Word to the Wise
Saturday, July 26, 2025 - Saturday in the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 24:3-8 and Matt 13:24-30]Then, having sent certain young men of the children of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord, Moses took half the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, "All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do." Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his." [Exodus]
JULY 26, STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The words of Moses, "the blood of the covenant, " are echoed by Jesus at the Last Supper when he instituted the Eucharist as a perpetual memorial of his life, death and resurrection. [cf. 1 Cor. 11:25] Blood was considered by the ancient Jews and others as the "life principle" of humans and other animals. [We can be grateful that the Lord decided on wine to be transformed into his blood! ] The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. meant the end of animal/vegetable sacrifice as a form of worship. But the creation of the covenant by blood of sacrifice was adopted in Christian faith to mean the blood of Christ poured out on the cross. The expression, "the sacrifice of the Mass," and the repeated use of the word "sacrifice" in the Eucharistic prayers has its roots in the Old Testament covenant.
The establishment of the covenant between God and the Chosen People was solemnized at Mount Sinai with the sacrifice of animals. We offer bread and wine - fruit of the earth and of the vine, the work of human hands. It is not simply the Last Supper that is commemorated, but the entire "economy of salvation," recorded in the scriptures which are proclaimed, as was that first covenant, to the People of God. It is not something that only the priest does. We are all joined to offer the sacrifice and promise to live by the new covenant established by Jesus Christ. AMEN