← Fr. Jim Willig Gospel Teachings
The Body and Blood of Jesus
That's the end of this study.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Gospel Study Transcript
I like to think of it myself—and I hope you will consider yourselves—what it would have been like to be one of the twelve at the Last Supper; that first Eucharist. In my own thought, because we are human beings and we get caught up in the externals I wouldn't have been surprised if someone would've said:
I don't like the table setting.
Are you sure this is the best wine you could've chosen?
These are the same kind of things we get caught up with when we attend church and we get distracted by the accidentals or incidentals and miss the essential ingredient of every Eucharist which is Christ himself. We even need to look beyond—as hard as it might be—priests themselves so that we could see Christ. Obviously that matters somewhat, but what matters most —that we should never forget—is who is present and what He offers each of us.
This is what I'd like you to consider is, we hold up this Gospel; we hold up a great treasure. A treasure to develop a real hunger and thirst for the body and blood of Christ.
We would do well to give a little background to this Gospel, to appreciate what Jesus was really celebrating. People in antiquity, whenever they celebrate a great feast like we might imagine let's say a wedding rehearsal dinner or special anniversary banquet, you give a lot of special attention to who sits where, what's happening, when it takes place, what is served and how it's presented and what the conversation is at the table. All these details are extremely important and significant. If you don't believe me, talk to a bride's mother. And so is it in this setting of the sacred meal of this Last Supper.
We are going to approach this Gospel asking: When is it taking place? What is happening? What is being served? What's the conversation? We do this in order to really, truly, and fully understand and appreciate what's happening.
You will recall, the Gospel for this Sunday begins: "In the beginning of the Passover..." Passover lasted a little more than a week, and begins on that day when the lamb was sacrificed. For Jesus, remember, is the Lamb of God. Recall what the Passover is, and what they are preparing for. The Passover Feast is that great celebration of the covenant, covenant meaning that marriage between God and his people that took place going back to the days when the Hebrew people were enslaved in Egypt and there were many plagues that God sent as signs to liberate them and finally the last and greatest sign was when the Israelites were instructed to sacrifice a lamb and take some of its blood and put it on the door post so that the angel of death might pass over those marked with the lamb's blood. The other homes would suffer the death of the eldest of the family. REMAINDER OF TRANSCRIPT TO COME.