“This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his.”

In an Essay carried by National Public Radio Marion Winik discussed the process of helping her aged mother clean out her attic. The essay, Cleaning House, and Cherishing Memories started off with the following statement:

Housecleaning is a necessary evil. But at what point do mementoes become clutter — and when should the memories of a home be taken out to the curb?

I listened as Ms. Winik described the things she was getting rid of. She noted that one of the items she was getting rid of was her deceased brother-in-law’s art portfolio.

I had to ask myself why I was shocked by this particular statement. Perhaps it was the fact that the statement was an oxymoron. Here you have an author, an artist of words discarding pieces of art. Maybe I was shocked because art probably represented a lot of this man’s heart and soul —“ art can be the very expression of ones deepest feelings. I felt unsettled and slightly angry. It was in some ways personal. I can imagine people taking what I hold dear —“ for me my writing, and throwing it out as so much trash.

In the end I was most disturbed because I am a Catholic/Christian.

My brothers and sisters,

Today Jesus Christ Himself will re-enact the very sacrifice of Calvary on this altar. Through the hands of the priest and in the priest’s voice Jesus will repeat the very same words found in today’s gospel:

While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, 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.”

What is ancient will be new. The perpetual memorial will occur right before our eyes as we kneel in adoration. By His sacrifice we will be renewed and cleansed of what is old and dead in us – our sinfulness.

Paul makes this very clear:

For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.

Once we have received Jesus into our very bodies we will gather as a community to carry out another ancient and holy action. We will place the body of Jesus into the monstrance that has been part of this parish for many years. We will place Him into this artwork, trying as best as we can with our feeble human abilities, to worship, praise, and glorify the living God.

We will sing songs and process with His body. We will go out through the doors of the church and under the open sky, for the entire world to see, we will carry Him, sing to Him, pray to Him, and glorify Him.

The Church in its prayers, devotions, pious actions, processions, and most especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass carries out what Christ has commanded us to do.

He told us to pray —“ we do.
He told us to re-enact what He has done —“ we do.
He told us to bear witness before the world —“ and we do.

Our life as Catholic/Christians is completely bound up with our faith and our actions. We come to God in faith. We are regenerated through an act of faith, and we put that faith to work in perpetuity through what we do.

When Ms. Winik threw out a part of her deceased brother-in-law she committed a sin. It is the same sin as anyone who neglects the reality before them in favor of self revelation and symbolic memories.

Ms. Winik not only threw out his memory, she put into action the philosophy of a society that only values the pleasure of the moment. She forgot that man is not just the here and now. She neglected the fact that man is not just a moment. Rather, man is eternal. She forgot that her brother-in-law presented himself in his art. He left something that he intended to last, something that would give his family a glimpse into his soul.

Things are not just things. Some things mean more then what they appear to be. Today we remember in a very special way that this piece of bread is not bread at all. It is the Body of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. It is God ever before us. It is God among us. It is God united to this world because the world, you and I, are worth saving. It is God with us forever. It cannot be discarded. Jesus left us His body and blood as something that will last. As Catholic/Christians we believe that and we are commanded to teach it.

Take your faith and reclaim the world with it. Tell everyone you know —“ look, here is Jesus in all His reality, look in the Church and find God’s love for us. Every moment of every day He offers us eternity through the body and blood of His Son. It is neither a symbol nor an intellectual exercise; it is what is forever.

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