The first reading from Exodus recounts the story of God’s
covenant with the Chosen People which was sealed in blood. Moses takes the blood of sacrificed bulls and
pours half of the blood on the altar, offering it to the Lord God, and then sprinkles
the people with the other half of the blood.
God and God’s people are joined together in blood as the people promise
to obey all that the Lord God had commanded.
In the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews,
Jesus is the high priest who enters into the sanctuary and pours out His Blood
in the perfect and never ending covenant.
Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, offers Himself as the sacrifice
that wins for us our redemption, for He is the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world.
In Mark’s gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus gives the
cup to His disciples, saying, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be
shed for many.” His Body and His Blood, which will be offered up as He dies on
the cross, are given to them on the night before He died, and are given to us,
each time we celebrate the Eucharist as He commanded to do in His memory.
The Most Holy Body and Blood unites us to the Lord
and to one another. The Eucharist is a foreshadowing of our sharing in His
divine life in heaven. As we receive
Jesus in the Eucharist, we are made strong and we are washed clean. United intimately to the One who loves us, we
love Him in return, by loving and serving each other and all those in
need.
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