COMMENT ON THE GOSPEL – SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (B)
Sunday 2 June 2024 (or Thursday 30 May)
Mk 14:12-16,22-26
“While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. “Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives”.
(Mark 14:22-26)
This Gospel passage carries us to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room, the room that hosted Jesus and His disciples for the Last Supper, while celebrating Passover in the holy city. It is the night of saying goodbye, after years of life lived together, the time comes here for the Master to leave His friends and followers.
With the words “this is my body… this is my blood”, Jesus demonstrates His clear and mature decision to give up His life for us: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends” (Jn 15:13-14a).
Jesus is not just an important personality, marking history simply for an instant. He continues to mark and change it and continues to make Himself present within us, in the intimacy of our heart. He not only loved us to the end, even unto death – death on a cross, but offers us the possibility to love Him and to respond to His love. And He gives us such a special grace: to be able to eat Him! This fact can leave us disconcerted, but think, for example, of a mother who, gazing at her newborn and drawing him or her close, covering their child with kisses, almost ‘eating’ them with nibbles. To eat the Body of Christ and to drink His Blood in the Eucharist is a great mystery, the privileged pathway to intimacy with Him. To become one with ‘the other’ is the law of love!
Fr. Giuseppe
