WHAT JESUS CHOSE TO DO WITH HIS “LAST SHOT”
“On the first day of the Feast when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ He said to two of them, ‘Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. . . He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.’” Mark 14:12-16
Here Jesus instructs his disciples on how to prepare for Passover, His last meal with His disciples. This will be His final chance to be alone with them, His last time to say something meaningful to them before facing His Passion and Death – His chance to leave them something that will stay with them forever. What does He do with His “one last shot”?
FOLLOW THE CLUES
First, he tells two of his disciples to look for and follow a man carrying a jar of water. Interesting! Water, in its molecular makeup (three atoms sharing electrons) is one of many clues to the real nature and purpose of the created objects and generative capabilities with which God’s wisdom has populated our interior and external worlds! Jesus tells his disciples to follow the man carrying a jar of water. He will lead you to a place where we will be together.
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said,
‘Take it; this is my body.’
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
‘This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.’” Mark 14: 22-24
This outstanding God-Man who came among us to save us from our doubts, our sins, our myopic ways of seeing things, says in His final words to those who call Him their Master Teacher, “Take it; this is my body. . . . This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”
This incarnated Word of God, this Man whose human existence was for solely one purpose: to speak of God’s ever-present, ever-loving integration into our world and our own selves – yes, into our own bodies – says “This is my body. This is my blood shed for many. Take it.”
In other words, bond it into you. See it bonded into the fabric of the lives of every one.
Sister Loretta