THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,
says the Lord.
Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. JN6:51

EXODUS 24:3-8 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The gift of free will practically guaranteed that we would sin. He knew that too often our will would not align with His and we would separate ourselves from Him but in His unfathomable love for us, He planned the means of our redemption, heedless of the cost. The Father believed that creating us with the ability to freely choose to love Him or not was worth the price He would have to pay to save us.  

From the earliest pages of Sacred Scripture, we see God preparing His people for the ultimate sin-offering that would take away the sins of the world. The entire ritual involved in animal sacrifices would ultimately play itself out in the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God, who became incarnate of the Virgin Mary. 

Blood represents life and the spilling of blood in the old sacrifice was necessary to atone for the sins of the high priest as well as God's people. These sacrifices were offered repeatedly, year in and year out. Thousands of animals were slaughtered, part of the flesh was burned as a holocaust and part of it was consumed by the priests and the people. The blood was sprinkled on the altar and on the people and this ritual would be offered over and over again until the time would come when the Father would accept the offering of His Son, as the once-for-all Sacrifice atonement for all the sins committed by mankind, from the first to the last. 

The time would come when the words and the actions of Moses would come into their own and take on a whole new and eternal meaning, after the Last Supper which culminated on Mt. Calvary. This ultimate Sacrifice would be commemorated for all time in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Church You founded. Moses began with the breaking of the word as he read the Book of the Covenant and ended with the sacrifice of the Lamb which as You decreed through Moses: ‘is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you, containing all these rules.’

It is only through the eating and drinking of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of God that we can hope for eternal life

PSALM 116:12-13,15-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Father asks His children for this one thing and this one
thing alone because it is everything and without it we have nothing and He demands that as His children, we listen and obey. There is no way we can repay God by our own efforts for the gift of life and the assurance of eternity in His Kingdom except in the one way that He has ordained for us ever since He created us. It is in offering to Him from the rising of the sun to its setting the Cup of Salvation which contains within it all we need for an abundance of life.

The Sacrifice of Calvary is a once for all Sacrifice that in obedience to Your command, we offer as a memorial for the forgiveness of the sins of the world until You return. There is no more pleasing, more worthwhile, more precious offering than our continual offering to the Father the ultimate Sacrifice He made in His well-beloved, and only Son. Our salvation depends on it, for only the power of the Flesh and Blood of the Son of God can redeem, save, and give life to a sinful, fallen world.

Grant O Lord, that one of the best gifts we receive from the scourge of the pandemic is that we return to our churches with a renewed appreciation and love for You in the Holy Eucharist.

HEBREWS 9:11-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The New Testament reveals the unsurpassed, 

incomprehensible, and immeasurable treasure that is given to us in the Holy Eucharist. From the beginning, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God intended to pay the price that our redemption would demand. Only divine love could reach the preposterous conclusion that miserable sinners like ourselves were worth the Sacrifice of His only, most beloved Son.  

The Father sent You into the world as our High Priest, the Altar of Sacrifice, and the Sacrifice. God desired that we would have absolutely no doubt about how much He loved us and so He sent You into the world clothed in human flesh so You could enter into our death and pay the price, in a once-for-all Sacrifice that would redeem us. The sinless one became sin in order that we might receive His abundant life.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews reveals to us that there is only one mediator, one savior, one Lord through whom we receive an eternal inheritance. He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised: his death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant.

MARK 14:12-16,22-26 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Bloodless Sacrifice at the Last Supper is when You instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders. You celebrated the first Holy Mass and You laid down the rubrics that will be followed until You return in glory. 

The disciples made the necessary preparation for the Passover meal just as You instructed them to. They gathered together in the evening before Good Friday, they observed keenly all You did, and it would become the template for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist until time shall cease. 

And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’

May we never approach the Eucharistic table and partake of Your Body and Blood desultorily but prepare ourselves to celebrate this mystery of love worthily, always, lest we eat and drink damnation to ourselves.