Sunday Bible Readings June 14 2009 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus

June 14 2009 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/061409.shtml

Exodus 24:3-8
Douay-Rheims Challoner

So 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.

And 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. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord. Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls; and the rest he poured upon the altar. And 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.

And 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.

Responsorial Psalm 115:12-13, 15-18 (Ps 116 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

What shall I render to the Lord,
for all the things that he hath rendered to me?
I will take the chalice of salvation;
and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
O Lord, for I am thy servant:
I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid.
Thou hast broken my bonds:
I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise,
and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the sight of all his people:

Hebrews 9:11-15
Haydock NT

But Christ coming, a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation: Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the sanctuary, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer, being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Holy Ghost, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

And, 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 who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Haydock New Testament

Now, 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?

And 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; And wheresoever’s 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? And he will shew you a large dining-room, furnished: and there prepare ye for us.

And his disciples went their way, and came into the city: and they found as he had told them, and they prepared the Pasch. And whilst they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessing broke, and gave to them, and said:

Take ye, This is my body.

And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, he gave to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them:

This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many. Amen, I say unto you, that I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went forth to the mount of Olives.

Haydock Commentary Exodus 24:3-8
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 4. Titles. That is, pillars; (Ch.) or altars, round that made of turf; (C. xx. 24); which represented God.  Part of the blood was poured upon this altar, and the rest upon the Hebrews, to remind them, that if they proved rebellious, their blood should be spilt.  C.
• Ver. 5. Holocausts: whole burnt-offerings: in which the whole sacrifice was consumed with fire, upon the altar.  Ch. — It is not said that these young men were to officiate as priests.  Moses acted alone in this capacity, pouring the blood. — Calves, and he-goats also.  Heb. ix. 19.  The book was also sprinkled with the blood (C.) mixed with water; for which purpose scarlet wool and hyssop were employed, as S. Paul learnt from tradition, or by inspiration.  H.
• Ver. 8. Covenant. Thus Christ confirmed the new covenant, by the effusion of his blood. T. — This is daily renewed upon our altars for ever.  C. — Our Saviour alludes to this transaction in the consecration of the chalice.  D. — If wine alone had been substituted instead of blood, the figure would have surpassed the reality.  Isichius.  W.

Haydock Commentary Hebrews 9:11-15

• Ver. 11. Christ coming[3] is a high priest of the good things to come; of things which we hope for in heaven. — He has entered by a more perfect tabernacle; i.e. not passing, like the priests of the former law, into a tabernacle made by human art and hands, but by the tabernacle of his own body or flesh, says S. Chrys. framed by the Holy Ghost.  Wi.
• Ver. 12. By the blood of goats, &c.  This is another difference and pre-eminence of Christ above the priests of the law of Moses, that they could only offer the blood of beasts; but Christ entered into heaven by the effusion of his own precious blood in his sufferings, and on the cross, by this having found an eternal redemption for mankind, having satisfied for the sins of all men in the sight of God, which the former priests, with all their sacrifices, could not do.  Wi. — Eternal redemption. By that one sacrifice of his blood, once offered on the cross, Christ our Lord paid and exhibited, once for all, the general price and ransom of all mankind; which no other priest could do.  Ch. — The force of the apostle’s reasoning is to convince the Jews of the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices, and of the virtue of the Christian sacrifice.
• Ver. 13-14. For if the blood of goats, &c.  Another main difference betwixt the sacrifices in the old, and that of Christ in the new law.  Those imperfect carnal sacrifices could only make the priests and the people reputed clean, so that they were no longer to be treated as transgressors, and liable to punishments, prescribed and inflicted by the law: but the sacrifice of Christ has made our consciences interiorly clean, and sanctified them even in the sight of God.  Having offered himself unspotted to God by the Holy Ghost, the divine Spirit of the Holy Ghost moving Christ as man to make this oblation of himself, though free from all sin, and incapable of sinning.  And being this oblation, made by him, who was God as well as man, it was an oblation of infinite value, which repaired the injury done to God by sin, and redeemed mankind from the slavery of sin.  Wi. — Here we have an abstract of the passion of Jesus Christ, or of the sacrifice of the cross.  We see who is the priest, and who is the victim; we seethe virtue and efficacy of this sacrifice, and why it was offered; also by what signs we may know whether we partake of it, viz. if dying to sin and to the world, we live to God, and serve him in spirit and truth.  Calvin makes Jesus Christ a priest and mediator, according to his divinity; but in that case Christ would be inferior to his Father, not only as man, but according to his divinity: for the priest is inferior to the God to whom he offers sacrifice, which is an expression of supreme excellence.  See Dr. Kellison’s survey of the Protestant religion.
• Ver. 15. And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament.[4]  The mediator, so as to be our Redeemer, which applies only to our Saviour, Christ.  Moses is called a mediator betwixt God and his people.  See Gal. iii. 19. and 1 Tim. ii. 5. &c.  The saints in heaven, and men on earth, may be called mediators in an inferior and different sense: but Christ alone is the mediator who reconciled God to men, by satisfying for their sins, and by a redemption from the slavery of sin.  This sense, in which Christ is the mediator of the New Testament is expressed in these following words: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament, they who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; that is, Christ by his death, redeemed all men.  He names in particular the sins of those under the former testament, to shew them that the sacrifices of the Mosaical law could not of themselves obtain a remission of sins, so that all saved from Adam, or that shall be saved to the end of the world, have their sins forgiven, and obtain salvation by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross.  He paid the ransom of their sins, and is the Redeemer of all.  Wi.

Haydock Commentary Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

• Ver. 12. Whither wilt thou, &c.  By these words the disciples teach us to direct our every step according to the will of God; therefore does their Lord tell them, with whom he would eat the pasch, to go two of them into the city.  S. Jerom.
• Ver. 14. Were is my refectory:[2] where I may eat the pasch, or the paschal supper of the lamb sacrificed?  Lit. in the Lat. where is my eating, or my refection? but it is generally agreed that here is meant a place to eat in.  Wi.
• This is my Body.
• Ver. 22. This which I now give, and which you now receive; for the bread is not the figure of Christ, but is changed into the true body of Christ; and he himself says, The bread, which I will give you, is my flesh. S. John vi.  But the flesh of Christ is not seen, on account of our infirmity; for if we were allowed to see with our eyes the flesh and blood of Jesus, we should not date to approach the blessed sacrament.  Our Lord therefore condescending to our weakness, preserves the outward species of bread and wine, but changes the bread and wine into the reality of flesh and blood.  Theophy. — S. Chrysostom, in his thirtieth sermon on the treason of Judas, says: “Christ is also now present to adorn our table, (altar) the same that was present to adorn that table.  For it is not man that causes the elements to become the body and blood of Christ, but the very Christ, the same that was crucified for us: oude gar anqrwpoV estin o koiwn ta prokeimena ginesqai swma kai aima cristou all autoV o staurwqeiV uper hmwn cristoV.  The priest stand his vicegerent, and pronounces the words, but the power and grace is of God.  He says, this is my body, and the word changes the elements: and as the sentence ‘increase and multiply, and fill the earth, was spoken once, but still  imparts fecundity to human nature throughout all time: so these words (of consecration) once spoken, constitute an absolute, perfect sacrifice upon every altar of the Church from that day to this, yea even to the time when Christ shall come again at the last day.”  Schma plhrwn esthken o iereuV, ta rhmata fqeggomenoV ekeina h de dunamiV, kai h cariV tou qeou esti.  touto mou esti to swma, fhsi touto to rhma metarruqmizei ta prokeimena.  Kai kaqaper h fwnh ekeinh h legousa  ²auxanesqe, kai plhqunesqe, kai plhrwsate thn ghn,² erreqh men apax, dia pantoV de tou cronou ginetai ergw endunamousa thn fusin thn hmeteran proV paidopoiian.  outw kai h fwnh auth apax lecqeisa, kaq ekasthn trapezan en taiV ekklhsiaiV, ex ekeinou mecri shmeron, kai mecri thV autou parousiaV, thn qusian aphrtismenhn ergazetai.  S. Chrysostom, Serm. xxx, on the treachery of Judas.
• These words are so plain, that it is difficult to imagine others more explicit.  Their force and import will however appear in a still stronger light, if we consider the formal promise Christ had made to his apostles, as related by S. John, that he would give them his flesh to eat, that same flesh he was to deliver up for the life of the world.  He on that occasion confirmed with remarkable emphasis of expression the reality of this manducation, assuring them that his flesh was meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed; and when some of the disciples were shocked at such a proposal, he still insisted that unless they eat his flesh, they should have no life in them.  The possibility of it he evinced from his divine power, to be exemplified in his miraculous ascension; the necessity of it he established, by permitting those to abandon him who refused to believe it; and the belief of it he enforced on the minds of his disciples, from the consideration that he, their teacher, was the Son of God, and the author of their eternal salvation.  The apostles were deeply impressed with these thoughts, previously to the institution of the holy Eucharist; consequently when they beheld Jesus Christ, just before his death, taking bread into his sacred hands; when after blessing it with solemnity, they heard him say, Take, eat; this is my body, which shall be given for you; they must necessarily have concluded, that it was truly his body, which he now gave them to eat, according to his former promise.  And though their reason or senses might have started difficulties, yet all these were obviated by their belief of his being God, and consequently able to effect whatever he pleased, and to make good whatever he said. — Moreover, if we consult tradition, we shall find that the Greek, as well as the Latin Church, has uniformly declared in favour of the literal sense of Christ’s words, as may be seen at large in all Catholic controvertists.  The learned author of the Perpetuité de la Foi, and his continuator, Renaudot, in the two additional quarto volumes, have invincibly demonstrated, that the belief of all the Oriental Christians perfectly coincides with that of the Catholic Church, respecting the real presence.  Dr. Philip Nicolai, though a Protestant, candidly acknowledges, in his first book of the Kingdom of Christ, p. 22, “that not only the churches of the Greek, but also the Russians, the Georgians, the Armenians, the Judæans, and the Ethiopians, as many of them as believe in Christ, hold the true and real presence of the body and blood of our Lord.”  This general agreement amongst the many Churches of the Christian world, affords the strongest evidence against Secker and others, who pretend that the doctrine of the real presence is a mere innovation; which was not started till 700 years after Christ’s death.  For, how will their supposition accord with the belief of the Nestorians and Euthychians, who were separated from the Church of Rome long before that period, and who were found to agree exactly with Catholics concerning this important tenent? — See this point clearly given in Rutter’s Evangelical Harmony.
• This is my Blood.
• Ver. 24. Which shall be shed. With words so explicit, with the unanimous agreement of the Eastern and Western Churches, how can any Dissenters bring themselves to believe that there is nothing more designed, or given, than a memorial of Christ’s passion and death?  Catholics, who believe in the real presence, do certainly renew in themselves the remembrance of our Saviour’s death and passion, with more lively sentiments of devotion than they who believe it to be mere bread and wine.  The outward forms of bread and wine, which remain in the Eucharist, are chiefly designed to signify or represent to us three things; viz. 1. The passion of Christ, of which they are the remembrance; 2. the body and blood of Christ, really, though sacramentally present, of which they are the veil; and 3. everlasting life, of which they are the pledge. — N. B. In speaking of the real presence in the Eucharist, Catholics hold that Christ is corporally and substantially present, but not carnally; i.e. not in that gross, natural, and sensible manner, in which or separated brethren so frequently misrepresent our doctrine.
• Ver. 25. This vine represents the Synagogue, according to Isaias.  The vine, or vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.  Of this vine Christ drank for some time; and though many of the branches were become useless, there were yet many that still brought forth fruit.  But Christ now going to his passion, declares that it would be no longer acceptable to him, since the figures were not to pass into reality.  Ven. Bede.
• Ver. 26. Jesus Christ is seized upon Mount Olivet, whence he ascended into heaven; that we might know that the place on earth where we watch and pray, where we suffer chains without resistance, is the place whence we are to ascend into heaven.  S. Jerom.