SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE

FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI - JUNE 18, 2006

Mark 14:24 "This is my blood of the covenant."

The Feast of Corpus Christi was introduced into the Christian calendar in the year 1264. The primary Feast of the Eucharist is Maundy Thursday. On that night, as part of Holy Week and the Easter Tritium, we give thanks that Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Although it is overshadowed by Good Friday and the Passion of our Lord, we still keep it in a very joyous way:

· The ringing all the bells of the church during the Gloria,

· Gold vestments are worn and flowers adorn the altar

· It concludes with a Procession of the Sacrament

But the Procession of the Sacrament goes to the Altar of Repose in the Chapel, which commemorates Our Lord's long watch of that night of passion, and the shadow of the night he was betrayed.

Over the centuries, as the church has come to understand more and more the depth of meaning of the Eucharist, a more triumphant devotion arose amongst Christian people. So 750 years ago it was decided that the first free Thursday after Trinity Sunday would be a celebration of the Eucharist. The first free Thursday was chosen because Thursday reminds us of Maundy Thursday, and also now that the celebration of the first half of the calendar - beginning with the birth of Jesus through the resurrection and the Feast of Pentecost - had run its course. So the church was free to concentrate on the Eucharist as a celebration, unclouded by the Passion of Jesus.

St. Thomas Aquinas composed several hymns for this Feast Day, many of which are familiar to us. They contain not only heartfelt devotion to Jesus in the sacrament, but good theology - perhaps best summed in the words of the Tantum Ergo: "faith our outward sense befriending makes our inward vision clear".

This feast occurs in summer. In Europe an outdoor procession of the followed by Benediction became part of the celebration - usually on the weekend following the Thursday celebration. Corpus Christi carnivals and street fairs are still featured in many European towns, and probably in Mexican towns today. The West is less inclined to such extravagant devotion!

In recent times Corpus Christi is celebrated on this Sunday rather than last Thursday. Thus at the end of Mass today we will have with the Procession of the Host in the Monstrance around the church, concluding with Bnediction.

Many Episcopalians who happen to stray into this service today would be surprised to discover this very Latin devotion, and many would find it rather quaint, to say the least! Perhaps even idolatry or a relic from the past.

On the contrary never has this feast day and its traditional ceremonies been more needed or necessary. For as long as I've been aware the experts and theologians have been telling us that the emphasis of the Mass should be on a meal. That we should get away from all those rituals and ceremonies and the mysterious priest at the altar, and celebrate it as nothing else than a meal with Jesus. This is the emphasis and what is the result?

• In many churches the altar is set up like a table.
• The priest faces the people to emphasize the meal aspect.
• To emphasize fellowship there is a long greeting of peace, where people you don't particularly know, or care to, will come up to you with great enthusiasm.
• Children are now prepared to receive communion at a very young age, and because of this great emphasis on the fellowship and the meal, it is nothing else but a meal.
• There is a casualness by both priest and people. This casualness suggests that what is happening is not actually a very important dinner party, but rather like an Aussie BBQ!
• And the music reflects that casualness. And the ceremonial - or lack of it.

Many Episcopalian and Roman Catholic parishes celebrate Mass in that way. They treat the Mass with less ritual than you would find at a baseball game!

Today's gospel tells us that what Jesus established on Maundy Thursday is much more than a meal. The general population may think that is what we have come to do this morning - to can drink bread and wine in memory of our hero Jesus. But scripture tells us that what we are doing is far more than that.

In Mark 14:24 Jesus declares plainly that this is not just a fellowship meal. What we eat is his body; what we drink is the blood of the covenant. We hear these words at every Mass - but do we fully comprehend what they mean? Today's readings open our eyes and our minds to a deeper meaning.

Consider the first reading from Exodus chapter 24. Think about the scene. The chosen people, the Jews, had escaped from slavery in Egypt. The significant key to that escape was the blood of the Passover lamb on their doors. Having escaped from the slavery, through the blood of the lamb on their doors, God is now feeding them with Manna and water from the rock. Thus we have three images with which we are familiar: the blood of the lamb, water and manna. All of these are images of the Christian sacraments.

Then Moses received the Ten Commandments on the Mount and other instructions concerning this covenant. What we call the Old Testament. Now today we see Moses assembling the people, the congregation of Israel. He builds a stone altar with symbolic twelve stones. Sacrifices with burnt offerings and killed lambs, goats and cows are offered to God. Half the blood of those sacrifices Moses throws on the altar, and the rest he throws on the congregation.

This is highly symbolic. The sprinkling, the pouring of the blood, seals the covenant between God and his people. The sacrifice that Moses offered was part of the sealing of the covenant. Theologians have made the mistake of thinking that the blood represented the killing of the sacrifice. That is how the doctrine arose that suggests the death of Jesus was to appease a judgmental God for our sins. That is not what the blood symbolizes at all.

The blood does not symbolize the death of the sacrifice, for blood is life. Without blood we do not live. The sprinkling and the pouring of the blood of the sacrifices represented life, not death. The covenant that God gives his people is life. And so we drink the blood of the new covenant because it gives us life. We drink of it from the chalice and it gives us the life of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is the teaching all through John chapter 6. John 6 quotes Jesus as saying again and again "my body is my life - eat my body and drink my blood and you will have life."

What Moses did on that day in the desert was repeated annually in the tabernacle during those 40 years in the wilderness. It was an annual rite.

Now to Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews the writer portrays the death of Jesus as Jesus entering Heaven. He portrays Jesus as the High Priest going into the sanctuary to sprinkle the blood. There are significant differences. Firstly Jesus is both the priest and the sacrifice. He doesn't take the blood of bulls and goats into heaven - He takes his own blood. It is his blood that he pours out as priest - and he is without blemish, pure undefiled, unlike those animals.

So the writer of Hebrews points out that Jesus is the perfect victim and therefore this is the perfect sacrifice. It is forever and would never need repeating. That is what Jesus meant when he said "this is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many." On that Maundy Thursday night he was not only explaining all that was going to happen - all about his death and his blood - but he was establishing this sacrament, this unending sacrifice, as the means whereby you and I might live in him and he in us - because it is all about his life.

So the church's astonishing conviction is that in Holy Communion, in the consecrated Host, no less, Jesus, our eternal Priest, the only Son of God, is truly, personally and intimately present.

Yes this is more than just a fellowship meal. Here surely our response must be adoration and thanksgiving. And what better words could there be to express this than the words to conclude our service today, which we will sing joyfully:

Blessed and praised be Jesus Christ in the most holy Sacrament. Hosanna in the highest.