The Body and Blood of Christ (year A)

(1 Cor 10:16-17)

1 Corinthians 10:16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 10:17 Because there is one loaf, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

Here we see the fundamental reason that compels us to flee from idolatry, and it is closely linked to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, during which everything was done just as Jesus had done at the Last Supper. The cup was taken and blessed, the bread was taken and broken. The very words that Jesus had spoken over the cup and the bread were also spoken, so that after these words the bread and the cup were and are the body and blood of Christ.

The cup of blessing is the Eucharistic cup, which we bless, that is, consecrate. Consecration is called a blessing because it is preceded and followed by various prayers. It is also ‘communion’ (Greek koinōnia = participation, communion) with the blood of Christ, so that whoever drinks from this chalice—that is, from the wine it contains—becomes a participant in and drinks the blood of Jesus, and remains intimately united with him. Similarly, the Eucharistic bread, which we break, is communion with the body of the Lord, and whoever eats this bread remains intimately united to Christ. If drinking from this chalice and eating this bread is to share in the blood and body of Christ, this is clear proof that Christ is truly and substantially present in the Eucharist. Everyone, then, drinks the blood of Christ; everyone eats the body of Christ. A communion so profound with Christ is created that it surpasses every other form of communion existing on earth. It is a communion that unites Heaven and earth.

By participating in the Eucharist, by partaking of the body and blood of Christ, we enter into communion with him; we form one body. That is to say, our Eucharist, which is the very heart of the whole Christian life, is eating this bread, which is Him, and living in communion with Him. By living in communion with the Son of God, I become what I am, a child of God; I attain my identity, my truth. If I do not eat this bread, I am not what I ought to be; I do not attain my identity: I destroy myself.

To eat and drink the chalice is to enter into communion with the body and blood of Christ, and by eating and drinking Christ we are transformed into what He is: into a spiritual, holy nature, even in our body and not only in our soul. This truth is so evident that Paul does not want it to be accepted merely as a principle of faith, but as an act of the intellect. Faith, on the other hand, consists in accepting that the blessing and the words spoken over the bread and the cup transform the bread into the body of Christ and the cup into the blood of Christ. This truth cannot be deduced by reason. It is a proclamation of faith, a testimony of the apostles who heard Christ’s command, lived it out themselves first, and then understood the significance of what Christ had done for them and for all who would believe in his name. The apostles also received the authority to carry this out for the rest of their lives, passing this power on to their successors and to those they chose as elders within the community of believers.

Since spiritual things cannot be seen, they are expressed through signs, that is, through gestures, and thus through ritual; therefore, the bread and wine are signs. They are necessarily expressed through signs, because words are not adequate to express them, and behind those signs we see an infinite meaning that God has shown us through his word.

What signs are bread and wine? They are signs of nourishment, of sharing a meal, of communion, of family, of life: eating and drinking signify life. Behind these signs, what does revelation tell us? It is the gift that Jesus made of his body. It tells us that he is our life and that he gave his life for us. So, these signs become the memorial, that is, they bring back to my heart all the love of God who gives his life for me. We understand how necessary the sign is for the rite. That is why that small piece of bread is so very important: it is everything, because it is all that God wishes to give us, that is, himself. Since he cannot give himself in a visible way, and we need the visible, he signifies this to us through a small sign.

I do not know if we manage to grasp the full value of the rites. If one views the rite with triviality and superficiality, for that person the rite has no meaning whatsoever. If, on the other hand, one views it with depth of understanding, through the sign one will see that the full meaning of God’s saving work is revealed. Then, we understand what it means that that bread and that wine are communion with the body of Christ which is given for us; they are communion with the very life of God in the Son, through which we become children, we become like Christ: divinised. I hope that we Christians today know this too: those who were there at the beginning knew it.

The Eucharistic celebration concludes with: “Ite, missa est”. In the early Church of Rome, there was the following custom: once the celebration was over, the bishop would entrust some pieces of the Eucharistic bread to the deacons, so that they might take them to the faithful who had been unable to attend in person, or to the priests who would preside over the Eucharist in smaller churches. In this sense, the words “missa est” should be interpreted as “we have already sent the communion”, or “[the offering] has been sent”. Thus, the Eucharist concludes with a mission to others. If you have experienced the Father’s table, you are sent out into the whole world to bear witness to all; you are like the Son sent into the world.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All generations will call me blessed

Catholics and Protestants compared – In defence of the faith

The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)