It is at a moment in the Gospel of John, when Jesus is heard to exclaim that we must eat his body and drink his blood, that many of his followers abandoned him. Some remained. We are those who stretch down from that line of disciples. They are our forebears, in the spiritual sense.
Our work as monks is fresh with those same sentiments. We go against the flow of popular belief and understanding. What we believe is beyond explanation. Today’s Gospel and feast day is a perfect example of the unpopularity of being a believer. We even sing the Psalms, as did those disciples in Mark’s Gospel today.
Our responsibilities as Catholics go beyond basic morals to reach deep into the theology of Christ’s words. In Mark’s Gospel today, we can learn from those disciples as they get ready the room of Passover. We, too, are being called to make the room of God’s kingdom ready, not only by paving the way for Christ in the hearts of many, but by becoming those words, by living them with such vigour that, please God, we may at the last be worthy of our discipleship. That room is inside us all. It is through the Body and Blood of Christ that we have been sanctified and have found our discipleship. Let us, then, marked with the blood of the Lamb, be the keen followers that Christ asks us to be. Let us love with all our hearts, and be loved. Let us pray and spend time searching for God. Let us awake to the wonders of discipleship in him.
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 14:12-16. 22-26
Glory to you, O Lord
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him,
Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the passover?‘
So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,
‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water.
Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, “The Master says:
Where is my dining room in which I can eat the passover with my disciples?”
He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there,’
The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.
And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them.
Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’
Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them,
‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.