The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (B) – June 2, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

What Was Jesus’ Blood Type?

Today we come to the great solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Today what the Church holds before our attention is that what happens here at the Mass—it isn’t just bread and wine. The Church holds before our attention the fact that when the priests speaks the words consecration, “This is my body… This is my blood,” the bread and the wine are no longer just bread and wine. There is a change of substance, which is just a fancy way of saying that the “whatness” of what the bread and the wine are—the “whatness” is changed. And even though they still look like bread and taste like bread and smell like bread, and look, and taste and smell like wine—in fact, in reality, their substance, what they really, truly and substantially are has changed, been transformed. With the words of consecration, the bread and the wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist isn’t just a symbol of Jesus, or a nice way to remember him—it is him. It is his body. It is his blood.

And I could run you through a bunch of arguments from Scripture about why it’s truly his body and blood, and I could wax on about how from his own mouth and the writings of St. Paul this is clearly the case. Because (I don’t know if you know this)—but many people don’t actually believe that the Eucharist is Jesus’ body and blood. A nice symbol? Sure. A way of remembering him? Ok. But really, truly and substantially his body, blood, soul, and divinity? No. The stats say that only 63% of people who sit in church every Sunday actually believe that. In other words, 37% percent are sitting there thinking, “Yeah, I don’t really believe that cookie is Jesus.” So yeah, I could wax on about how Scripture itself shows that this has to be more than a symbol.

But instead, I want to ask one simple question: What was Jesus’ blood type? All of our readings today are focusing on this image of blood, and blood being used in covenants, and Jesus’ blood being the blood of a new covenant. But what was Jesus’ blood type? Over the two-thousand year history of the Church, it is not only the Scriptures that have been handed down to us. Within the two-thousand year tradition of the Church, so much more has been given. And one of the things that have been given to us are what we call Eucharistic miracles. 

In the Eucharistic miracles, the Eucharist actually changes into flesh and blood. In other words, we must be so dense, that the Lord has many, many times brought about not only the change of the substance, the “whatness” of the Eucharist, but actually changed and transformed the bread into flesh and the wine into blood.

And these miraculous occurrences have been thoroughly studied not by theologians—but by non-Catholic scientists: hematologists, oncologists, neurologists, geneticists, molecular biologists. Famously, the Italian cardiologist Franco Serafini studied five out of the dozens of these miracles and came to the conclusion that these miracles are undeniably authentic. Why? Because all of these miracles, from centuries apart, reveal the same common pattern. The Eucharist that miraculously changed into real flesh and blood—in each case: it is heart muscle tissue; the tissue was from a heart that experienced extreme suffering; and even year later, the tissue was still alive (which, means it wasn’t just faked, because tissue dies within minutes of being taken from the body). Oh, and one more thing: the blood type, across centuries, was the same in each and every case: type AB. What was Jesus’ blood type? Type AB.

What Do You Know About Blood?

A good question is, “What do you know about blood?” Anyone a hematologist? Anyone know their blood type? There are four main blood groups (A, B, AB, and O), and then depending on whether the blood has a certain protein on it or not it is either RhD positive or negative. So there are eight different blood types in total. Now, this was made famous with the advent of blood transfusions. Certain bloods literally don’t mix. Certain blood can be given to some but not to others. But one blood type can be given to everyone. Want to guess which blood type it is? AB? No, you’re wrong. It’s O negative. O negative is known as the universal donor.

So what about AB? What is AB? AB is know for three main things. First, AB blood (both positive and negative) is the rarest type of blood: only about 4% of people in the USA have AB blood. The second thing is that AB positive blood is the universal recipient; a person with AB positive blood can receive any other type of blood. But third, AB blood is a universal plasma donor. The blood plasma is the liquid part of the blood, and it contains vital proteins, mineral salts, sugars, fats, hormones, and vitamins. But why do we care? What’s the big deal with blood plasma? 

(Again, for all of our hematologists in the room, sorry for boring you!) But blood plasma is used for a few thing, but the most common thing it’s used for is in the emergency room. Blood plasma is given in emergency situations where patients have suffered life-threatening flesh wounds, and are bleeding out—and so there’s no time to test blood type. Since AB blood plasma is a universal donor, it is always readily on hand in the trauma bay at the emergency room. But even on top of that, what does blood plasma do? Blood plasma contains and produces immunoglobulins, or antibodies as most people call them—antibodies in the blood to fight off and defeat diseases and infection.

Why Is the Blood of Christ Given to Us?

OK! Why in the world do I tell you this!? I know, I sound really off my rocker today! But I have a point—two points! The first point is this. What we learn from Eucharistic miracles is that Jesus had AB blood. What this means first and foremost is that when we received communion, when we eat his body and drink his blood, it’s not so much about Jesus becoming part of us as much as we are becoming part of him! We are received into his body, we are incorporated into him. He doesn’t so much share in our life, as much as we are sharing in his life! Pay attention at Mass, when the wine and water are poured into the chalice. The priest (or the deacon) prays, “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” Do you see the move being made there? It’s not, “Hey God, help us to receive Jesus.” No, no. “God, may our participation in his blood make us share in his divinity, his divine life. Allow us to share in that!”

But the second thing—the second point is also incredible. Remember, Jesus has AB blood, so by partaking in his blood we are being made part of his “blood stream,” so to speak, right? Ok, but what can Jesus give us from his blood, in this nerdy analysis? What can Jesus give us? He’s a universal plasma donor. And why would we need that? Because we are suffering a life-threatening wound—it’s called Original Sin, it’s called Death (with a capital “D”), it’s called Sin, and suffering, and anxiety, and addiction, and worry, and discouragement, and depression, and stress, and everything that goes along with our fallen and sick human condition. We’re suffering a life-threatening wound, and you use AB plasma for that. And what else come from AB plasma? Antibodies. In other words, Jesus not only brings us into his divine life, but he also begins to heal and change our humanity as well.

The Eucharist: Medicine of Immortality

I say it a lot, I’m gonna say it again. A lot of people think that people don’t come to Church and don’t believe all of this because they reject God, or they are atheists, or something. But no, we don’t reject God. The vast majority of American believe God exists. All of our parishioners who no longer go to Mass believe God exists. What we reject—we reject this wound, this something within our heart, what we call Original Sin. We reject that there is something deeply, deeply wounded within me, within my heart, in need of salvation. (Salv-ation. Salve, that’s an ointment of oil used for? Healing. Salvation is speaking of a healing we are in need of, an “antibody” we need to fight off a disease.)

We deny that the problem is HERE (*point to heart*). And if we deny that the problem is a problem of the human heart, within the human heart, then (by the process of elimination) the problem must be out there. And so I just need to focus on politics and laws, and community programs, and better schools, and better sports for kids, and social justice. And in that worldview, “faith” and “church” and “religion”—well it just becomes: be a nice person, everyone pretty much goes to heaven, don’t be a jerk. And that is the “religion” of the modern day; I meet people every day (even people that go to church!) that say that. But the problem isn’t out there; it’s within me. G.K. Chesterton, in response to the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” responded with two words: “I am.” 

My point is this (and I’ll use a line from the novelist Flannery O’Connor): If the Eucharist is just a symbol, to heck with it. If there’s no problem within my heart, no such thing as Original Sin, and really what we all need to do is just try harder to be better people? If this is just bread and just wine—yeah! Yes, I get it: why in the world are we here!? Why would we kneel down? Why would I wear funky clothes? Why would we do any of this?? Let’s just do some Bible studies and be nice people! Let’s just make our community a nicer place, and have better social events, and better schools, sports for the kids, and just enjoy life while we can! I get it!

But—but…if we are deeply wounded (which we are), and if we are infected with a deadly disease for which humanity has no cure and will never find a cure (which we are), if we are in need of salvation (which we are)—that’s when we begin hoping, praying, begging for that bread to be more than just bread, and that wine to be more than just wine. We need it to be the body and blood of Christ, because only he has found the cure. And praise God—it is! As St. Ignatius of Antioch, who died around 100AD, said—St. Ignatius said, the Eucharist, the bread we break, “is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying.” If it’s just a symbol—to heck with it. But thanks be to God, we partake of his blood, we share in his divinity; and we begin to receive the healing we so desperately need.