Midweek Homily (Week of Judica)

“THE BODY AND BLOOD OF GOD”

The Institution Narratives of Sts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke

SIX CHIEF PARTS SERMON SERIES

Lententide Midweek Vespers: Six

21 March Anno Domini 2013

Father Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   On Holy Thursday one talks about why that day was Holy and why this celebration this Thursday eve is equally as Holy.

   God saves. Jesus saves. There is a saving activity. If one desires to be a Gnostic, fine, good riddance. If you seek only theories, hidden knowledge, and esoteric wisdom for the elite, then you are not a follower of the Suffering Servant, the bruised and bleeding Lamb.

   You may incorrectly think that heaven will be gossamery, feathery and spiritually diaphanous, but you’re wrong. Heaven will be as real, solid, corporeal, and delightful as the feasts and banquets would have been in Eden had there been no fall.  God is the great I AM, to be sure.  The Holy Trinity amongst itself is a Divine mystery which cannot be plumbed.  But that’s not where it ended; where it stands. There’s Genesis 1, and the following history of God’s creative acts.  The Lord, the Logos/Word Son, created “stuff,” matter: physical, touchable, eatable, drinkable, concrete, creation.

   Rather than interact with His beloved children in only dreams and “imprinted” thoughts, the Lord walked with them in the cool of the day. The angel of the Lord, the malek Adonai, Christ before His incarnation, meets and interacts multiple times with His dear flock in the pages of Hebrew scripture.  God is always physical, hands-on, messy, earthy, tactile, hard & wet & cold & warm & bright & in ones face!

   Wrestling angels, smoking pots, talking & burning bushes, angels saving & eating, pillars of fire & billowing clouds, fiery-furnace companions, bronzed figures, eyes within eyes, a following rock producing water, quail & manna, stuff and more stuff, and in much of it not only the hand of God, but a pre-incarnate Christ typifying what was to come in the upper room on the night of Maundy.

   God had hitherto fed His people with their daily bread and with His Holy Word: Torah, the Prophets, the good Kings, and the Psalms. He kept both Moses and Elijah alive with not but His Word for their forty day fasts…but then He fed Elijah by the ravens, by baked bread and a cruse of water by his head.

   Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, the youngest of the “12” and the last to be taken to dwell safely with the Lord until the Eschaton, was that beloved disciple who rested his head on Christ’s chest during the Last Supper—which is really the FIRST Lord’s Supper, the initial and instituting Sacrament of the Altar and Holy Eucharist!  He had the closest eyes and the most alert ears to everything that happened in the upper room, at the Table, by the Messiah!  And yet, and yet, where is the VERBA, where the institution narratives?

   The Lord the Holy Spirit had the eye-witnesses Peter and Levi also preserve for the Catholic church the words of institution in the first two Gospels of Matthew and John Mark. Saint Luke and the Apostle also give us the Verba and the Sacramental Supper as well.

   Saint John the Evangelist shows you the very Body and Blood that was given to eat, that you will eat and drink, and what it is—The living, working, sacrificing, washing, servant Body and Blood of God—for you!

   “And supper being ended…He riseth from supper.” 

   Yes, the Passover meal came first. But it was no Passover Meal. It was the Holy Eucharist, and everything Dr. Luther gives you in the 6^th chief part happened because it is all taken from the Holy Bible.

   It is the true Body and Blood of your Lord under bread and wine for you to eat and drink. It’s not a symbol it’s the actual and real Body and Blood born of the Virgin, Sacrificed on the Tree, Risen on The Sunday of Easter, Ascended ot the right hand of Majesty, and present in Chalice and Ciborium to be placed on your tongues to be eaten and drunk.  Because GOD says so: IS MEANS IS!

   The benefit is God’s benefit for you and it does not matter that you might not totally understand, comprehend, or feel comfortable. The benefit comes from the words of the Word: “given and shed for you for the remission of sins.”  Life and salvation are given you through these words.  As a seal and testament to the Words of the Word, you are also given that SAME Body and Blood which won forgiveness, life, and salvation for you from upon the Crucifix.   

   Where the Head goes the Body follows.  When the Head washes you in Baptism, anoints your head in the thrice-fold + Body and Blood of Calvary, the body is clean. You belong to the Head: Christ Jesus, but your daily walk is still tainted and stained by filthy sins of commission and omission. Your feet, like the feet of Petros need to be daily washed.  You need the water of life which Is Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar. You need His meal every week at the least, and multiple times during the week at the optimum. 

   The Body and Blood of God, the Christ, after filling not only the stomachs of the “12” with bread and strong wine, but also filling them with His Body and Blood, through their lips, tongues and teeth, showed forth what Sacramental eating does. He laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.  He showed both His crucifixion and His continual cleansing flood til He come again.

   Jesus the God/Man came to serve and not to be served. He cleaned the stinking feet of poor, miserable sinners. You, after eating and drinking Your God/Man and Redeemer, clean and wash, and remit the stinking feet of poor miserable sinners, for you “chief of sinners” have been so washed, cleansed, fed, and strengthened. 

   When John quotes Jesus saying “you have been given an example,” he is showing that Christ has also given them THE EXEMPLAR, THE ANTITYPE, THE CONTENT ITSELF.  You have within you the Body and Blood of God.  And ye do, as He has done for you.

 

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost