Hindsight

 When I place myself in Jesus' time, I know that there is no way I would have followed Him.  I don't have that confidence.  I know that I'm not that smart so I would have obeyed my betters in what to believe.  If they had said something shocking, I would have looked to those in authority above those whom I followed.

I would never have followed Someone Who told me to devour their flesh, even emphasize and reinforce the eating of His flesh and drinking His Blood.  No way! Jesus was telling me to reject the Mosaic covenant.

Thanks be to God, that He placed me here and now in these times.  I can read the biblical prohibitions against eating and drinking blood. Now I am taught that the Mosaic laws were not intended to last forever.  Indeed, Jeremiah foretold that a new covenant would fulfill the old one Jer 31: 31-34 and Ezek 36: 24-28. And Luke explains that Jesus' time had come to establish a new covenant in blood   Luke 22:20.

We do not carnally eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood, rather we eat of the risen and glorified Body and Blood under the sacramental species of bread and wine.

I guess God really does know what He's doing.  Since my intelligence is limited.  I'll just follow His directions: 

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life...For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  John 6: 52-56.

Spiritual Communion

 Paul Murray, OP is a poet and a Dominican theologian.  I enjoy his poetry and even more than his poems, I enjoy his essays or articles, because he writes beautifully.  This is the case in this article in Australia's Catholic Voice.  The article is a few years old--during COVID.

People couldn't attend Mass, so the church told people to unite themselves spiritually to the Eucharist.  Of course, my saying this is so banal, but Father Murray explaining it makes you want to pray a Spiritual Communion.  

Spiritual communion, when it is authentic, always has at its core a desire to be one with Christ in the Eucharist.

His example is one of a prisoner on death row.  Priests to celebrate Mass are hard to come by, not only here where I live, but in Australia, where Father Murray is writing.  Actually, it's a universal problem.  The idea is that prisoners are in prison to be punished, not rehabilitated. I hope depriving Catholic prisoners of the Eucharist isn't a deliberate punishment, because that would be heinous, indeed.  But Mass hadn't been celebrated in this prison for years!  

Catholic Mass had not been celebrated in that particular part of the prison for several years. The prisoner in question, a Catholic, struck me as a very ordinary guy. All the more striking, therefore, was the strength, the force, of his desire to attend Mass and to receive the Eucharist. He asked the authorities of the prison that Mass be celebrated at least on Sundays, and he kept on asking although ordered to stop. After some considerable time, permission was granted, but only after he had suffered a great deal.

When, some months later, I celebrated Mass for him and for a small number of other prisoners on Death Row, I noticed that he wept at the moment he received the host. And, just after the Mass, when I spoke to him through the bars, I noticed that once again tears were flowing down his cheeks. He said to me: “It’s only when you are deprived of something that you realize how precious it is!”

Yes indeed, like manna in the dessert.  The Eucharistic host is spiritual food.  Jesus emphatically says that it is His Body and Blood.  John 6: 51.

The prisoner had been denied Divine Manna.  This is how many people felt when they were denied the Eucharist during COVID.  Hence, praying a Spiritual Communion was used.  The one I know is: 

Lord, since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart and dwell there forever. Amen.

A Cenotaph

 

This is a cenotaph, known as the hill of crosses, in Jurgaičiai, Lithuania. It started in Medeival times to mark a grave with no body. Probably during some battle with the Russians, someone placed a cross on the hill to remember someone.  Others copied.  For certain, since 1831, people have come specifically to this hill to place cross and remember.

The Soviets have bulldozed all the crosses more than a few times.  But the crosses keep coming back.  Finally, the Soviets gave up. 

Four Nights

 The poem of the Four Nights appears in the first century books known as the Targums--paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible in Aramaic.

The Four Nights are four distinct events, separated by hundreds of years yet linked by spiritual history:

Creation

Isaac

Passover

Messiah

The Tamid

 The Arc of the Covenant in the Old Testament housed God's special presence.  Also, it was a place where the people could offer sacrifices.  On Mount Sinai, God instructed Moses to institute the Tamid. Ex 29: 38-39, 42-43.

Now this is what you shall offer upon the altar:

two lambs a year old day by continually...It 

shall be a continual burnt offering throughout

your generations at the door of the tent...

These are the instructions Abraham received on Mount Sinai. This is prefiguring the liturgical sacrifice of daily Mass.  The lambs were used to remember Isaac's close call.  Today, we offer Jesus, the Lamb of God - fulfilling the Tamid sacrifice.  

Everything we do, fulfills the Old Testament covenants.  

                                                  Valentin de Boulogne

The Sinner's Prayer

I imagine that the Israelites prayed The Sinner's Prayer in ceremonies, like we pray the Our Father during Mass and occasionally in groups.  Back in the day, 1950's, we children prayed the Our Father, every morning in school. Psalm 51: 1-19, would be a good Sinner's Prayer.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins.

Blah Taste

 Every First Communicant is surprised that the Eucharist has no taste.  If anything, they'll liken the taste to cardboard.  Well, guess what? That's exactly what it is supposed to taste like.  Remember that the Liturgy of the Eucharist is re-presenting Jesus' Last Supper and Sacrifice.

Jesus' Last Supper was a Passover meal.  The Passover meal was roasted lamb AND unleavened bread with bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8-11), reminding them of their hardships escaping from Pharoah.  

It is what it is.  

Seder plate. Courtesy of Mandell JCC 

Understanding Passover and the Passover Seder - We-Ha | West Hartford News