The Eucharist and God's covenant in Catholic liturgy

The beauty of God’s covenant with us is that each and every day we have the opportunity to renew our faith and reinvigorate our lives through love. Participating in the sacraments is an act of true communion, for when we participate in the Eucharist we are engaging in a two-way dialogue with God. A covenant is a commitment, a bilateral agreement between God and each of you. Christ made it possible for us to cultivate this special relationship, for it is only through His sacrifice that it becomes possible for us to experience the power of the covenant in a direct way. When you participate in the Eucharist, try to remember its deeper meaning, to consider the importance and value of the covenant and what it means for the salvation of humanity.
The Eucharist is the direct extension of the new covenant between God and His people. Let us consider the history of the Eucharist, which will help us understand why it is important and what it represents. The first Eucharist was actually the Last Supper. Christ’s Last Supper was a Passover meal in which Jesus established the precedent of the Eucharist (Mark 14:12-16. The Eucharist is a mystical, transformational sacrament representing God’s redemptive commitment to humanity and humanity’s obligation to God.

The Eucharist is both tangible and symbolic, as the physical act of imbibing the symbolic blood of Christ. To better understand the function of the Eucharist, it is helpful to trace its origin in the earlier types of sacrifices and sacraments practiced by the Jewish people during the first covenant established between God and Moses. During the era of the first covenant, Moses still participated in the ancient rites of animal sacrifice: “they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar,” (Exodus 24: 5-6). The new covenant does away with many of the rites, rituals, and rules of the old covenant, which is why animal sacrifice is no longer necessary, expected, or desirable. Yet Moses does clearly establish the precedent of ritual sacrifice, which Christ would later embody. Moses connects the act of blood sacrifice with the Covenant, proclaiming God’s love through the symbolic act. “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words,’” (Exodus 24:8). The Eucharist is directly connected with this initial method of establishing and affirming the covenant between God and humanity. With Christ’s work, love, and sacrifice, human beings are liberated from the original stipulations of animal sacrifice. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood,” (Hebrews 9:12).

The New Covenant is one of eternal salvation and eternal life. Whereas the old covenant God shared with Moses was indeed special, enabling human beings to perceive perhaps for the first time the tremendous power that is God’s love, Christ’s sacrifice changed forever the potential for humanity. The life power inherent in Christ’s blood is transmuted; it is a spiritual power. When we partake of that life power, eternal life becomes possible for us. Infinitely more powerful than the blood of animals, the blood of Christ has real redemptive and transformative power. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,” (Hebrews 9:14). The most important thing to remember is that both the old covenant and the new covenant share in common the theme of sacrifice. Whereas once God appreciated the simplicity of the animal sacrifice to signify the all the life that God created, Christ’s sacrifice for humanity gives us His blood, the sacred blood of Christ to represent the reality of eternal salvation.










References

Bible: NIV

“Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.”