In the year 2024, the week before Sollemnitas Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Christi (Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ), popularly known as “Corpus Christi Sunday”. The Scripture Readings of Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year II)( 1 Peter 1:18-25 and Mark 10:32-45) address the redemptive nature of Sanguis Christi (Blood of Christ).
Before he offered his body and blood at the Lord’s
Supper on the night before his death to institute the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,
Jesus said to those who followed him in Galilee:
I am the living bread that came down from
heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will
give is my flesh for the life of the world. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life
within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true
drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John
6:51, 53-56).
The Sanguis Christi comes with Corpus Christi
as it comes from his body (i.e.
John 19:34). And Jesus said that the blood-containing
living body of his is from heaven, and he calls it the living bread of life
(John 6:51). It is not just “bread of life”(John 6:35) but it is the living
bread of life (John 6:51) because it contains the Holy Spirit (John 6:63).
Sanguis Christi
is true drink for eternal life, life in Christ and in us, as well, entitling us
to resurrection (John 6:53-55).
Sanguis Christi
is also the blood of the new covenant (Matthew 26:28//Mark 14:24//Luke 22:20; 1
Corinthians 11:25; cf. Hebrews 9:20). Therefore, Jesus, the incarnated Christ
is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24). In instituting the
Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus commanded us to drink his blood, which
is shed by him on our behalf for our redemption, until his return at the end of
time, saying:
Drink from it, all of you, for this is my
blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness
of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until
the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father
(Matthew 26:27-29).
In regard to redemptive blood of the new covenant, Sanguis Christi, Peter, the first Pope, says:
Now if you invoke as Father him who judges
impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence
during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your
futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like
silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless
unblemished lamb (1 Peter 1:17-19).
Of course, the spotless unblemished lamb is Jesus, the
incarnated Christ, as the eternal high priest for Yom Kippur (i.e. Hebrews
9:11-28), whom John the Baptist called, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi
(Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world)(John 1:29).
But Jesus had to drink the cup of God’s wrath first
(Mark 10:38; cf. Psalm 60:3; Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah
25:15; Obadiah 16; Revelation 14:10) for us to be able to drink the cup of
salvation, filled with Sanguis Christi, remembering that it is what
Jesus ransomed to free us from the bonds of sins so that we can go on the new
Exodus from this world to the Kingdom of God (i.e. Luke 9:36), as the blood of an
unblemished Paschal lamb on Passover was to set the Israelites free from the
bonds of slavery in Egypt for Exodus (Exodus 12:5-42).
As we are set free from the bonds of sins, going on
the new Exodus to enter the Kingdom, we shall be purified by Sanguis Christi
(i.e. Revelation 7:14), as the new covenant by his blood is in effect (i.e.
Luke 22:20).
Before observing Sollemnitas Sanctissimi Corporis
et Sanguinis Christi, let us reflect what Sanguis Christi is to us
with our gratitude. It is made available to us through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in the cup of salvation, because Jesus took the cup of God's wrath for us, by shedding his blood. After all, the Eucharist means “giving thanks”.
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