The Blessed Sacrament

Index

Although God is everywhere, yet when he became a human being in the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it meant that the people who lived in Palestine at that time were able to find him.  So, when Jesus came from Heaven and was born in Bethlehem, you had only to make your way there with the shepherds and the Wise Men, and you could look on God himself who was living a human life in a human Body.  Thus, for 30 years, one had only to find Our Lord to find God.

The Last Supper

Before the Crucifixion Jesus offered himself to God

And so we come to Our Lord’s last night with his Apostles when he held the Last Supper.  Knowing that the next day he would be giving his life on the Cross in order to save us from the power of sin, he offered himself beforehand to God by taking bread and saying: This is my Body which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  Likewise after supper he took the cup of wine and said, This is my Blood of the New Covenant which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

Pattern for the Eucharist

The Last Supper was held, not only to give the Crucifixion on Good Friday its meaning, but also to provide a pattern for the Eucharist, so that after Jesus had been crucified, the Apostles might know exactly what to do and what to say; for not until the first Eucharist was actually held could these words of Jesus have their full meaning.  At the Last Supper, when he said over the bread, “This is my Body”, and over the wine, “This is my Blood”, it was obvious that the bread and wine were not, and could not be, his Body and Blood at that moment because there was Jesus himself sitting at the table for them to see and touch.


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