<\/p>\n
As many of you know, I have been coming here for almost 10 years now to conduct a Holy Communion Service for the Catholics on the Fourth Thursday of the month. I mention that because I want you to know how important Holy Communion is to us Catholics. We say that it is the source and summit of our faith because belief in Jesus and his sacrament are fundamental to what it means to be a Catholic. That\u2019s why most Hospitals and Assisted Living Facilities seek Holy Communion services and ministers for their Catholics just like Westminster Towers did, so that this great need can be fulfilled. I am going to talk a little bit today about why the Eucharist is so important.<\/p>\n
The reading you just heard is for this coming weekend, the Feast of Corpus Christi. That is also known as the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ- or Holy Communion. Now almost every Sunday of the year, the readings we use as Catholics are the same as the ones used by the majority of other Christian Denominations, because the Common Lectionary used by most Christian Churches drew heavily from the Catholic Lectionary that was published after the second Vatican Council way back in the \u201870\u2019s. However this weekend is an exception.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This weekend only the Catholics will hear the Gospel reading you just heard.<\/p>\n
Now, the Church follows a carefully worked out pattern in our Calendar that sequentially celebrates the key beliefs of our Christian Faith. First we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus. That means God sent his only Son to live as one of us. We call that the Incarnation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then came the suffering of Jesus and his crucifixion. But Jesus did not really die, because on Easter we celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord. And Jesus promised all of us the same resurrected life when we die if we believe. Then we celebrated his Ascension and promise to send the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 After that we celebrated Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and the Church was born. The Spirit is what gives us eternal life. And then last week, we celebrated the feast of the Holy Trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- three persons in one God, to tie it all together.<\/p>\n
So far all of us have celebrated the great mysteries of faith in this sequence- Catholic and Protestant.\u00a0 This week, Catholics celebrate Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, because we feel that belief in the Eucharist as the real presence of Jesus continues this overall theological thread.<\/p>\n
As you listened to today\u2019s scripture, you heard the beginning of Jesus passion and death because it all began at the Last Supper. In the famous words of today\u2019s scripture, Jesus offers himself up as a sacrifice. Listen again: \u201cHe took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and said \u201dTake it; this is my body\u201d\u201d. Then He did the same with the chalice, ending with these words: \u201cThis is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.\u201d\u00a0 So, Jesus is offering his body and blood as a sacrifice to be shed for many at the Last Supper. And he describes it as the blood of the covenant.<\/p>\n
Now the Last Supper was a Passover meal celebrated in the Jewish tradition. Jesus wanted to celebrate the Passover with his Apostles that is clear from the first part of our reading when he lays plans out to do so.<\/p>\n
At the Passover, each Jewish family slaughtered a lamb, commemorating what happened on the original Passover when the Lord struck down the first born of all who had not celebrated the Passover and spread the blood of the sacrifice on their doorposts. And so, Jesus is described as the \u201cLamb of God\u201d by the Church because Jesus, not a lamb, is the sacrificial offering of the new covenant. It was his blood that would be shed in just a few hours after the Last Supper Jesus predicts what will happen at the Last Supper and begins the sacrificial process that only ends on Calvary.<\/p>\n
When you read the 6th<\/sup> Chapter of St. John, which occurred a couple of years before the Crucifixion, Jesus talked at length about the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood in order to enter the kingdom of God. He mentions it at least three times. This was repugnant to the Jews for several reasons. First of all, they were forbidden from consuming the blood of animals. But even more to the point, they were repulsed by the idea of eating human flesh. Jesus command violated both of these taboos of the Mosaic Law. So, many of Jesus\u2019 followers left after hearing that. The rest stayed with Jesus, but didn\u2019t really understand what he meant. But then, some years after Jesus spoke those words, as he is consuming the Last Supper, Jesus talks about it again. \u201cThis is my body and this is my blood\u201d, he says. Why? Because he meant it both times, literally. He meant for the consecration of the bread and wine as the Eucharist to be an important part of his legacy.<\/p>\n God sent his son to a particular first century generation. That generation experienced Him first hand- one on one. People could talk to Jesus just like you and I can talk to each other.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In this sense, Jesus was immanent to the people of his time. All other religions consider God remote, above us, unapproachable- or transcendent. But here was Jesus, God made man, right there alongside of human beings. No longer was God unapproachable. And not only that, but Jesus left us several gifts. First, he left the Gospel as a script for how to relate to God. But that wasn\u2019t all he gave us. He also gave us the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. By partaking of the Sacrament, we can be just as close to God today as Jesus was to the Apostles in their day. Lastly, he promised the gift of his spirit, which we commemorated just two weeks ago.<\/p>\n Notice from our reading that Jesus says, take it, eat it, and drink it. This not only means we are partaking of the Sacrament of Holy Communion as individuals. But it also means that all of us are partaking of the one body. So all who partake of the Body and Blood of Christ have the second person of the Trinity dwelling in them, the congregation that shares in the Eucharist is joined together in Communion by that one Body. We call that the Body of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thus, one of the main reasons we gather in worship to receive Communion is for us to be joined together in union as one people in the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n If you read the book of Revelation, which is very cumbersome to read and understand, there some things that really leap out at you. For example, the 19th<\/sup> Chapter of Revelation speaks of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. They are referring to the Lamb of God, Jesus, who as we have just said replaces the Passover Lamb with his own Body. And Revelation goes on to say that \u201cBlessed are those who are called to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb\u201d;\u00a0 that is us- all of us who are saved, who are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, will be in invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb as is clear from the other words in Revelation. And what happens at the wedding feast of the lamb? Everyone will be in communion with Jesus and will be offering praise and thanksgiving to God.<\/p>\n Notice how similar worship services that emphasize Holy Communion are to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Because all of the Faithful who consume the Body and Blood of Christ enjoy Jesus physical presence as one mystical Body in worship and praise of God.\u00a0 So another reason the Eucharist is so important is that it foreshadows the worship that we will experience when we reach the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n There is one other important reason why the Eucharist is so important. And that is because Jesus told us that it is his body and blood in scripture as I discussed earlier. Now this is a stumbling block to many, as it was for those who heard it described in the Gospel of John.\u00a0 Just how can it be?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most people say \u201cI can see that the bread and wine doesn\u2019t change in physical appearance\u201d. But some of you took a field trip a couple of years ago to my Church.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There, we had on display \u201cEucharistic Miracles\u201d exhibits. These were large poster boards that documented some miracles observed over the centuries. The miracles included bread and wine actually turning into flesh and blood; images of Jesus that suddenly appeared on the host; hosts that were preserved in perfect condition over hundreds of years; persons whose only subsistence was Holy Communion for years; and others.<\/p>\n I find it curious that these 130 odd sanctioned Eucharistic miracles have not gotten more publicity. But of course, none of us here have witnessed any of them first hand. And so, we tend to be doubting Thomases in that regard. The real issue here is a matter of faith, not proof. Yes, we need to have faith- belief in something despite the fact that it cannot be proven. We believe in the Incarnation, the Resurrection of the dead, Life Everlasting in the Kingdom of God, and the Trinity. These are all mysteries of our faith that we celebrate in sequence.<\/p>\n The Real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is yet another mystery that we are called to believe on faith. And when we believe and join in the celebration of the Eucharist, or the Mass, we are called to the closest thing on earth to the wedding feast of the Lamb. We become one body and one spirit with our brothers and sisters in the worship and praise of Almighty God.<\/p>\n Listen to the words we use as we receive this great sacrament. The minister says: \u201cBehold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World, Happy are those who are called to his Supper.\u201d And the people respond: \u201cLord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.\u201d Then we offer the body of Christ to them, they consume it, and they respond.\u00a0 \u201cAmen\u201d.<\/p>\n Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Westminster Tower Ecumenical Service Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26 Deacon Larry Brockman As many of you know, I have been coming here for almost 10 years now to conduct a Holy Communion Service for the Catholics on the Fourth Thursday of the month. I mention that because I want you to know how important Holy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[348,347],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}