The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I don’t know about you, but I’m far from a Biblical scholar. I chuckle at the word “heifer,” and I skim and skip to the end of long genealogies. So when people start talking about covenants in the Old Testament, I usually shrug it off as a nice story we learned in Sunday School from long, long ago.
Thankfully, the pastor at my parish has been preaching for months about all the promises God made that we get to learn about in the Old Testament, that are fulfilled in the New Testament. Our pastor says we need to know the promises God made so we can identify when they’re fulfilled and praise God for it! This preaching was a great primer and laid the foundation for some pretty monumental connections made in the readings today for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Woven throughout Scripture, and specifically in the three passages we read today, is God’s voice reminding us of His covenant with His people, which culminates in Jesus telling us He is the fulfillment. In Mark 14 after Jesus gives us His body and blood, He says "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many” (Mark 14:24). It is His blood. He is the sacrificed animal promised way back when. How cool is that?
The blood He shed by His death was His part of the covenant with us. A way we can honor, respect, and uphold our end of the covenant is by sacrificing our own blood, figuratively, by dying to self. This could look like letting our roommate choose the movie to watch, taking a meal to our sick co-worker, or visiting our lonely neighbor. This could even look like honoring covenants we’ve made in our own lives, like to our spouse, plans to spend time with family or a friend, or simply following through with a volunteer commitment.
When we practice small daily sacrifices of dying to self and laying our life down for others, we uphold our end of the covenant God made with us long, long ago that He fulfills even today.
Catherine Huss is a clothing designer in Southern California, and spends her free time playing beach volleyball, singing, and writing. Her favorite conversations combine Jesus and the modern experiences of fashion, relationships, and pop culture. Follow her most recent adventure starting the clothing brand Siena and Co.