The Body and Blood of Christ

It pays to look at all of the readings for this week to get an entree into the great mystery which is the Blessed Sacrament. The First Reading speaks of Abraham and Melchizedek. This calls to mind the part of the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) which states: "Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance, and to accept them, as once you were pleased to accept the gits of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim...". In these few words the roots of the Eucharist from the beginning of the human story in Genesis through the trials of the Old Testament are manifest. The Second Reading, with the institution narrative, handed on by St Paul: "I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you..." (1 Cor 11: 23), testifies to the liturgical acceptance and appreciation of the earliest Christians as they obeyed the command "Do this in remembrance of me." (1 Cor. 11: 24) The miraculous multiplication of food from the Gospel, as relate by St Luke, reminds us of the Exodus story and how the Israelites were not only saved by the blood of lambs, smeared on their lintels, but were also nourished with manna until they reached the Promised Land. Christ, the new Moses, leads his people through the exodus of death to the Resurrection through the gift of the manna which is his own Body and Blood. The Early Christians, in The Didache picked up on this in one of the earliest recorded Eucharistic Prayers: "Just as the broken loaf was scattered over the hills as grain, and, having been gathered together, became one; in like fashion, may your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom." (Ch. 9: 4) In this way we can get some idea of how our Sunday Eucharist contains within it the whole mystery of Christ and the story of salvation.