This is the fourth week of our series Half-Truth. We are looking at thoughts in our culture that are half-true, but not completely true. They are kind of right, but not completely right. Through this series we are acknowledging the true parts and then seeking to present the whole truth as understood by our faith.
Three weeks ago we confronted this half-truth that there are many ways to God. It is true that many religions express some truth about God or that there are many ways to experience God. You can experience God through nature, prayer, or meditation. That is all true. However, the whole truth is that Jesus is the only way back into a right relationship with God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus clearly states he is the only way back into a right relationship with God.
Two weeks ago we looked at the half-truth that you don’t need a Church to have a relationship with God. We said you need Jesus to get to God the Father, and you need the Church to get to Jesus. We only know about Jesus through the Church, through the community of believers.
Last week, we looked at this statement that all religions are the same. That’s true if you mean all religions attempt to answer the same questions. All religions attempt to describe God, that is true. But a quick look at these religions shows that while they all ask the same questions, they come to very different answers.
We looked at the basic Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, which says there is one God in three divine persons. The conclusion we came to is that love is the highest value in the universe, and that’s because God is a community of love; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity.
The half-truth we want to discuss today is one that exists between Christians, and is an important element of our Catholic faith. This half-truth is that Holy Communion is only a symbol. A symbol represents something. Holy Communion represents God’s love for us, but it is much more than that. So if anyone says communion is a symbol, that is true, but it is only half true.
Holy Communion is a sacrament, A sacrament is something Jesus gave us to make the invisible God visible. Through the sacraments, God uses very physical and concrete things to make us aware of his presence and nourish our souls, God is nourishing the core of our very being through Holy Communion. If a sacrament is something that makes the invisible God visible, then Jesus is the primary sacrament because he makes God more visible to us than anyone or anything because he is God. But Jesus leaves us physically when he ascends to heaven, so Jesus gives us seven sacraments to help make God physically visible to us. One of the most important sacraments is Holy Communion and we experience it every week.
To get to the whole truth of how and why Holy Communion is much more than a symbol, we are going to look at Saint Mark’s Gospel, to see how Jesus started Holy Communion. And those biblical passages, will bring us to the full truth and meaning of Holy Communion. Mark writes, “On the feast of Unleavened bread, when the people would sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” This is important. To understand Communion fully, you need to know that Jesus started the sacrament of Holy Communion at a Passover meal. Remember, Passover celebrates God delivering the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. God called Moses to lead the Jewish people out of slavery. When Pharaoh refused to let the Jews go, God sent several plagues to try and convince Pharaoh. Pharaoh still refused to let the people go. So, God sent a final plague, which killed the firstborn son of the Egyptians. To protect the Jewish firstborn son’s from this final plague, God created Passover. God, through Moses, told the Jewish people to sacrifice an unblemished male lamb, smear the blood over their doorpost, and then eat the lamb.
All of that needed to be done to protect the firstborn sons, including eating the lamb. You had to eat the lamb that had been sacrificed, on your behalf, to benefit from its death, so the angel of death would Passover your home. That’s why the feast is called Passover. It celebrates the angel of death Passing Over those houses. After the night of Passover and the death of his own son, Pharaoh tells the Jewish people to leave and get out of his sight. The Passover, a sacrifice of a lamb and a meal, results in the exodus of Jews from Egypt, freeing them from slavery.
To this day, when the Jews celebrate the Passover, they are not just remembering it, they are living it. It isn’t like the way we celebrate holidays or events. For example, when we celebrate the Fourth of July, we might think fondly of our Founding Fathers and remember that they wrote the Declaration of Independence, but we don’t think of ourselves as reliving or participating in the event. For orthodox Jews, when they celebrate Passover, it is real for them. The rabbis see each annual celebration of the Passover as a way of participating in the first exodus when they were freed from slavery. By taking part in the Passover, they are in some mysterious way making present the deliverance that had been won for their ancestors. Jewish celebrants of Passover do not just remember the exodus, but actively participate in it.
Jesus was born about 1,500 years after the Exodus, and as I said, the disciples asked Jesus “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” Jesus sent two of his disciples telling them, “Go into the city. and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him.” Jesus continues, “When 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?” So the disciples go, and it plays out just as Jesus described it. Then Mark tells us, “While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them and said, “Take it; this symbolizes my body.” Ha! Gotcha. Of course Jesus didn’t say that. He said, “Take it; this IS my body.” He uses the word IS. He equates the bread with his body. The bread IS his body, and this IS alos important because of what IS missing from the meal. It IS the lamb. The lamb is missing. That is strange because a lamb was the main course, vital for any celebration of Passover. At every Jewish Passover, the celebration revolves around the body and blood of the sacrificial Passover lamb.
Here, at the Last Supper, Jesus does something entirely different. He shifts the focus away from the body and blood of the Passover lamb. He turns the focus toward his own body and blood.Just as the lamb was given up for the Jewish people to be saved from death, and you had to eat the lamb to experience God’s power, Jesus now says his body is being given up for us to be saved from death. And the bread is his body. It is his body that is sacrificed and given up so that we can be saved. Just as the Jews had to consume the lamb, so do we have to consume the Lamb of God who is Jesus in Holy Communion. Just as the lamb was slaughtered to save the Jewish people, now Jesus goes to the cross to save us.
At the last supper, Jesus says that the bread is his body, take it, and eat it, just as you ate the lamb before. This IS my body. Mark tells us what Jesus did next. “Then Jesus 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.” At a Passover meal, the cup would have contained wine. Jesus says, “This is my blood” Jesus is equating his blood with the blood of the lamb. Just as the lamb’s blood had saved the Jewish people from slavery and protected the first born, now his blood will be shed to save everyone who participates in His Communion. Jesus institutes this new Passover meal and tells us to do it over and over again in remembrance of him.
Just as the Jewish people believed that by participating in the Passover, they were really participating in the exodus out of Egypt, we believe that we are really participating in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus during Mass when we receive Holy Communion. Jesus started the sacrament of Holy Communion at Passover. At Passover it was never enough to sacrifice the lamb. You had to eat the actual flesh of a lamb. A symbol was not sufficient.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, is visible in this sacrament, HIS body and HIS blood. Do you have a hard time believing Jesus can change bread and wine into his body and his blood? In the bible, Jesus says he does it, and that’s good enough for me. If you believe that Jesus could predict his own death and rise from the dead, you can believe he can change bread and wine into his body and blood.
My prayer for you is that you gain a deeper understanding of the beginning of Holy Communion at that Passover many, many years ago and that encourages you to come and receive Holy Communion with a greater appreciation for what you are receiving. And for those of you, who out of respect for Holy Communion, come up with your arms crossed and receive a blessing, please know that you have my respect. It shows that you understand the significance of what is taking place here each week. With a better understanding of what is present here, you will make coming here, each week, a greater priority. Because for some of you, the best way to take a step forward in faith is more regular attendance at Sunday Mass, or even occasionally at daily Mass. Observe for yourself how it improves your life, day by day.
I challenge you to grow in appreciation of what Jesus has done for you. Jesus not only humbled himself by sacrificing himself on the cross, he continues to humble himself by coming in the appearance of bread and wine and changing it into his body and blood. Jesus desires a relationship with you so much that he makes himself food for you.
By receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, if you open your heart to him, you actually become more like Jesus. And that, is a greater miracle than turning bread and wine into his body and blood. The bread and wine don’t have a will. They don’t fight back or argue. You and I, we argue. We struggle to align our will with Jesus’ will. That’s one reason we need to keep receiving Jesus, to become what we eat, his body on earth. So Holy Communion is not only a symbol. That is a half truth. Holy Communion is something that makes the invisible God visible, the body and blood of Jesus. You really do receive Jesus’ body and blood. You consume the Lamb of God, who takes away your sins, saves you from death, and transforms you to be like him. So, now what??
Well. . . this is what we want you to know: When you come to receive Jesus at communion, you are truly receiving Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity. If you still believe communion is only a symbol and it doesn’t make any sense to you that it is Jesus, then:
This is what I want you to do: Pray about it! Ask God to help you to see as God sees and accept this mystery which is a gift from God.
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