livingtheword

Discussion Guide: Corpus Christi – Living the Covenant More Deeply is Here

Reflection Questions:

• The Solemnity of Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) began following increased devotion to the Real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the 12th Century. It is celebrated on either the Thursday or Sunday after Pentecost.
• Deeper than a contract, a covenant is a blood bond to death. Moses conducts a sacrifice which seals the bond between God and Israel. Blood = life. Life = God. Everyone sprinkled is bound by the covenant: the Law of 10 commandments. God is willingly bound to the Covenant by the blood on the altar and the people of Israel are bound by being sprinkled with the same animals blood. The word Testament, also means Covenant, so we can say First Covenant for the First Testament. How do we make life-long bonds today? What connections do you see to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the Eucharist and the blood of the covenant?
• The Letter to the Hebrews explores Numbers and Leviticus to help us understand Jesus both fulfilled and replaces the High Priest in the Temple. The Feast of the Atonement (at-one-ment Lev:16) involved God forgiving sins through the action of blood being rubbed on the Mercy Seat in the holy of holies, the tabernacle. Life represented by blood rubs out death represented by sin. Blood brings forgiveness and the ashes of the sacrifice were sprinkled onto water which became waters of purification for blessing and making people clean. What links can you see to Holy Water as we enter Church? Receiving the blood of Christ from the chalice? Any other connections? Reflect on the Cross and the blood of Jesus. What would help you experience this covenantal reality of Christ’s commitment to you more deeply?
• The Jewish Passover involved a special meal with a lamb (sacrifice), bread
  (remembering unleavened bread, the quick escape from Egypt and the manna in the desert) and cups of wine (the 3rd cup remembered passing through the Red Sea from Egypt into the desert). Jesus changes the words and actions instituting a new sacred meal. His words over the bread and wine teach us this new meaning. He no longer only looks backward in history, but forward to the next day of his death on the cross. The unleavened (not risen) bread will become his body broken on the cross. The 3rd cup of wine becomes Jesus’ blood poured out. Jesus, fully God and fully Man unites in Himself within the Trinity, both parties to the covenant, ensuring it can never be broken again. Can you recognise the beauty and eternal significance of the Eucharist? Reflect that one name for it is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Do more questions arise about the Eucharist? Who could you ask?
• Holy Communion can become ordinary. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus invites us to revisit the importance of the Mass in our lives. Do you accept Christ’s invitation to a covenantal relationship with God? How can you maintain balance in prayer and action? Will you participate in building God’s Kingdom of peace and justice? Are you willing to imitate Christ; to live for God and love people to the extent that your body is broken and your blood poured out? What invitation do you hear as you receive Jesus?
• What is one action that you will do to be ʻlivingthewordʼ this week?