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The National Catholic Broadcasting Council presents, Let Us Reflect Together. 40 Days of Lent Retreat from the Cross to Hope. Day 31. Entering the Passion with Mark, the covenant that holds us with Cardinal Thomas Collins.

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In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's just let our hearts be still. Ask the Lord's forgiveness for those things which are barriers. Let's ask the Lord to help us form a pathway to our hearts. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Away with all those distractions, those things that clutter up our minds and hearts.

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Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.

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And as they were eating, he took bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. We often wonder, was Judas there then? We don't know in the Gospel of Mark. He doesn't say when Judas left. The Gospel of John does. He says, Judas left, and then he says, and it was night. It's not a weather report. It was night, nighttime. But it's interesting the thought that Judas himself may have been given the great gift of that first Holy Eucharist. In the hopes maybe that it would turn him around. We don't know. It doesn't say in the Gospel of Mark. But the Lord, who was about to experience through the betrayal of the one he loved and had given so much, he was about to experience his suffering, death, and then the glory of the resurrection. He made it possible for us to be with him every step of the way. We celebrate the Holy Eucharist looking backwards towards the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord. And we experience our risen Savior with wounded hands through the Holy Eucharist. But they had that forward-looking, the only you might say, forward-looking Eucharist in history. They're joined into what he was about to do, as we're joined into it ourselves. It is so profound. This is my body. Although it has been a source of much dispute. But it's pretty clear. Take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he gave it thanks, gave it to them, and they drank of it. He said to them, This is my blood of the covenant. The covenant in the Old Testament. Again and again the people turned away from the Lord. And again and again he made his covenant with them. You will be my people, and I will be your God. I'm with you all the way. And they always broke it and went away. But now that love he shows binds them to him. Their sins are so painful, as indeed in Judas we see in the extreme. This is the blood of the covenant. Just as the blood of the covenant was used in the great sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Blood is a sign of life. New life. In the Old Testament, before the foreshadowing of our own experience of forgiveness through baptism and through the sacrament of reconciliation. They're foreshadowing it was when the high priest would take the blood and sprinkle it upon the Holy of Holies. Life between God's people and God. Restored. A new covenant, alive, no longer broken. This is the blood of the covenant. And of course, it is above all in the sacrificial love of Jesus, where we see in his suffering and death. He says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. It is that love which binds them together and brings us the new covenant. And that's what we enter into in the Holy Eucharist. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink at new in the kingdom of God. Our Lord took two little parts of the old Passover meal and transformed them into his way of being with us, binding us together with him, not only through his suffering death and resurrection as he did for them at that time, but he joins us to him throughout our lives. It's there for us to be communion, not only with one another, but above all with the Lord. It is that covenant of love. So let's just spend a moment now and say thank you, Lord, for having given us the Holy Eucharist. To be with us, yourself, personally, so that we can receive you and be with you. And in all the different ways we take up our own cross and follow you. That we know you are with us every step of the way. And when we make the stations of the cross, especially in Lenten time, but throughout the year, we know we make the stations of the cross out there in our daily lives as well. Take up your cross and come follow me. And yet Christ is with us every step of the way. The Lord we receive in Holy Communion. Let's just ask the Lord to help us appreciate that. And thank the Lord for his presence to us in the Holy Eucharist.

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Join us tomorrow for Day 32, Entering the Passion with Mark. Peter the Rock, learning humility from failure with Cardinal Thomas Collins. For more information, please email us at info at ncbc.ca, visit our website at daily tvmass.com, or call our office toll free at one eight eight eight three eight three six two seven seven seven seven seven seven.