Ex 24.3-8; Ps 115; Heb 9: 11-15; Mk 14: 12-16.22-26

Mark’s account opens with the initiative of the disciples: “Where do you want us to go to prepare, so that you can eat Easter (the Passover)?”. The disciples sent, however, will find everything ready. The story becomes paradoxical: the disciples must prepare what they find ready! It is a refined way, from a narrative point of view, to make us understand that the initiative of Jesus precedes and transforms that of the disciples: he himself will give them the real paschal lamb to eat, giving his own body and blood in the signs of bread. and wine. On Sinai, according to the account of the Exodus, Moses sprinkles the people with blood. In the supper Jesus gives his shed blood to drink. From an external level we come to an internal level. The blood is not simply sprinkled on the exterior of the bodies, it enters the depths of life. The vital principle that the blood represents, the very life of Jesus, thus comes to dwell in us and makes us live by him. It becomes our own life principle. And, as the author of the letter to the Hebrews recalls, it purifies “our conscience from the works of death” (Heb 9:14). That is, it makes us protagonists of the works of life, which are always the works of love that is given. Then we too can repeat the gestures on the bread and wine in memory of Jesus, until we become a living memory of him.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey