June 3, 2018
"Take this; for this is my body." “This is my blood of the Covenant" (Mark 14:22) Whenever we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, the sacrifice Jesus made of his own body and blood, the sacrifice that we are all invited to share, we received the precious body and blood of Christ. Thus nourished with His body and his blood we are called to be the body of Christ making it present in our daily mission. In ancient times the strength of partnerships came from His Covenant through the blood and reinforced with a ritual. Thus we see that within multiple alliances of the Old Testament, in the book of exodus is explains the Covenant between God and His chosen people, which was sealed with the blood of scarified animals. In the letter to the Hebrews we see that Christ is depicted as a high priest who offers his own blood as an offering of the new partnership for our redemption. The Last Supper is the first Eucharist in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus shares His own Body and Blood, the blood of the new Covenant. He continues his sacrifice today in the midst of our Assembly. To understand the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, it helps me personally remember a humble dinner in the Amazon jungle. We all were invited to eat after the mass. The difference was that there were no tables and we sat on stones around a banana leaf cut into a shape of a tablecloth. In the middle of the meal I made palpable the closeness of Jesus with his disciples who offered his own Body and Blood. Listening attentively to our brothers and sisters, we make Christ present since we are his body. The Sunday celebration should remind us that no one is saved alone, we save ourselves as a community. Because of our faith in Jesus, which is the bread that broken and is distributed, it should show us as a lively parish and always ready to welcome all those who come to our doors. The memory of the first Eucharist was not written to inform us of a historical event as such. That historic event is a model for all times. When Mark wrote his Gospel about the year 70 AD, the Christians were already celebrating the Eucharist every time they met. Today the Mass has become a ritual beyond the celebration dear to Jesus when he gave the Apostles to eat of His own Body and Blood. Just as the early Church celebrated the sacrament, today we, the new disciples of the Lord, are today called to receive Christ in our body to be the carriers of his mission of redemption and hope for all people especially for those living in despair. Let us all partake of the same bread and drink of a same Cup until He comes again. Hernán P., SJ "The Eucharist is not a reward for goodness, but strength for the weak; for the sinners it is the forgiveness, the