The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus, commonly known by its Latin name Corpus Christi, also happens this year to be the Sunday when the four newly ordained priests of our Diocese are celebrating their First Masses. This was also the case five years ago when I was ordained, and I must say that it is a most wonderful day to celebrate a First Mass.
As we reflect on the primitive ritual that Moses celebrated with the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai, we can see the rudimentary outline of our own liturgical celebrations. As the people assembled at the mountain they affirmed their faith in the Lord and their commitment to fulfilling the commands that the Lord set before them. Having then read the law to them he sprinkles the blood of the sacrifice on the people, pronouncing and thereby sealing the covenant between the people and God.
Each time we gather to celebrate the Mass we too, seal our covenant with God. This covenant is for us both individual (sealed in Baptism and Confirmation) and especially communal – celebrated within the assembly and shared in Communion.
While the rituals of the Old Covenant that prefigure and anticipate the New Covenant reflect the demands of a bloody sacrifice, its fulfillment in the New Covenant transforms the very nature of sacrifice. No longer to we sprinkle ourselves with the blood of bulls, but rather we share in the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, himself the perfect sacrifice.
While the terms “sacrifice” and “oblation” are used in the prayers of the Mass, we seldom get to reflect on their significance.
At its core, the term “sacrifice” means to take something ordinary and make it holy. In essence, it is the transformation of something as it is set aside specifically for a religious purpose. The ancients offered various kinds of sacrifices to the gods, and the Israelites, similarly, offered sacrifices to the Lord. While most of the cultic practices of the ancient world demanded sacrifice as appeasement or to satisfy the blood lusts of the gods, the Israelites offered sacrifices to God in thanksgiving, as atonement for sin, as a form of dedication, or a form of intentional prayer.
Some of the sacrifices were complete; an animal might be sacrificed entirely to God. In this way the animal was completely transformed into a spiritual offering. Other sacrifices were shared. A portion was burnt, a portion was given to the priest, and a portion was returned to the one who made the sacrifice. The offering of a sacrifice, then, was meant to transform that which was offered, and thereby exact a transformation in and for the one who is offering the sacrifice. It completed an obligation to God.
The Eucharist is transformative. Jesus is the Sacrifice and reconfigured every time we celebrate the Eucharist. Through the mystery of transubstantiation the offered sacrifice of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. The sacrifice of the Cross, proclaimed by Jesus at the Last Supper, continues to be offered and shared in the Mass. Not only are the bread and wine transformed, but we who share in the Eucharist are also transformed. We become that which we consume – the Body and Blood of Christ, present in the world as the Church.
Priests are essential to sacrifice. Without priests there can be no sacrifice.
As we pray for the newly ordained priests who this weekend celebrate their First Masses, we pray that through the mystery of their own transformation to be like Christ, they may continue to draw us into the covenantal relationship with Christ and his Church.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.