The Jewish Roots of the Mass by Brant Pitre, Phd, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans

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The Jewish Roots of the Mass by Brant Pitre, PhD, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans

understand “Christian liturgy,” we must Introduction first understand “Jewish liturgy” (CCC, no. 1096). One of the most common questions In this article, we will take a brief asked during liturgical and sacramental tour of ancient Jewish practices and catechesis is this: “Why do Catholics do beliefs that lie at the roots of the that?” In other words, what are the present-day Catholic Mass. Although roots of Catholic liturgical worship? there are many parallels between What are the roots of the sacraments? ancient Jewish liturgy and the Mass, for Where does Catholic worship come our purposes here, we will focus on just from, and what light might its origins two: the Jewish Passover and the Jewish shine on its present day meaning? hope for the new manna of the Messiah. One of the most fascinating ways of Both these aspects of ancient Jewish answering such questions is to reach practice and belief can shed light on back to the biblical foundations of the Catholic eucharistic practice and belief, Mass. In fact, to properly understand revealing that there is much more in the eucharistic faith and practice of common between ancient Judaism and Christianity, one has to go back not only present-day Catholicism than there to the New Testament, but also to the might seem at first glance. Old Testament and ancient Jewish practice and belief. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “A better The New Passover knowledge of the Jewish people’s faith To understand the connections and religious life as professed and lived between the Jewish Passover and the even now can help our better Catholic Mass, it is important to understanding of certain aspects of distinguish between the Passover in Christian liturgy” (Catechism of the Jewish Scripture (what Christians call Catholic Church [CCC], 2nd ed. the Old Testament) and in ancient [Washington, DC: Libreria Editrice Jewish Tradition. Vaticana–United States Conference of In the Old Testament, the biblical Catholic Bishops, 2000], no. 1096). This Passover is described in great detail in is true because the history of Exodus 12. Here, we find that the feast salvation—not only of Christ and the of Passover (Hebrew pesah; Greek Church, but also of the Church’s liturgy pascha) originates in the famous story and “sacramental economy”—is of the final plague against Egypt at the “prefigured in the Old Covenant” (CCC, time of Moses when God slew all no. 1093). In other words, to

firstborn Egyptian males. To deliver the from the earth.” “Blessed are you, O people of God from slavery, God sends Lord our God, King of the Universe, who the destroying angel to put to death the creates the fruit of the vine.” firstborn sons of any family that does Anyone familiar with the blessings not perform the solemn ritual of the over the bread and wine at Mass will Passover sacrifice. This Passover ritual immediately see how these ancient consists of several key steps: (1) Jewish blessings are almost identical to sacrifice a year-old unblemished male what the priest says in Mass today lamb, (2) dip a branch of hyssop in the (compare the Offertory). This is blood of the lamb, (3) spread the blood particularly significant if, as seems of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels likely, these ancient Jewish blessings of the home as a sign, and (4) eat the are the ones that Jesus himself spoke at lamb (Ex 12:1-14). It is important to the Last Supper when he took the bread, emphasize here the fourth step: In the “blessed” it, and gave it to the disciples Old Testament, the Passover ritual is (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22). not completed by the death of the In addition to this connection, sacrificial lamb. It is completed when Jewish tradition also mandated that the Israelites eat the “flesh” of the lamb during the Passover meal the son would that is slain so that they might be ask the father of the family a question: delivered from bondage in Egypt and, “Why is this night different from other ultimately, from death (Ex 12:8). nights?” To this, the father would Moreover, once the sacrifice is respond: “This is because of what the completed, God commands that the LORD did for me when I came out of Passover be celebrated every year in Egypt” (Ex 13:8; emphasis added). In the spring “as a memorial” of the other words, Jewish tradition saw the deliverance won for the people of God Passover sacrifice and the Passover (Ex 12:14). meal as making them spiritual In ancient Jewish tradition, the participants in the first Passover night, biblical Passover developed and no matter how many centuries had underwent certain changes and passed since the original Exodus. God’s additions. For one thing, the eating of original act of deliverance was the Passover lamb and unleavened somehow made present through the bread was accompanied by the drinking Passover liturgy. of multiple cups of wine; four, to be With Jewish Scripture and tradition exact. The collection of ancient Jewish in mind, we can see clearly how it is traditions known as the Mishnah that the first Christians—who were records some of these developments Jewish Christians—understood the Last (see Mishnah, Pesahim [Passover] 10). Supper and the Christian Eucharist. As part of the celebration of the Above all, they recognized that the Passover meal, the father of the Eucharist was the new Passover, in household would say the following which Jesus had replaced the flesh and blessings over the Passover bread and blood of the old Passover lamb with his wine (see Mishnah, Berakoth own flesh and blood. Like the old [Blessings] 6:1): “Blessed are you, O Passover, which is celebrated as “a Lord our God, who brings forth bread memorial feast” (Ex 12:14), Jesus says

to his disciples, “Do this in ancient hope for new manna from remembrance [Greek anamnesin] of me” heaven. The Jewish manna tradition is (1 Cor 11:24). Christians of every an important key to understanding the century participate in this one new Eucharist both in the New Testament Passover, which is re-presented at and the present-day Mass. every single Mass. As the Catechism In the Old Testament, the manna is teaches, “When the Church celebrates first described in Exodus 16. In the the Eucharist, she commemorates desert, the twelve tribes of Israel cry Christ’s Passover, and it is made out for food, and God responds by present: the sacrifice Christ offered saying, “I will now rain down bread once for all on the cross remains ever from heaven for you” (Ex 16:4). present” (CCC, no. 1364). That is why St. Significantly, this is a twofold gift: each Paul, himself an expert in Jewish morning, God gives Israel “bread” from Scripture, can write, “Our paschal lamb heaven (the manna); each evening, God [Greek pascha] Christ, has been gives them “flesh” from heaven (the sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the quail). According to Exodus, the manna feast” (1 Cor 5:7-8). The feast Paul is appears in the morning, “when the dew referring to here is, of course, the evaporated” (Ex 16:14), and tastes “like Christian Eucharist, the new Passover wafers made with honey” (Ex 16:31). feast, which, like the Jewish Passover Evidently, the reason the manna takes itself, is both a sacrifice and a meal. like honey is because the manna is a Finally, this link with Passover also foretaste of the promised land, the land explains the early Christian belief in the “flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8). real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is thus a pledge of the Israelites’ As any first-century Jew would have ultimate destination. Although they are known, to complete the Passover ritual, currently in the desert, God pledges to you have to eat the flesh of the lamb. The bring them home and gives them the new Passover, like the old, was not manna as a sign of the promise. completed by the death of the lamb; it Moreover, the Israelites recognize that was completed by “eating the flesh” (Ex the manna is no ordinary bread. They 12:8). Even so today, just before refer to it as the “bread from heaven” Communion, the Catholic priest (Ps 78:21-25), and they treat it as holy, proclaims to the people of God, “Behold placing it in a golden urn and putting it the Lamb of God, behold him who takes in the Ark of the Covenant inside the away the sins of the world. Blessed are Tabernacle (Ex 16:33; Heb 9:2-4). those called to the Supper of the Lamb” According to the Old Testament, God (Communion Rite). In the new Supper gives to the Israelites the manna from of the Lamb, Christ is indeed the Lamb heaven for forty years, until they finally of God who takes away the sins of the arrive in the promised land of Canaan. world (Jn 1:29). At that time, the manna ceases (see Jos 5). The New Manna from Heaven In later Jewish tradition, however, a belief arose that when the Messiah The second important feature of finally came, he would bring back the Jewish Scripture and tradition was the miracle of the manna. For example, the

ancient Jewish writing known as 2 discourse, Jesus’ Jewish audience Baruch (AD first century) says that challenges him to perform a sign like when “the Messiah” comes, “it will that of Moses, who gave the fathers happen at that time that the treasury of “manna in the desert” (Jn 6:30-33). manna will come down again from on Jesus responds with a discourse on the high” and that the righteous will eat this Eucharist, in which he identifies the manna every day (2 Baruch 29:3-8, Eucharist as the true manna from James H. Charlesworth, The Old heaven: “Your ancestors ate the manna Testament Pseudepigrapha [2 Volumes; in the desert, but they died; this is the New York: Doubleday, 1983-85], Vol. 1, bread that comes down from heaven so pp. 621-52). From this ancient Jewish that one may eat it and not die. . . . And perspective, those blessed enough to the bread that I will give is my flesh for live in “the days of the Messiah” would the life of the world” (Jn 6:49-51; once again eat the manna of the Messiah, emphasis added). who is sometimes depicted as a new In light of such teachings, again, it is Moses. no wonder that the first Jewish In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of this Christians believed in the real presence Jewish hope for the new manna of the of Jesus in the Christian Eucharist. For Messiah and connects it to the Eucharist when they read the Scriptures, they saw on at least two occasions. it in terms of “Old Testament First, in the Lord’s Prayer, he prefigurations” of what God had teaches his disciples to pray “give us accomplished “in the fullness of time in today our daily bread” (Mt 6:11). In the the person of his incarnate Son” (CCC, original Greek, the word translated no. 128). From a Jewish Christian “daily” (“epiousios”) here actually perspective, if the old manna was means “supersubstantial” or miraculous bread from heaven, the “supernatural,” as Jerome translated it bread of angels, then the new manna of in the Latin Vulgate Bible. On the one the Eucharist could not be just a symbol. hand, this petition in the Lord’s Prayer If it were, that would make the old can be applied to daily needs: the bread manna greater than the new. To the needed for existence each day. In its contrary, Jesus describes the Eucharist original historical context, however, any as the new and greater manna from Jewish Christian would have recognized heaven: “For my flesh is true food, and a prayer for bread that is both daily and my blood is true drink . . . This is the supernatural as a prayer for the new bread that came down from heaven. manna, the new manna of the Messiah. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still As the Catechism teaches, when “taken died, whoever eats this bread will live literally,” this petition of the Lord’s forever” (Jn 6:55, 58; emphasis added). Prayer “refers directly to the Bread of With these words, Jesus is revealing his Life, the Body of Christ” (CCC, no. 2837). real presence in the Eucharist, but in a The second example of Jesus very Jewish way, by showing it to be the mentioning the manna is from the long-awaited new manna of the Messiah, famous Bread of Life discourse, which and, therefore, miraculous bread from he preaches in the Jewish synagogue at heaven. Capernaum (see Jn 6:25-71). In this

In the Catholic Mass, we find a subtle is it?” (“man hu’”). From that day to this, but beautiful allusion to the Eucharist the question of the Israelites echoes as the new manna in the epiclesis of down through the ages: What is it? Eucharistic Prayer II, when the priest What is this bread? In the light of Christ says, “Make holy therefore these gifts, crucified and risen, the Catholic faith we pray, / by sending down your Spirit teaches that it is the true bread from upon them like the dewfall, / So that heaven—the Body and Blood of they may become for us, / The Body and Christ—which the Church gives to her Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the children each day in the Mass, as she words “like the dewfall,” there is a journeys toward the heavenly promised biblical allusion to the manna of the land of the pilgrim people of God. Exodus, which comes down from heaven each day with the morning “dew” Further Reading (Ex 16:13-14). Given the Church’s custom of offering the Mass daily, and Bouyer, Louis. Eucharist: Theology not just weekly, this is an important and Spirituality of the Eucharistic Prayer. point. Just as the old manna is a daily Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre gift from God, so too the Church Dame Press, 1968. encourages the faithful to receive the Levering, Matthew. Sacrifice and new manna “even daily” (CCC, no. 1389). Community: Jewish Offering and In conclusion, the book of Exodus Christian Eucharist. Oxford: Blackwell, goes on to say of the manna, “On seeing 2005. it, the Israelites asked one another, Pitre, Brant. Jesus and the Jewish ‘What is this?’” (Ex 16:15). From a Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the spiritual perspective, this is a revealing Secrets of the Last Supper. New York: sentence. In Hebrew, the word “manna” Doubleday Religion, 2011. comes from the phrase meaning, “What

Scripture texts used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, copyright © 1991, 1986, and 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC 20017 and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, copyright © 2000, Libreria Editrice Vaticana–United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved.