“…I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until
the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (*Mark 14:25). Every day at our Liturgies, the heavens are
opened. Jesus comes down upon our altars, where Jesus offers the sacrifice of Himself,
as the unblemished Lamb of God, to His Father for our purification and sanctification.
All the angels and saints in heaven join us, singing Holy, Holy, Holy with
us. We lift our minds and hearts to
heaven at every Mass. The Kingdom of God in our midst! With us, Jesus drinks of
the fruit of the vine. At the consecration, Jesus says to us: “Take and eat.
This is my Body.” “Take and drink. This is the cup of my blood”—the blood of
the New Covenant, replacing the Old Covenant, in which lambs and bulls were sacrificed repeatedly and
sprinkled over the people. In the person
of the priest, Jesus, our High Priest, drinks the sacred wine and eats of the
sacred bread. The Kingdom of God is here.
We leave Mass nourished with the Living Bread come
down from heaven and purified, made holy, our sins forgiven, in the Blood of
the Lamb poured out for our salvation in every Eucharist. At the end of Mass,
the priest says: “Go now in the peace of Christ,” and live as imitators, no, as
other Christs. “I send you out into the world as lambs among wolves” (Lk 10:3).
If
you love me, Jesus, in essence, says to Peter and to us: “Feed my lambs.” Jesus is truly saying: Pass on the faith and help
those less fortunate than you. Reach out
to the oppressed and forgotten among you. Make compassion, love, and understanding the foundation of your ways of
relating to others so that they will flourish in my Kingdom here on earth and
be open to the graces of My redemption and the Father’s everlasting love.
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