58    The Bible and the Future of the World 

the new Israel. Jesus is speaking to the Church in this passage. The Church 

stands by Jesus during times of suffering and persecution in the world, 

especially during the Church's great trials. 

The First Eucharist and the Last Supper (Mark 14:22 24) 

     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.'   (Mark 14:22 24). 

    These holy words of our Lord describe the first Eucharist. Jesus celebrated 

the first Holy Eucharist and the first Holy Mass. He took ordinary bread and 

ordinary wine and turned them into Himself. 

    Bread and wine are simple foods. Grapes are crushed and fermented, and 

with time become wine. One simple food changes into another. The bread of 

Passover has no yeast. Flour and water are used to make a simple dough 

which, with heat and time, becomes bread. One thing becomes another. 

Bread is still flour, yet it is different. Wine is still the fruit of the vine, yet it 

has changed. 

    A human person meets Christ in His Church and over time becomes a 

new person, the same, yet changed. Ordinary bread and wine are 

consecrated by Christ's representative, the priest; the bread and wine 

become Christ. Humanity is consecrated by Jesus Christ through and in the 

Church, and over time humanity becomes like Christ. Christ's humanity is 

united with His Divinity. Through and in the Church, humanity becomes 

united with the Divine. Christ came to unite humanity with God. 

    God's plan is for the whole world to be transformed by means of the 

Church. What is now the ordinary bread of a worldly humanity is in the 

process of being transformed into the kingdom of God, where God dwells 

closely with humanity. The Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ. Yet it is also a 

living symbol of the future transformation of an ordinary world into a holy 

temple where God dwells. 

The Consecration of the Holy Eucharist 

    When a priest consecrates the Holy Eucharist, it is Jesus who consecrates 

the Holy Eucharist. The words of the consecration today, spoken also at that 

first Holy Eucharist, are Jesus' words, not merely by repetition, but truly and 

effectively. The words of Jesus, which the priest speaks at the consecration 

of the Holy Eucharist, are as much Jesus' words as when Jesus first spoke