2024

June 2, 2024

Study | Preach | Teach

ᐊHOMILIESCONNECTIONSHOLY SEEFR TONYᐅ

The covenant or pact is the almost compulsory point of reference of this Sunday’s liturgical texts. The covenant sealed with the Blood of Christ is the heart of the worship and life of the Church: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many” (Gospel). This covenant is prefigured and gives a definitive character to the old covenant, sealed with the blood of bullocks: “This is the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has made with you, entailing all these stipulations” (first reading). The covenant in the blood of Christ perpetuates the presence of God among us and purifies humankind from all its sins to worship the living God (second reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

The text of the first reading mentions some of the parts of the rite of the covenant, common to the Eastern people of the time. First of all, there is the reciprocal nature of the covenant: Yahweh on one side and the people of the other. Then it mentions the stipulations of the pact, which indicate the binding contents to which both God and the people are committed: the sacrifice of communion, which will culminate in a banquet; the rite of the sprinkling of the blood on the parties to the pact, by means of which the pact is ratified. God’s indulgence with man goes to the extreme of a reciprocal pact! This pact speaks to us with great clarity of God’s love and of his eternal fidelity. In spite of the many infidelities to the pact on the part of Israel, in all of its historical vicissitudes this pact was always an unchallenged point of reference and an unequivocal sign of hope and permanent renewal. Little by little, in its long historical experience, Israel learned that God never abandons man, that his fidelity is ever-lasting. In seeing God’s faithfulness, Israel felt the attractive force of faithfulness, of responding to the pact with Yahweh with a sincere and definitive Amen.

Due to Israel’s constant infidelity to Yahweh, God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah the promise of a new covenant, a covenant written on the heart, which will bestow upon all the gift of the knowledge of God and of his merciful forgiveness (Jr 31:31-34). This promise was definitively fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in the paschal supper that he had with his disciples on the night that he was going to be taken away, in the blood of the covenant, shed for all on the summit of the Calvary. The Jews recalled the Old Covenant each year with the feast of Passover; we Christians recall and re-live the New Covenant each day, but in a special way on Sunday, in the Eucharistic celebration. The feast of the covenant is not annual but daily, weekly. Let us not forget the reciprocal covenant of God with the Church and with each one of her children, and consequently, of the Church and each one of her children with God. As Christians, each and every one of us must value the beauty of a covenant with God in the Blood of Jesus Christ, and at once the seriousness and responsibility of a pact to which we have sworn our fidelity.

The Gospel and the second reading present some features of this novelty. 1) In Jesus Christ both the mediator of the covenant (Moses in the Old Covenant) and the sacrificed victim with whose blood the covenant is sealed and ratified coincide (in the Old Covenant, the blood of the bullocks); 2) the covenant in the Blood of Christ is not only with the people of Israel, but with all of humankind. This is why his Blood was shed for all, and we enjoy eternal redemption; 3) the covenant that Christ makes between God and humankind is not only new, but also definitive. Thus, as revelation finds its fullness in Christ, so the covenant finds fullness. He does not seal the penultimate, but the absolutely final covenant; 4) The covenant between God and man in Christ Jesus is present in history, with its definitive mark, and through this mark it is subjected to the different dimensions of space and time. This covenant will culminate and achieve its perfection at the end of all centuries, in eternity with God. This is why Jesus says to the disciples "I shall not drink wine again until the day I drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God".

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

The New Covenant is destined to all men. Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, needs mouths in order for the good news of this covenant reach all. He needs mouths and hands to consecrate the bread and wine of the new covenant and to distribute them to men. Both God and men need priests. It is necessary for the Christian community to be more aware of this need. If there are no priests, who will make present in the world the mediation of Christ between God and men? If Christian families have no children, or have only one child, two at the most, won’t the number of those that have been called by God to priesthood necessarily decrease? If the new couples live together without getting married, or get married only with a civil rite, won’t it be almost impossible for their children, once they have them, to hear God’s call to a priestly vocation? These are serious questions. All of the Christian community must ask itself these questions, and must cooperate, to the extent possible, to look for and offer valid answers.

In the Eucharist Jesus Christ is present, true God and true man. This is why the Catholic Church has worshipped and continues to worship the Eucharist, not only during Mass, but also outside its celebration. Pope John Paul II wrote, "The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never case" (cf CCC 1380). There are those that attribute to the bustle of life the fact that they have no time for Eucharistic adoration, but let us be honest… they do have time to go to the soccer game, to spend most of the night out, to go skiing for the weekend, to sit staring at the television watching a film or a show. All of these things are good in themselves, but why not make some time, between these or other activities, to go to Mass or to go into church for a few minutes and worship the transubstantiated Jesus Christ?

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Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

3 June 2018 | Saint Peter’s Square

MULTIMEDIA

Today in many countries, including Italy, we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or, according to the better known Latin expression, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. The Gospel recounts Jesus’ words pronounced at the Last Supper with his disciples: “Take; this is my body”. And then: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mk 14:22, 24).

Precisely by virtue of this testament of love, the Christian community gathers every Sunday, and each day, around the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ’s redeeming Sacrifice. And, attracted by his real presence, Christians adore him and contemplate him through the humble sign of the Bread which has become his Body.

Each time we celebrate the Eucharist, through this most sober and also so solemn Sacrament, we experience the New Covenant which fulfils the communion between God and us. And as participants in this Covenant we, although small and poor, cooperate in building history as God wills. For this reason, while constituting an act of public worship of God, every Eucharistic celebration refers to life and the tangible events of our existence. As we are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, we are assimilated with him; we receive his love within us, not to hold it back selfishly, but rather to share it with others. This logic is inscribed in the Eucharist: we receive his love within us and we share it with others. This is the Eucharistic logic.

Indeed in it we contemplate Jesus, Bread broken and offered, Blood poured out for our salvation. It is a presence which like fire sears the selfish attitudes within us, purifies us of the tendency to give only when we have received, and ignites the desire to make ourselves too, in union with Christ, bread broken and blood poured out for our brothers and sisters.

Thus, the celebration of Corpus Christi is a mystery of attraction to Christ and of transformation in him. And it is the school of concrete love, patient and sacrificed, as Jesus on the Cross. It teaches us to become more welcoming and available to those who are in search of understanding, of help, of encouragement, and are marginalized and alone. Jesus’ living presence in the Eucharist is like a door, an open door between the temple and the road, between faith and history, between the city of God and the city of man.

The processions with the Most Holy Sacrament that are taking place in many countries on today’s Solemnity are an expression of popular Eucharistic devotion. In Ostia [Rome] this evening, as Blessed Paul VI did 50 years ago, I too will celebrate Mass, to be followed by the procession with the Most Holy Sacrament. I invite everyone to participate, even spiritually, by radio and television. May Our Lady accompany us on this day.

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The Eucharist as A Humble Gesture of Giving and Sharing

6 June 2021 | Saint Peter’s Square

Body and BLood of Christ (Year B)

MULTIMEDIA

The Gospel presents us the narrative of the Last Supper (Mk 14:12-16, 22-26). The words and gestures of the Lord touch our hearts: He takes the bread in his hands, pronounces the blessing, breaks it and offers it to the disciples, saying: “Take; this is my body” (v. 22).

And thus, with simplicity, Jesus gives us the greatest sacrament. His is a humble gesture of giving, a gesture of sharing. At the culmination of his life, he does not distribute an abundance of bread to feed the multitudes, but breaks himself apart at the Passover supper with the disciples. In this way Jesus shows us that the aim of life lies in self-giving, that the greatest thing is to serve. And today once more we find the greatness of God in a piece of Bread, in a fragility that overflows with love, that overflows with sharing. Fragility is precisely the word I would like to underscore. Jesus becomes fragile like the bread that is broken and crumbled. But his strength lies precisely therein, in his fragility. In the Eucharist fragility is strength: the strength of the love that becomes small so it can be welcomed and not feared; the strength of the love that is broken and shared so as to nourish and give life; the strength of the love that is split apart so as to join all of us in unity.

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