I spoke last Sunday in very high ways about the Eucharist. For example, I said that because Jesus Christ is the source and summit of our life, so the Eucharist, the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, is the source and summit of our life. The Eucharist is Christ, and Christ is Himself the Eucharist. I also said that no matter what our feelings may be on a given Sunday, or a given Liturgy of the Eucharist on a weekday, the very nature of the Eucharist is that it is Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. And I said that the Eucharist heals us because Christ heals us, and He is the Eucharist. The Eucharist strengthens us because Christ strengthens us, and the Eucharist is Christ. The Eucharist showers us with heavenly love because Christ is Love, Who became man in holy sacrifice for us.
That kind of understanding of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Christ is central to a right knowledge about Jesus. He took our flesh so that He could dwell among us. He became flesh to dwell among us as the Eucharist, as the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of His Passion, indeed the Sacrament of His Sacrifice. Yet understanding the Christ sacrificed at all took the Church time to realize. Really until Paul started writing his holy epistles–that is when the nature of Christ’s Sacrifice became widely known and widely understood.
Yet, there are hints that the disciples sensed some of this during Christ’s human life. Saint Peter said to Jesus, “To Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” Peter also said of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Certainly the Blessed Virgin Mary had a strong sense of Who her Son was, and Who He always will be. Saint Mary Magdalene and the other holy myrrh-bearing women had a good sense, as well. Saint John the Apostle, the beloved disciple, shared this sense with the holy myrrh-bearing women.
Yet most of the disciples fled the Cross when Jesus was nailed to it; they would not have fled if they knew that the Passion of Christ was the most glorious sacrifice possible. They were confused and uncertain Who Jesus was, and uncertain of what His death meant. But somewhere, amid their confusion, there was a seed growing in them. This is how God works: He plants seeds in our heart that are intended to grow in us, so that we are able to conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our minds. It takes time, but the power of God’s seed is infinite. It always grows in good soil.
In our Gospel account from Saint Matthew,, the Mother of Saint John and Saint James, the sons of Zebedee, named by Jesus as the “sons of thunder,” speaks to Jesus. She is doing so because her sons asked her to. They had seen the Transfiguration of Jesus and it opened the eyes of their heart, and began to transform them. Seeing Jesus transfigured meant a seed of glory was planted in the hearts of James and John. In seeing Him transfigured they also witnessed Elijah and Moses appearing, one of the right of Jesus and one on the left. They heard a voice from the cloud which overshadowed them, say, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” And they were told by Jesus, as they came down from the mountain after the Transfiguration, to tell no one the things they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. What they saw left a mark on their soul. This is the seed that was planted.
They wanted to be at the right hand and at left hand of Jesus as He entered His kingdom. Why? Because they saw Moses at the right hand and Elijah at the left hand of Jesus as He appeared to them in His transfigured glory. That seed which was planted started to grow. They were filled with zeal, they were filled with strong desire to be with Jesus. They wanted to imitate Moses and Elijah, two Saints of the Church, and to be able to speak with Jesus in His glory as Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus. James and John, in other words, wanted what we should all want. They had zeal which we should all have. They were filled with desire that we all should be filled with. And even us more so than them, because unlike them, we have the benefit of the New Testament writings and two thousand years of the prayer of Holy Church, and they did not. We have the Eucharist, and at that time, they did not.
And because of this, we know something very important, that had yet to be revealed to John and James: to enter into the glory of Christ and be with Him requires that we be with Christ in His Passion. We must be with Christ as He offers His Body and Blood in holy sacrifice: doing so both as the Sacrifice and the High Priest Who offers the Sacrifice which is Himself. The new covenant is the covenant made with Christ’s Body and Blood shed in His Passion, which is the beginning of all creation.
As Paul says, everytime we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim Christ’s death. When we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim the Gospel, for Christ’s death means forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. Christ’s death, His Passion, is the source of all new creation, and the summit of earthly existences: for Christ is the Light of the world, through Whom all things are made, and all things through Him are remade. This is why the Eucharist, which is Christ, heals us, strengthens us, and showers us with heavenly benediction. Because of the Passion of Christ, He is able to live in us, and we are able to live in Him, Christ the King of all Creation, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen.