by Fr. Tommy Lane
We are familiar with the accounts of Jesus’ passion and death in the Gospels. It is good that we have four Gospels rather than one because in that way we get a better portrait of Jesus. Only Luke tells us that Jesus prayed for those crucifying him, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (22:34) Only Luke tells us the beautiful words Jesus uttered as he died, a model for everyone’s death, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (22:46) Only Matthew and Mark tell us of Jesus’ cry on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) John reports another cry of Jesus on the cross, “I thirst” which apart from telling us Jesus was dehydrated also tells us of Jesus thirsting for our friendship with him (19:28). John gives us a more serene account with Jesus in control. Only John tells us Jesus saying just before he died, “It is finished” showing his control over his passion (19:30). Jesus endured his passion and death to make reparation for us but had total control over it all the time, according to John.
We get a fifth account of Jesus’ passion and death in the New Testament, but it is not in the Gospels. It is in the Letter to the Hebrews and is our second reading today (Heb 9:11-16). It is from a completely different viewpoint. It describes Jesus’ death as a liturgy, like the Jewish liturgy of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in the Old Covenant (Lev 16), the one day every year when the high priest went behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies in the innermost part of the temple taking the blood of sacrificed animals and sprinkling it there to make atonement for sins. The Letter to the Hebrews says that when Jesus died, he entered heaven with his blood to make reparation for us (Heb 9:11-12). So, in the Old Covenant the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year sprinkling the blood of sacrificed animals to make atonement for sins and the Letter to the Hebrews says Jesus entered heaven itself with his blood to make reparation for us. The Letter to the Hebrews was explaining Calvary to the Jewish people by relating it to one of their Jewish feasts to make it easier for them to understand. What about Calvary and us? Mass is the same sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary but in a sacramental way. On Calvary, Jesus’ offering of himself was bloody but here it is through the words of consecration, his body and blood consecrated separately just as they were separated on Calvary and offered to the Father in reparation for us (Mediator Dei 70).
The Gospel today, Mark’s account of the Last Supper (Mark 14), takes us back to the evening before Calvary as Jesus anticipated his death the following day. Jesus gave the apostles bread and said, “This is my body.” Jesus is present in the Eucharist. Jesus gave them the chalice and said, “This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed for many.” Under the Old Covenant, animals were sacrificed to atone for sins, and now in the New Covenant Jesus’ blood is shed to make reparation for us. The slaughtering of animals could never make proper atonement to God for our sins but Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for us is perfect and is the one sacrifice of reparation for all time.
We have come here because we are hungry, hungry for Jesus in the Eucharist. If we were not hungry for Jesus, we would not have come here. Those who are dying lose their appetite and those who have died are not hungry. Only the living have hunger. Those who are spiritually alive hunger for Jesus and satisfy their hunger for Jesus in the Eucharist. We pray for those who do not have hunger for Jesus that they may become hungry for Jesus and come here to satisfy their hunger for Jesus.
In the early Church, you could satisfy your hunger for Jesus in the Eucharist only by coming to Mass as there was no Eucharistic adoration. In later centuries, when the Eucharist was reserved in the tabernacle after Mass to be given to the sick, people began to adore Jesus in the Eucharist outside Mass and so Forty Hours, Perpetual Adoration, Benediction, and Corpus Christi processions developed. It is a great privilege for us to have Eucharistic Adoration and our Corpus Christi procession today. It is a way of worshipping Jesus and honoring Jesus. I like this description from a Vatican document describing adorers during Eucharistic Adoration:
Abiding with Christ the Lord, they enjoy his intimate friendship and pour out their hearts before him for themselves and for those dear to them and they pray for the peace and salvation of the world. Offering their entire lives with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit, they derive from this sublime colloquy an increase of faith, hope, and charity. (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy 164)
What a beautiful way to describe Eucharistic Adoration: we enjoy Jesus’ intimate friendship and pour out our hearts before him for ourselves and those dear to us and we pray for peace and the salvation of the world and from this conversation with Jesus we grow in faith, hope, and charity.
We are hungry for Jesus in the Eucharist. That is why we have come here. Those who are dying lose their appetite and those who have died are not hungry. Only the living have hunger. Those who are spiritually alive hunger for Jesus and satisfy their hunger for Jesus in the Eucharist.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for Corpus Christi
The Eucharist: the greatest gift 2023
The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and Eucharistic Miracles
Year A: Meet Jesus in his Real Presence in the Eucharist 2008
Year B: Jesus’ continuing presence with us in the Eucharist 2021
Year C: Is Jesus in the Eucharist the center of your life? 2007
Related Homilies: Homilies on the Eucharist