Fr. Raymond, Homily. The Tree of Life
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Solemnity - Year B
Saint(s) of the day : St. Margaret of Scotland, Queen (+ 1093)
See commentary below or click here
Saint John Chrysostom : "This is my blood..., which will be shed for many"
Book of Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 14:12-16.22-26.
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| Raphael Disputation of the Holy Sacrament-La Disputa |
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Raymond . . .
Sent: Sunday, 10 June 2012, 18:44
Subject: CORPUS CHRISTI 2012
From: Raymond . . .
Sent: Sunday, 10 June 2012, 18:44
Subject: CORPUS CHRISTI 2012
The “Mystery of our Faith”, the
Eucharist, is the greatest jewel in the crown of the Church’s Liturgical Year.
It is so rich and
deep a mystery that it took two thousand years of gradual revelation to bring
it finally to light. The People of God had to be prepared in order to be
able to receive this great Sacrament. There is a gradual unfolding of the revelation
of it in the history of salvation. Surely if there is any mystery of our
faith that would span the whole history of revelation from beginning to end it would be
the Eucharist, because the Eucharist, is the Sacramental Sacrifice that sums up
in itself the whole meaning and purpose of the Incarnation and Redemption.
The first veiled reference to the Eucharistic
Mystery that we find in Scripture is surely to be found in the Book of Genesis.
There we read of the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of Eden. We can surely see the
Eucharist as well as the Cross foreshadowed in this Tree of Life? Surely
this is the very first hint God gives us of the Eucharist. The new Garden of Eden is the
Church and the new Tree of Life is the Eucharist at the heart of the
Church. We read that this tree is surrounded by many other trees in the
Garden, all of them “beautiful to look at and good to eat”. But this tree
stands in the midst of them all and is singled out as offering not only
pleasure and nourishment, but as providing life itself – The Tree of Life. Its
companion tree, also found with it in the middle of the garden is called the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, suggesting perhaps that there is a
morality, an uprightness, a holiness, associated with this tree of life; a
holiness, a sacredness not to be violated. The two trees are
inseparable. Where the distinction between good and evil is violated
there can be no partaking of the Eucharist. This too is foreshadowed in
the expulsion from the Garden of Eden which is described specifically as being
a barring of access to the Tree of Life. We read that Man….“ must not be
allowed to stretch out his hand next and pick from the Tree of Life also.”
Next perhaps we may
consider the Eucharistic aspect of the distinction between the sacrifice of
Abel and that of Cain. There was nothing wrong with the sacrifice of Cain
in itself. He offered the fruits of the earth, a sacrifice that
acknowledged man’s dependence on God for the sustenance and support of his life
on earth, and that surely was a good and praiseworthy sacrifice. Where
Cain went wrong was in his jealousy at the favour shown by God to the sacrifice
offered by Abel. This sign of favour, whatever it was, was in no way a negative
rejection of the sacrifice of Cain but was rather a positive sign of the
excellence of the sacrifice of Abel; a sign that was pointing to the future; to
the perfect sacrifice of the Eucharist. Because Abel, on his part,
offered a sacrifice of blood, the sacrifice of a living creature from his
flocks; a sacrifice which acknowledged that man owed, not only his sustenance,
but also his very life and existence to his God. There was the element of
blood, the element of life and death, in that sacrifice and surely God’s
approval was something that pointed to the perfection of that other great and
ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God; that supremely pleasing sacrifice which
Is the other side of the Eucharist, a Eucharist which is at the same` time both
sacrament and sacrifice.
No doubt, if we
look further in the book of Genesis with the Eucharist in mind we will find
many other prophetic links with this great Sacrament. But let us turn now
to the Book of Exodus. Here there is no problem at all in uncovering the
links with the Eucharist. There is the blood of the fist sacrificial
paschal Lamb marking the dwellings of the Israelites, and there is, above all
the miraculous bread of the desert, the ‘Sacramental’ Manna which sustained the
people of God for forty years on their journey to the Promised Land.
We find an echo of
this also in the book of Kings where Elijah is fed with bread from heaven by an
angel and is told to eat and drink or the journey would be too much for him.
“.....and he ate and drank and went in the strength of that bread for forty
days and forty nights right to the mountain of God”.
Similarly we find
an echo in the life of Jesus when he fed the crowds with miraculous bread lest
they faint from hunger on their way home.
Let us then keep
the idea of the Eucharist at the back of our minds as we listen to or read the
Scriptures and we will surely be surprised at how often we see the mystery of
the Eucharist being unfolded before our eyes.
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