Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given: The Body and Blood of Christ 2024

                                              Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given:

The Body and Blood of Christ 2024 

June 2, 2024

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Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:16-26

 

After Moses sets up an altar to the Twelve Tribes of Jacob, he makes an offering to God sealed by the blood of young bulls solidifying the bond between God and the Israelites. Jesus replicates the Passover sacrifice and introduces the actions we associate with the Last Supper: Take, bless, break, give. As we see from the actions of Jesus, the meal is not an object, but an action that we are to replicate.

 

On Tuesday, I saw a three-year-old toddler enact this with her mother. As the girl was in a field, she ran over to pick the finest of flowers for their striking beauty – the yellow dandelion. She shouted in amazement, “Look!” knelt, smelled them before expertly picking two of them, and ran over to her mother, handing her one and keeping one for herself, and then give both to her mother. Take, bless, break, give. Her mother graciously received them and was quite happy that her daughter was considerate of her. It was not the gift that was important, but the intention behind the gift. The dandelions were not more important than the daughter.

 

The same happens with our Eucharist. When we bring our gifts to God, that is, our bread and wine, we are the ones who are blessed. God is grateful that we are considerate, and God takes our gifts and blesses them, but more importantly, us. The blessing is as if God is giving us a proverbial hug and saying how grateful God is for our thoughtfulness. We then must bring this action to others. The Eucharist is always a relationship. It is always an action to be lived out in daily life.

 

Take: We are to take and receive what God offers us – the stuff of our daily lives and sanctify it by our gracious and noble thoughts. We take what God gives us: our choices, decisions, life’s events, and we acknowledge that God is part of our life. We are to be like that girl who exclaims in surprise when she sees the dandelion, “Look!” 

 

Bless: We are to bless what we receive, that is, we are to honor each event with positive thoughts. Our first thought of the day is to be one of blessing in which we give thanks to God for life itself, and then we bless the people we meet along the way. We make holy what we sanctify, and we are to begin with our initial thoughts because our thoughts give rise to attitudes, attitudes to judgments, judgments to words, and words to action. We fall into a trap when we stop blessing. We judge when we choose not to think anymore.

 

Break: We are to share what we have with others. The little girl had two flowers, and she could have kept one for herself, but she was moved to make a full offering to her mother. We are called to give what makes us vulnerable – our time, our resources, our energies, our care for the less fortunate – and it hurts to give away what one has, but no one has ever become poor by being generous. 

 

Give: We are to share the blessings we have with others. The little girl, because she was holding onto something beautiful, was impelled to share it with a person she loved. We are called to do the same. Just as we have been given what we often do not deserve, we are to share that freely with others. For this reason, the Eucharist can never be a private, exclusive, personal moment because we are impelled to share God’s life with others. 

 

The Eucharist leads to communion and is always in relationship with God and with the community of believers. We pattern our lives after Jesus who became our offerings so that whenever we eat and drink in his memory, he is present among us – the gifts, in the community, in ourselves, and in those whom we are sent. We are called to be the Eucharist for the world – the ones who take, bless, break, and give so others may know God. Our Eucharistic actions make us the life for the world because God blesses us with great satisfaction. We are the Eucharistic gifts who are transformed to be a gift for the world. That’s a pretty neat reality. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (2 Peter 1) For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

 

Tuesday: (2 Peter 3) Wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

Wednesday: (2 Timothy 1) For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.

 

Thursday: (2 Timothy 2) If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

 

Friday (Hosea 11) When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love

 

Saturday (2 Timothy 4) But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 12) A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 12) Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?

 

Wednesday (Mark 12) Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.

 

Thursday (Mark 12) And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 

Friday (John 19) Since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken, and they be taken down.

 

Saturday (Luke 2) After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

 

Saints of the Week

 

June 2: Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs (d. 304) died in Rome during the Diocletian persecution. Peter was an exorcist who ministered under the well-regarded priest, Marcellinus. Stories are told that in jail they converted their jailer and his family. These men are remembered in Eucharistic prayer I. 

 

June 3: Charles Lwanga and 22 companion martyrs from Uganda (18660-1886) felt the wrath of King Mwanga after Lwanga and the White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa) censured him for his cruelty and immorality. The King determined to rid his kingdom of Christians. He persecuted over 100 Christians, but upon their death new converts joined the church. 

 

June 5: Boniface, bishop and martyr (675-754), was born in England and raised in a Benedictine monastery. He became a good preacher and was sent to the northern Netherlands as a missionary. Pope Gregory gave him the name Boniface with an edict to preach to non-Christians. We was made a bishop in Germany and gained many converts when he cut down the famed Oak of Thor and garnered no bad fortune by the Norse gods. Many years later he was killed by non-Christians when he was preparing to confirm many converts. The church referred to him as the "Apostle of Germany."

 

June 6: Norbert, bishop (1080-1134), a German, became a priest after a near-death experience. He became an itinerant preacher in northern France and established a community founded on strict asceticism. They became the Norbertines and defended the rights of the church against secular authorities.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 2, 1566. The Professed House was opened in Toledo. It became well known for the fervor of its residents and the wonderful effects of their labors. 
• June 3, 1559. A residence at Frascati, outside of Rome, was purchased for the fathers and brothers of the Roman College. 
• June 4, 1667. The death in Rome of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicini, a man of great knowledge and humility. While he was Prefect of Studies of the Roman College he wrote his great work, The History of the Council of Trent. 
• June 5, 1546. Paul III, in the document Exponi Nobis, empowered the Society to admit coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal. 
• June 6, 1610. At the funeral of Henry IV in Paris, two priests preaching in the Churches of St Eustace and St Gervase denounced the Jesuits as accomplices in his death. This was due primarily to the book De Rege of Father Mariana. 
• June 7, 1556. Peter Canisius becomes the first provincial superior of the newly constituted Province of Upper Germany. 
• June 8, 1889. Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins died at the age of 44 in Dublin. His final words were "I am so happy, so happy." He wrote, "I wish that my pieces could at some time become known but in some spontaneous way ... and without my forcing."