Notes on Mark: This is My Body. This is My Blood.

The Last Supper, by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, 19th century
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MARK 14:22, 24

22 "This is my body."

Not "This stands for my body" or "This is like my body" or "This means my body." The Lord does not utter these words in the context of a parable. Mark does not use the word "parable" to explain them or in any way indicate that they were a parable. The teller of a parable uses the word "is" only to explain the parable, not to present the parable itself. If anything, Jesus at the Last Supper provides the interpretation of the Cross understood as a parable, but it is an interpretation which gives an instance, not a sign. That is to say, the last supper is a participation prospectively in the sacrifice of the Cross, just as the Mass is today retrospectively. It's as if a child hears the president announce a tax cut and asks his father what that means. The father pulls out his wallet and, knowing that he will have extra money, gives the child five dollars and says, "This is what it means." He is showing the child the meaning by giving him an instance of it.

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24 "This is my blood, of the covenant..."

Not "This represents my blood" or "This is like my blood." Jesus uses the same form of words in the consecration of both the bread and the wine, indicating that the form of words matters. Otherwise he would have altered the form to indicate that the meaning, not the form, was important.

The word "covenant" means literally a disposition of goods, a testament, as in "last will and testament." The Lord, who is about to die, is transferring certain goods to others as an inheritance.

The Memoirs of St. Peter

I've heard a lot of arguments designed to remove literal meaning from "This is my body. This is my blood." but never that it was told as a parable.

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