“I hope we have a nice vacation!” Please make up your bed before you go to school.” “I love you.” We all know how important words are. Among other things, they can express our hopes, give direction and relay our feelings. But they don’t have any power by themselves. Hoping for a nice vacation won’t guarantee it, nor will our directions to our child to make their bed. But, when God speaks, his very word is effective. “Let there be light,” he commands, and there was light. “Stretch out your hand over the sea and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass the sea on dry land,” he instructed Moses and it happened exactly as he said. “This is my body, …this is my blood,” and bread and wine become the very Body and Blood of Christ. Yes, God’s word is effective; what he says happens. And so tonight, as we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, let’s reflect for a moment on this central mystery of our faith: the transubstantiation of simple bread and wine into the life-giving Body and Blood of Christ.
It has its origin in the Passover. We’re all familiar with the story of the first Passover, when God’s angel passed over the houses of the Israelites as it struck down the first born of all of the Egyptians. This was the prelude to the moment when the beloved people of God passed over from slavery in Egypt back to the Promised Land, when God established a covenant with his people. We heard a portion of this event – which marked the birth of the Jewish faith – in our first reading this evening. You will notice that an important aspect of this Passover was a sacrificial meal for which a lamb without blemish was slaughtered. Its blood was sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of every house and then the lamb was roasted and eaten by those in the faithful households. The lamb provided food for them as they started their journey to the Promised Land. And, as we hear at the end of this evening’s reading, God instructed his faithful to celebrate this memorial feast for generations to come as a perpetual institution.
It all sounds so familiar to us, doesn’t it? There are many echoes of this first Passover in our own Eucharistic Celebration, which marks the birth of our Christian faith. Before we receive Holy Communion, we hear the priest declare: “Behold, the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” And, as the priest consumes the bread and wine – now transformed into the true sacrificial Lamb of God – he says quietly, “May the Body and Blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.” He is the first in the congregation to recognize this miraculous transformation and acknowledge the protection and nourishment it provides, just as the sacrificial lamb did for the ancient Jews.
And, when the priest or deacon or Eucharistic Minister presents the consecrated host to those coming up for communion, he or she declares “The Body of Christ” and the communicant responds “Amen,” acknowledging the real presence of Jesus in the host and proclaiming his or her recognition that this act makes him or her a member of the Body of Christ. As we receive the Body of Christ, we truly become the Body of Christ. The sacrificial lamb fed the ancient Israelites as they began their journey back to the Promised Land. And, in their participation in the Passover meal, they became the people God had chosen as his own. Jesus, the true sacrificial lamb, nourishes us as we journey to the true Promised Land – heaven. And, as we partake of this Eucharistic meal, we become the living Body of Christ, God’s presence in the world today. And, Jesus commands us tonight and at every Eucharistic celebration: “Do this in memory of me.”
Yes, God’s word is effective. When Jesus says, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you,” he is truly giving us his sacred Body to nourish us and keep us safe as we make our way back to his heavenly Father. When Jesus says, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant,” he is really offering his own Blood as the sign of the new covenant, the eternal covenant that he has established between God and us, his beloved people. How blessed we are to receive our Lord in Holy Communion. Let us come around our Lord’s Table often to be nourished as we journey together to return to our God who – by his creative word – has made heaven and earth and longs for us to be with him forever at his heavenly banquet.