In a scientific age body and blood have restricted meanings. The body, as opposed to the soul, is generally understood to represent our physical make-up. In similar fashion blood is understood as a key component of the body, the primary vehicle of sustenance to the whole organism.
Throughout the Bible Body and Blood are rich symbols, conveying a great deal more than their functional equivalents in modern vocabulary. In the scriptures the body represents all that I am in my present existence. It is not so much that I have a body: I am a body. Blood represents life itself, and as such is a gift from God, sacred to him as the author of life. The celebration of the body and blood of Christ is therefore a celebration of Christ who, in the Body of his humanity, has lived, died and been raised to life for us. It is the celebration of his life, the Blood poured out for us. It is the celebration of his abiding presence in the Body broken, the Blood poured out in the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
The Exodus account of the covenant established through Moses was a foreshadowing of the new and eternal covenant that would be established in the Body and Blood of Christ. Moses summoned the tribes of Israel and set before them fidelity to God as enshrined in the Law. The people, on their part, bound themselves to be faithful to God. “We will observe all that the Lord has decreed; we will obey.”
This ancient covenant ritual was sealed in the blood of bullocks, sprinkled first on the altar (the symbol of God himself) and then on the people. Alien though this ritual might seem, it represented, in the sprinkling of blood both altar and people, the commitment of both parties to this new relationship.
The Letter to the Hebrews described the sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood on Calvary as the fulfilment of these ancient rituals. “He has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us.”
We long for the sanctuary of God’s presence. Through the sacrifice of his broken Body and his Blood poured out for us, Christ takes us into that presence. “How much more effectively the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.”
The sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood does indeed bring about a new covenant relationship with the Father. We are renewed from within, thereby enabled to serve the living God in all that we are.
Matthew’s account of the establishment of the Eucharist fulfils the sacrifices of the Old Testament. During the Exodus the blood of the sacrificed Passover Lamb had protected the homes of the faithful. As Christ gathered his Apostles for what would be his last Passover celebration, he showed himself to be the Passover Lamb, given in sacrifice for the redemption of a sinful world. “This is my Body. This is my Blood, the Blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many.”
Christ sacrificed himself completely in his broken Body given for us and his Blood poured out for us. Whenever we eat, whenever we drink, we bind ourselves to his covenant of self-giving.
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