Mark 14:12 – 16, 22 – 26
When I was growing up, I had two
grandmothers. One was Scotch-Irish, and the other was very German,
the daughter of immigrants. They didn't like each other much. But
what they had in common was that whenever I visited one of them, I
got fed. My German grandmother was a very good baker, and she would
put out cinnamon rolls and pie. My Scotch-Irish grandmother wasn't
much of a cook, but she could make custard, so that is what she
served me. Now either of them could have just opened a pack of
cookies and I would probably have eaten that – I was, after all, a
growing boy. But what they served me had to pass through their hands
– they had to put a little of themselves into it.
I do a lot of cooking myself, and when
I'm feeding someone, I like that feeling myself. I tell my wife
that's why I don't take her out to supper more often; it seems so
impersonal to just order from a menu. She of course thinks that I'm
just cheap. But I think most people recognize that preparing food
for someone they love with their own hands is kind of special. We
put something of ourselves into what we serve.
Jesus spent his public years teaching
and working miracles. He did on a couple of occasions prepare food
for people – remember the miracles in which he fed large numbers of
people with very small amounts of food? But other than blessing the
food he didn't do much preparation; he rather multiplied the food.
And so, after he had taught all he
could by word and example, he came to the Last Supper, which we've
just heard about. And this time he fed his disciples with himself –
he put himself into what he served, more so by far than my
grandmothers did. And I think that's a good way to understand the
Eucharist.
It is God reaching down to us, feeding
us with what he has lovingly prepared, feeding us not a symbol, but
the very being of His Son. It is an act of Love on his part, giving
us, as he did on the cross, his entire self. It is an embrace of a
lover, a kiss given by a parent to a child. It cannot be more
intimate, and it tells us that God loves our bodies as much as he
loves our souls.
Have you ever thought about what a
visitor from outer space would think if he watched our Sunday
Liturgy? He would of course conclude that most of us must come here
to receive the little white wafer; in fact, some of us don't even
begin to pay attention to what is going on until we come forward for
communion. And after receiving the wafer, some of us leave before
the mass is even finished; Our visitor would definitely conclude that
receiving that bit of bread was the whole point of the Liturgy. And
he would notice that only a small fraction of us partake of the cup.
He would conclude that this isn't nearly as important as the wafer,
even though Jesus has told his followers to eat his body, the
consecrated host, and drink his blood – the consecrated wine. Our
visitor could be forgiven because he probably doesn't know that we
receive the whole of Christ in either form. But by our actions we
perhaps downplay the covenant significance of the Eucharist. God
feeds us individually with heavenly bread, and feeds us communally,
brings us once again into the covenant, with the heavenly wine, which
we share from the same cup.
Many years ago when I was first
ordained I gave a sermon on the Eucharist in which I stated that it
was a symbol. Someone wrote a letter to the bishop accusing me of
heresy, even though I had mentioned in the same sermon that the bread
and wine became the body and blood of Christ. But even though that
is the case, it is a symbol, nonetheless. When we receive the
Eucharist, God is symbolizing his fatherly love for us, but we are
symbolizing our desire to become more like His Son. Since the
Resurrected Christ is one, when we receive his body and blood we are
declaring, in a sense, that we want to be part of each other. We are
all eating and drinking the same thing.
The host that we consume is made of
greatly refined wheat, but what Jesus used was probably something
like a soft taco or pita bread. It was necessary to eat the other
things on the table. You didn't have utensils, so you tore off a
piece of bread and dipped it in the food, or picked up a piece of
food with it. Jesus means for us to see that the Eucharist is like
that – it's what we have to have to be open to all the blessings
God wants for us. The wine, on the other hand, would have been the
best the apostles could have gotten. It was, after all, Passover,
and the wine was part of a celebration. Jesus means the Eucharist to
point toward that celebration in heaven, the great banquet to which
we are all invited.
But symbols, even sacred symbols, do
not really mean much unless they move us into some sort of action.
We can be daily communicants, but if we are not trying to live out
the meaning of the Eucharist, we won't get the sacramental graces.
On this feast of Corpus Christi, the
Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, let us remember that God loves
us so much that he puts his whole self into the food he prepares for
us. Let us pray that we respond to this love with our whole selves.
