Mark 14:22 — Community Reflections

MARK 14:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.”

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, take it; this is my body — the fourfold action (took, gave thanks, broke, gave) is the Eucharistic action that echoes the two feeding miracles (6:41, 8:6) and is performed here in its most explicit form. This is my body — the identification of the bread with his body is stated without qualification in Mark. The body that will be broken tomorrow is present in the bread being broken tonight.

Church Fathers on Mark 14:22

When the rites of the old Passover were finished, He passed to the new, in order, that is, to substitute the Sacrament of His own Body and Blood, for the flesh and blood of the lamb. Wherefore there follows: 'And as they did eat, Jesus took bread'; that is, in order to shew that He, Himself, is that person to whom the Lord swore, 'Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedec.' [Ps 100:4]
Bede · 8th century

That is, giving thanks, He brake it, which we also do, with the addition of some prayers.
Theophylact · 11th century

But in a mystical sense, the Lord transfigures into bread His Body, which is the present Church, which is received in faith, is blessed in its number, is broken in its sufferings, is given in its examples, is taken in its doctrines; and He forms His Blood in the chalice of water and wine mingled together, that by one we may be purged from our sins, by the other redeemed from their punishment [formans sanguinem suum ap. I’seudo-Hier]. For by the blood of the lamb our houses…
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 14 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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