood once for all. Secondly, the covenant implies in a very concrete fashion that the people of the new covenant are not to relegate service to servants or women. We are all called to be servants for one another. Throughout the Gospels we have been told that to become the master we must first become the servant; if we wish to be first, we must be last. True Christians do not simply sit and eat. True Christians become what they eat and drink; namely, the Body and Blood of Jesus, the one who has taught us what it means to serve.