Jesus Became Bread and Blood - Day 41*

* I have posted blogs on the Sundays in Lent. Sundays are not counted in the 40 days of Lent so that I will actually have 46 postings. JWN

Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover supper, the event and occasion when the Jews remembered the night that they left Egypt, when they were set free from slavery for freedom, when they went from having no land to anticipating the Promised Land, when they put blood on their doorposts to mark them and protect them so that the angel of death would pass over them. Every time the Jews celebrated the Passover they would re-member all of these events, and by re-member I am trying to convey not a simple intellectual recollection, but an actual “re-membering,” redoing, and reenacting all that happening.
We call this event the Last Supper. During this event Jesus took the bread and said this is now my body. During this event Jesus took the wine and said this is now my blood. So, now, he said, eat my body and drink my blood. This is how you become one with me and how I become one with you.
I have had the great joy and privilege of standing at God’s altar and saying Jesus’ words now for many years. I am clear that at the table I am a waiter. I am clear that Jesus is there, that he is the Host, and that the bread and wine do indeed become His Body and His Blood. How all that happens, well, I cannot—nor can anyone else—entirely explain. But that is alright. There is a mystery there that is beyond our words.
The Last Supper has never ended. It is still going on every time we gather around God’s table. He gives us his body and blood in order to feed us and in order to transform us. I do believe in the miracle that such ordinary things as bread and wine are transformed into his body and blood. And, I do believe in the miracle that he takes us, such ordinary folks as us, and transforms us into his body and blood for the world. We become what we eat. As we partake of the sacraments, we are called to become living and walking and extending sacraments. The first miracle is great—the bread and wine becoming his body and blood. The second miracle could perhaps be even greater—you and me becoming his body and blood for the world.