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The Eucharist: Jesus, the Passover Lamb

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The Eucharist: Jesus, the Passover Lamb LESSON X6 the eucharist: Jesus, the passover lamb BACKGROUND READING Our study of the Sacraments of Initiation Eucharistic sacrifice. “Do this in remembrance culminates in the Eucharist. Although in of me,” Jesus instructed His Apostles. So many places the Sacrament of Confirmation whenever we celebrate Mass, we do so at is received after the first Holy Communion, Christ’s command, and in His name. As we the Church teaches clearly that “The holy find recorded in the Scriptures, “For as often Eucharist completes Christian initiation. as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you Those who have been raised to the dignity proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” of the royal priesthood by Baptism and (1 Corinthians 11:26). configured more deeply to Christ by But why would Jesus ask us to do Confirmation participate with the whole something that sounds as strange as eating community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by His Body and drinking His Blood? When you means of the Eucharist” (CCC 1322). understand Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls as the culmination of salvation history, the the Eucharist “the Sacrament of sacraments” Eucharist begins to make perfect sense. (CCC 1330) and “the source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). All the other The Eucharist in Salvation History Sacraments and every ministry of the Church St. Augustine said, “The New Testament lies flow from the Eucharist and point us toward it. hidden in the Old and the Old is unveiled in the The reason for the centrality of the Eucharist New.” The Eucharist is a mystery that involves is that the Eucharist is Christ Himself! the entire history of salvation. It is prefigured Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last in the Old Testament, finds its origin in the Supper. In anticipation of His death on the Incarnation, its institution at the Last Supper, Cross, Jesus gave His Apostles — whom He and its full revelation and significance in made the first priests — His Body and Blood Christ’s death and Resurrection. Aided by to eat and drink. And because Jesus wanted the Holy Spirit, these events comprise the all His people for all time to eat and drink bedrock from which we begin to understand of this heavenly food, He commanded them the Holy Eucharist. to continue to make present and real this 138 © SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS The Eucharist has deep and mysterious to the LORD; you will celebrate it as a statute roots in the Old Testament, conveyed by forever” (Exodus 12:14). events, archetypes, and symbols all guided Many centuries later, it was precisely at by the hand of Divine Providence. The most the Passover meal when Jesus instituted a significant of these is the Passover. The New and everlasting Covenant and gave His Passover was the principal Jewish feast friends the greatest gift of all — His Body and of the Old Testament. It was instituted to His Blood. commemorate the Jews’ liberation from Egyptian slavery and the fulfillment of God’s The Last Supper and the promise to Abraham that He would establish Institution of the Eucharist a people uniquely His. By the same covenant, At the end of Jesus’ public ministry, “the day this same people would eventually come of the feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the into possession of the Promised Land. God’s day for sacrificing the Passover lamb” (Luke people were commanded to recall this saving 22:7). Jesus gathered the Apostles in the Upper event for all generations and to keep this feast Room for the Last Supper and told them: “I day forever. have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Christ The Passover Lamb prophesied His Passion, revealing that He is To deliver His Chosen People from slavery, the lamb to be sacrificed for our salvation. God sent a series of plagues to Egypt. The Jesus took a cup of wine, and after giving last of these was to kill every firstborn son thanks He said, “Take this and share it among throughout the land. God told the Israelites yourselves” (Luke 22:17). “Then he took the to sacrifice a lamb according to specific bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it instructions and to apply its blood to the to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will doorposts and lintels of their homes as a sign be given for you; do this in memory of me’” for God to pass over their homes and spare (Luke 22:19). Christ instituted the Eucharist their firstborn. “The blood will be a sign for and commanded that we eat His Flesh and you on the houses where you are; and when drink His Blood, signaling His victory over I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus death through His Resurrection. 12:13). God also commanded the Israelites After He broke and shared the bread, in a to eat the lamb: “They will consume its similar way He took the cup of wine and said: meat that same night, eating it roasted with “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, unleavened bread and bitter herbs” (Exodus which will be shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus 12:8-9). Finally, God also commanded the instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper Israelites to remember this great act of His as the new and eternal sacrifice. It initiated salvation by holding a yearly festival known His new and everlasting Blood Covenant with as the Passover: “This day will be a day of God’s people. As the Catechism explains, remembrance for you, which your future “By celebrating the Last Supper with his generations will celebrate with pilgrimage apostles in the course of the Passover meal, THE SACRAMENTS, ESSAY APPENDIX 139 Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive for the Hebrew word for Passover, St. Paul meaning. Jesus’ passing over to his father by writes: “For our paschal lamb, Christ, has his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated Church transformed the Jewish Passover in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish from a commemoration of God’s freeing the Passover and anticipates the final Passover Israelites from slavery to a celebration of Jesus of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.” Christ’s death and Resurrection, and freeing Thus, Jesus became for us our Passover of humanity from the slavery of sin and death. Lamb. This gift would win for all mankind God’s promise of redemption is available not the promise of eternal salvation. The Old just to one people, but to the entire world. Testament Passover lamb, whose blood saved In Him there is now one, complete sacrifice God’s people, is replaced by the Lamb of God, memorializing and sustaining our own Jesus; whose Blood is our eternal salvation. deliverance from sinful captivity. Initiated Jesus said, “He who eats my flesh and drinks on the eve of Calvary’s dark desolation, the my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him Eucharist instituted through the Last Supper up at the last day” (John 6:54). is a mystery of joyful light. Jesus has become the Passover Lamb for all Christians. Using the Greek word pascha 140 © SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS LESSON X7 the eucharist and the holy mass BACKGROUND READING Have you ever wondered: What do people Transubstantiation who have died and gone to Heaven do all The change of the bread and wine into day? The answer is simple: they worship God, the Body and Blood of Jesus is called singing endless hymns of praise. To someone transubstantiation. The entire substances of unfamiliar with the Catholic worship service, the bread and wine change, although they called Holy Mass, it might sound odd to think appear the same as they did before the change. that Heaven is one perpetual celebration of “By the consecration the transubstantiation worship. But someone who understands what of the bread and wine into the Body and Mass is would have to ask, “Why would you Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the want to do anything else?” The Mass is truly consecrated species of bread and wine Christ and literally Heaven on earth, the wonderful himself, living and glorious, is present in a gift Jesus has given us so that we may be with true, real, and substantial manner: his Body Him in the flesh. and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity” Since Christ first commanded the Apostles (CCC 1413). (the first priests) to celebrate Mass for all The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christians at the Last Supper, ordained priests Jesus Christ. The Baltimore Catechism explains have invoked the Holy Spirit and pronounced one of the ways we know this: “Christ could the words of consecration, transforming not have used clearer, more explicit words bread and wine into the Body and Blood of than ‘This is My body.’ He did not say, ‘This is a Jesus Christ. sign of My body’ or ‘This represents My body,’ The Mass is celebrated in two main parts: but, ‘This is My body.’ Catholics take Christ the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of at His word because He is the omnipotent the Eucharist. More information on these God. On His word they know that the Holy two parts of the Mass are in your children’s Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ.” activity books. THE SACRAMENTS, ESSAYlesson APPENDIX 7 141 What Are the Fruits of dress in appropriate attire for Mass as a sign Holy Communion? of respect.
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