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The Institution of the Eucharist in Mark

angfrayle on June 1st, 2009

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“On the night he was betrayed…” Everytime we celebrate the Mass, we recall the words of the institution of the Eucharist so as to keep fresh before us the memory of the Lord "who loved his own until the end" (John 13:1). The Eucharist is the memorial of that love. With the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ we celebrate the Lord’s act of self-giving on the Cross, giving us His Body and Blood as the assurance of our own salvation.

Related Articles for Corpus Christi

Guide for Reading

The liturgy of Corpus Christi presents to us this year some selections from Mark 14:12-31. Read the full text first and then concentrate on vv. 12-16 and vv. 22-26. The emphasis on the liturgy will be on these two groups of verses. Two sections are left out for the simple reason that these belong to another theme of the Marcan story: the failure of discipleship within a eucharistic context. Below are some additional insights that can help in the understanding of the text of Mark.

1. The reference to time at the beginning of v. 12 sets the theme of the story within the celebration of the Passover. Mark’s ordering of temporal events reflects the ordinary Jewish calendar: the paschal lamb is slaughtered for sacrifice at 2:30 PM on the vigil of the Pasch, that is Thursday. Meal-time is at 6 PM. In John’s account, Jesus dies on the cross just when the paschal lamb is slaughtered. John was following a different calendar, the one known by Essenes. The important thing for us is that both evangelists set the time of Jesus’ death in relation to the Jewish Passover.

2. Note the similarity of vv. 12-16 to the account of the preparation of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Two disciples were instructed on how to find the place where the meal is to be set and they find it just the way Jesus said it would be. Here, the theme of Jesus’ last days as something that was due to a plan, not to some chance occurences. Jesus prepares for his death through events that he already knows beforehand.

3. The passover meal is shared by families whether at home or in Jerusalem as pilgrims. For this reason, there were “hotels” in Jerusalem meant to accomodate pilgrims during this time of the year. Since not all hotels can handle the influx of pilgrims for passover, citizens of Jerusalem within designated areas of the city offer hospitality to pilgrims. Jesus and his group take advantage of this special hospitality offered by Jerusalemites. They take a place in the Upper City: a house with a second floor. Note too that Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples, his family.

4. The account of the passover meal is contracted to the essentials. Consult this page from Bible.ORG for a reconstruction of the Passover meal at the time of Jesus. 1

Comparing the Readings

The first reading from Exodus 24:3-8, is about the ratification of the covenant at Sinai. The focus of the liturgy of Corpus Christi is on the blood that Moses sprinkles on the altar and on the people. By sprinkling the people with the blood of the covenant, they formally begin to participate in the blessings associated with the covenant. When Jesus says “This is the blood of the new covenant”, he is referring to the New Covenant foretold by the prophets that will be forged in his own blood. The second reading from the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 9:11-15) emphasizes the surpassing excellence of Jesus’ blood as the source of divine blessings and the new covenant that makes all sharers in the “eternal inheritance”.

Suggestions for the Lesson

During solemnities and feasts, the theme of the liturgy often covers an area that is wider than that suggested in the readings of the Mass. I would suggest that the catechist or homilist focus on the tradition of the Eucharist as presented by Mark and connect it to what is being done in all the Masses. I would also suggest that the Bull, Transiturus, the document that formally established the feast of Corpus Christi be given some reading. A translation is provided in one of the links above and my own evaluation here. The following ideas should be insisted on

1. The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a post-easter feast in which we celebrate the love of God that is expressed in the sacrament of the Real Presence.

2. The feast is also a reminder that the good things that the Risen Lord has won for us by His Death and Resurrection are applied to us through the Sacraments, especially through the sacrament of His Body and Blood. The Tagalog word for this is “pakikinabang”, the act by which we “benefit from” the new life that Jesus offers us.

3. During the eucharistic prayer, we ask God that we who partake of the flesh and blood of Christ may become His Body. The Eucharist turns us daily into the Body of Christ, the Church, the fullness of Him who fills up everything (Ephesians 1:23)

John 13:1
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
1Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Mark 14:12-31
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
12Now on the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch, the disciples say to him: Whither wilt thou that we go, and prepare for thee to eat the pasch?
13And he sendeth two of his disciples, and saith to them: Go ye into the city; and there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water, follow him;
14And whithersoever he shall go in, say to the master of the house, The master saith, Where is my refectory, where I may eat the pasch with my disciples?
15And he will shew you a large dining room furnished; and there prepare ye for us.
16And his disciples went their way, and came into the city; and they found as he had told them, and they prepared the pasch.
17And when evening was come, he cometh with the twelve.
18And when they were at table and eating, Jesus saith: Amen I say to you, one of you that eateth with me shall betray me.
19But they began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one by one: Is it I?
20Who saith to them: One of the twelve, who dippeth with me his hand in the dish.
21And the Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed. It were better for him, if that man had not been born.
22And whilst they were eating, Jesus took bread; and blessing, broke, and gave to them, and said: Take ye. This is my body.
23And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, he gave it to them. And they all drank of it.
24And he said to them: This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many.
25Amen I say to you, that I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God.
26And when they had said an hymn, they went forth to the mount of Olives.
27And Jesus saith to them: You will all be scandalized in my regard this night; for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be dispersed.
28But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
29But Peter saith to him: Although all shall be scandalized in thee, yet not I.
30And Jesus saith to him: Amen I say to thee, today, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shall deny me thrice.
31But he spoke the more vehemently: Although I should die together with thee, I will not deny thee. And in like manner also said they all.
Exodus 24:3-8
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg LXX Hebrew
3So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken.
4And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and rising in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
5And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord.
6Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls: and the rest he poured upon the altar.
7And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken we will do, we will be obedient.
8And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.
Hebrews 9:11-15
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
11But Christ, being come an high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation:
12Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption.
13For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh:
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?
15And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Ephesians 1:23
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
23Which is his body, and the fulness of him who is filled all in all.
  1. See also this article from a Jewish rabbi who examines the differences and similarities between the Last Supper of Jesus and the Jewish Seder↩
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