Our Response

Almost two thousand years ago, on the night before He died, Jesus of Nazareth celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples.  They gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem for a ritual meal that commemorated an event that at that point was over 1,300 years old – the night the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Hebrews and their liberation from slavery in Egypt.  The ritual was set and done exactly the same way in every village and town throughout Judah.  That is until Jesus departed from the well-known ritual, took bread into His hands, said a blessing over it, broke it and gave it do his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26).

We can only wonder what the disciples thought as they received this bread He declared to be His body.  He then took the cup of wine, the last of four consumed during the Passover meal, and told them that it was the “blood of the new covenant” (Luke 22:20).  Jesus declared a new covenant between God and humanity.  It is the New Covenant that we celebrate each time we come to Mass.

What is our response to the command of Jesus to take and eat and, take and drink?  Our very eternal existence relies on our answer, for without Christ we are as good as dead.  The Angel of Death still treads the earth bringing fear to those who do not believe in eternal life.  

Our society considers itself to be very sophisticated and scientific.  Most take literally what they learned in high school biology, that we come into existence in our mother’s womb, and when we breathe our last breath, our body immediately starts to decay – and we cease to exist.  But we know that’s there more to it; as the Pslamist tells us (Psalm 139),  we were known to God before we were knit in our mother’s wombs, and because of our belief in Christ, we do not cease to exist when our body fails!  Our faith in God teaches us that there is life after death.

There may be other things that seem more important than going to Mass and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, and indeed they would be if this life were all there is.  But for the chance of eternal life, the reality for the true Christian is that getting to Mass, and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, is well worth every effort that it takes. In fact, it is among the most important things we do in our earthly life.