If you Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood, You Enter into Covenant With Me.

Homily for June 3, 2018.


“Take; this is my body…. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Mark 14:22-24. 
 
Have you noticed that there is a certain pattern of events that follow when two persons are deeply in love with each other? They become committed to each other’s happiness, they give gifts to each other, they spend time more often with each other and they make certain promises or enter into certain agreements (covenants) that creates a permanent bond with one another.

I once saw a Nigerian movie some time ago. A young man and woman were so much in love with each other and they decided to do something that would bind them together forever. They went to a bush all by themselves and pierced their fingers with some sharp object and they licked each other’s blood. When later in life, they couldn’t keep the promises they made to each other, they started suffering the consequences of this blood covenant. To drink a person’s blood is to become part of that person in a way that cannot merely be explained by words.

Still, from the movies, we have seen that the process of being initiated into a cult or secret society basically involves drinking blood (or acts involving the exchange of bodily fluids). I am using examples from the movies because we know they are clear reflections of real life happenings. Many cult members who later became converted to Christianity tell us stories of how they became loyal to obeying commands from such cults and how it was almost impossible to quit because of the covenants they entered into. They also tell us how they kept renewing such covenants to increase their power.

The life of any living organism is in its blood. Indeed, Doctors and Medical personnel clearly testify that to give blood is to give life. Many patients die in operation theatres not because the doctors were not good enough but because of the lack of blood. The highest form of charity you can do is to donate blood freely to a dying patient. Nevertheless, it is a different thing altogether to give or exchange your blood with the intention of establishing a covenant bond. Such an act is not something to joke about.

Dear friends, today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which in Latin is known as “Corpus Christi.” Today’s Feast serves three purposes: REMINDER, RENEWAL and RE-AWAKENING.

The first purpose of today’s feast is to serve as a reminder to us to pause for a while to reflect on the true meaning of the Holy Communion. Many of us have either forgotten all that we learnt during our catechism days or have become too used to jumping to the Altar to say “Amen” that we no longer remember that we are actually eating real flesh and drinking real blood. In case, we have forgotten or we never knew before, today’s feast drums into heads again that Holy Communion is by every standard a BLOOD COVENANT. This is the message of our readings today.

Moses built an Altar, he took the blood of all the oxen offered by the people, half of the blood he poured in basins, half he threw on the Altar (Sprinkling it on God). Then he took the book of the covenant, the book containing God’s instructions, read it to the people and they all clicked the “Agree” button. They said, “all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.” To seal this agreement, Moses took the blood in the basin and sprinkled it on them just as the priest sprinkles us Holy Water during mass.

The book of Hebrews tells us that by dying for us on the Cross of Calvary, Jesus did the same thing Moses did, except that he did not use the blood of ordinary goat or sheep or oxen but His very own blood. Moses’ sacrifice was anticipatory, prophetic, symbolic if you like, but that of Jesus was the REAL DEAL.

Dear friends, does it occur to you that each time you receive Holy Communion, you are also clicking the “agree” button - to fulfil your part of the covenant agreement by living a manner that is pleasing to God? Does it occur to you that failure to keep our part of the covenant has its consequences? As St. Paul says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. 

Why do we take Holy Communion without reflecting before we come forward? We do not even prepare our minds or examine our conscience not to talk of even going for confession. We do not observe the required one hour fast. We come late for mass, we are distracted during mass, playing with our phones, chatting with those on the same pew, looking lustfully at those not properly dressed, admiring those expensively dressed, thinking of what we are going to do or places we would visit after mass, and so on and so on. Then when it is time for Communion, we just carelessly join the queue like there is no tomorrow.

Dear friends, Holy Communion is not a biscuit, it is not bread, it is not a snack; it is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. As we can see in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus did not say “this is like my body” he didn’t say “this reminds you of my body” neither did he say “this is an image or a symbol of my body”. No. Jesus said: “This is My Body! This is My Blood.” Holy Communion is REAL.

Secondly, today’s feast serves as an opportunity for us to renew our faith in God’s true presence the Holy Eucharist, to renew our reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to renew our devotion to God by worshipping Him publicly; telling the whole world we are not ashamed to be God’s covenant children. If not for the rains this period in this part of the world (Nigeria), today would have been the day for a procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets to let the world know of our faith in Jesus’ true presence in the Holy Eucharist.

Finally, today’s feast re-awakens us spiritually to our true identity. If we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, we should know that are no longer ordinary human beings. We should therefore no longer look to the world to define us. We should no longer engage in competitions with the people of the world over material things. Just as a covenant makes us entitled to certain benefits, Holy Communion makes us recipients of the promised eternal inheritance. In John 6:54, Jesus says: “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, increase my love and devotion to your true presence in the Holy Eucharist. Amen.

*Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Solemnity of the Corpus Christi. Year B. Bible Study: Exodus 24:3-8, Psalm 116:12-18, Hebrew 9:11-15, Mark 14:12-26).*

Fr. Abu.

(for audio and video click https://goo.gl/svLi3g)

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