“By analogy with the Covenant of Mount Sinai, sealed by sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, the actions and words of Jesus at the Last Supper laid the foundations of the new messianic community, the People of the New Covenant.” — Saint John Paul II
At Sinai, Israel entered a covenant relationship of love with God. The commandments handed down by Moses expressed a way of life, consummated by blood ritual. Moses sprinkled half the blood on the altar and then sprinkled the people. After ratifying the covenant, Moses and the priests and the elders ascended the mountain where they saw God and ate and drank. The effect of covenant is communion: seeing God, eating and drinking. Our Lord’s precious blood, the blood of the Eucharist, is the blood of a New Covenant. This New Covenant unites us to God intimately, allowing us to draw near to him. The blood of Jesus is nothing less than divine life, poured out for all who receive him in the Eucharist.
LET US PRAY
Heavenly Father, send forth your Holy Spirit, that the people of the New Covenant may be united completely to you. May the blood of Christ, poured out for the redemption of sins, wash away every evil that keeps hearts from you. Amen.
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARIST
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
-Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas