Thursday, May 30, 2024
Solemnity of Corpus Christi B
Mark 14:12-16,22-26
When the Lord created man, he saw fit to give him a simple but fundamental need that would always remind him of something very important, namely that he is a needy creature.
This need is called hunger.
In order to live, man needs food, he needs something other than himself to satisfy his deep need.
God created man hungry from the very first moment of his existence. And God recognized that this hunger is a good thing, because it opens people up to trust, to the ability to receive and thus to a relationship.
Hunger always accompanies us, it is a sign of life: when we are no longer hungry, life leaves us and no longer demands food. When we have life, we are hungry.
But God did not just create a hungry person: He has also created food and promised that there will never be a lack of this food: Man can trust in this, because God is a Father, and a father never leaves his children without bread.
Now, the history of salvation has often passed by this fundamental crossroads and has shown what is going on in the heart of man.
Indeed, man has often been faced with the choice of whether to trust or not to trust; whether to wait for the Father's bread or try to get it for himself.
The first sin arose when Adam and Eve preferred to feed themselves rather than feed on their relationship with their Creator. And often even quarrels between siblings arose from this very question: Is there bread for everyone in the Father's house?
The answer to this question can be found in today's Gospel (Mark 14:12-16,22-26), the account of Jesus' Last Supper with his own.
We are actually at a banquet where there is bread and wine.
Jesus takes the bread and first of all blesses the Father, for he recognizes that this bread is a gift.
The bread reminds him of the Father, it reminds him that the Father is faithful and never ceases to give life.
But then, after he has blessed, Jesus does not keep the bread for himself, he does not feed on it alone, but shares it with his own so that all may be filled and experience that the Father feeds.
However, there is a novelty that makes this action unique.
Jesus accompanies this action with a word that gives this bread a new meaning, saying that this bread is his body to be offered on the altar of the cross (Mark 16:22).
The bread with which God feeds His people is Himself.
It is not just a bread that nourishes the body, like any other food we eat.
It is not just bread that nourishes the soul, like every gesture of gratuitousness and love that we receive.
It is a bread that nourishes the life of God in us, the life of the children of God that is given to us in baptism.
However, this requires the participation of the disciples: Several verses of this passage are dedicated to the preparation of the banquet, in which the disciples play an active role: the verb "prepare" occurs three times, but only in the first part of the passage.
The disciples' task is not insignificant: they prepare, that is, they bring the bread and wine that are their life, the life that the Lord takes and offers to the Father, as a joyful return of the gift they have received. It is like an offertory, without which the Lord would have nothing to offer.
This life, which is offered to the Lord so that he may offer it to the Father, is the true food of our existence, that which nourishes us with eternal life.
We will never lack if we offer our whole existence to the Lord and retain nothing: For all that we have offered to the Lord will be saved, with confidence.
He will take it into His hands and offer it to the Father so that it may be filled with the Holy Spirit
So the Eucharist is not just a moment in Jesus' life, any more than it is in ours: It is above all a way of life. Jesus lived the Eucharist throughout his life, trustingly taking into his hands every experience of life, every joy and every sorrow that the people he encountered brought him. And he always gave everything back to the Father.
And in the end, everything went into this one act of sacrifice and restitution, which we also take part in at every Eucharist and thus enter into this mystery, this great journey on which everything returns to the Father through the hands of Jesus.
+Pierbattista
