This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

We continue to celebrate the great feast of Easter.

One day is not enough!

In fact, the fifty days of Easter are not enough.

Every time we gather around the table of the Lord,

we celebrate his resurrection.

We rejoice that the Risen One is in our midst.

We praise the Lord in the assembly of the people!

 

This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Today, we rejoice in a special way,
as we hear some of what Jesus told his disciples
at the Last Supper:

I am the vine,

You are the branches!

 

Over twenty years ago,
when I was director of the special formation summer program,
every other year we spend some time
in what was then the Province of the Pacific,
and while there
we spend a few days with Fr. Greg Comella
as he shared some of his reflections on the spirituality of the Precious Blood.

One of the images he would always use
came from this gospel.

 

He would tell us
that the same sap that flows through the vine,
flows through the branches.

He would remind us
as we gathered near California’s wine country,
that unless the same sap flowed through the vine and the branches
there would be no fruit of the vine,
no juice of the grapes,
no wine.

 

The same thing is true of Jesus and us.

The same precious Blood that flows through the veins and arteries of Jesus’ body,
flows through our veins and arteries
because of what Jesus did at the Last Supper
when he told his disciples this story
and when he took a cup of wine,
said the blessing,
and gave it to his disciples to drink.

This is my blood,
the blood of the new and eternal covenant,
which will be shed for you and for the many
for the forgiveness of sins.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

It took a while for the disciples to fully understand the ramifications of this message.

When they heard the Paul was in Jerusalem
they thought that he was still out to get them.
They thought that he was different,
that he was not one of them,
that he was someone to fear.
They failed to realize that they were all branches
on the same vine,
that the same Precious Blood that flowed in Jesus,
flowed in them
and in Paul.

But they came around.

They came to see him as one of them,
as one of those chosen by God,
chosen by Jesus to be an apostle.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

As we gather today,
our Jewish brothers and sisters continue to celebrate
the great feast of Passover,
to remember the night when their homes were passed over
by the angel of death,
because their homes had been marked on the outside
by the blood of the lamb.

As we gather together,
we are marked on the inside
by blood made precious
by what the Lord has done for us.

 

God’s blood flows through out veins and arteries.

God’s blood makes us all blood relatives,
sons and daughters of God,
brothers and sisters of Jesus
and of one another.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

The blood that he shared with a small group of friends
at the Last Supper is not just distant memory.

The blood that he poured out on the cross
is not just something that happened long ago.

The blood that was reinvigorated in the resurrection
is not just something that happened to Jesus
on the first Easter morning.

The blood that we share today
in this eucharist
is the same Precious Blood that he shared with friends,
spilled out of his wounded body,
and came back to life long ago
so that we might have life and have it to the full.

 

The same blood that flowed through him,
flows in us.

The same sap that flows through the vine
flows through the branches.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God,

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!