Time flies! On the 25th of March, three months had passed since Christmas 2022. Also, this marked the celebration of the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary precisely nine months before Christmas 2023. Lent is now almost over as we enter the Last Supper, followed by the sorrow of Good Friday and end with the joy of Easter Sunday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
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| Scuola Grande di San Rocco Museum, Venice |
Lent prepares us to recall where the Mass began and not something a random Catholic thought up for dramatic effect. Let's go back about 1990 years ago to the year 33. It was in a large upper room filled with twelve apostles with all their eyes fixed on Jesus at the centre of the table. There he sat and taught his apostles their final lesson before he prepared for His death. The room was probably prepared with light and filled with the aroma of wild herbs, salt water, unleavened bread, wine, and the meat of the sacrificial lamb. Why this special occasion? The Jews were celebrating the Passover.
The Passover celebrated the Jews' freedom from slavery in Egypt. The Passover celebrated that God spared the life of every firstborn son by instructing the angel of death to not take the life of those who marked their doorpost with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Why is this relevant to us? The Old Testament was preparing us for something profound. On another occasion, God asked Abraham to take his son's life on the mountain as an act of love for God. Before Abraham was about to do the unthinkable, God spared his son's life. God had been preparing us to understand how much He truly loves us, that He would allow this time His only Son to take the place of the sacrificial lamb. Instead of staining the doorpost with blood, he stained the post of the cross on Calvary with His very own blood to save all humanity from the eternal punishment of sin.
All these symbolisms come to life at the Last Supper (the very first Mass). In the upper room, the night before Jesus died, He performed the greatest miracle by bringing the animation of the Passover to life. That night Our Lord instituted the Mass. It remains a miracle that occurs every day worldwide by every priest who celebrates the Mass and remains the greatest mystery by bringing us the living Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the substance of unleavened bread and wine. Does it sound a little unreal? Well, it should, as this defies our own human understanding, science and the mere concept of time itself.
Jesus sat with his apostles and said, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15-16). The night before this happened, twelve apostles were invited to the Last Supper. One of them chose to not believe, but the remaining eleven were given the grace to consecrate the ordinary substance of bread and wine from that day forward in the Mass into His Body and Blood. This consecration is integrally linked to the redemption and suffering on Calvary. So every time the Mass is celebrated by a priest, it is the unbloody reenactment of Our Lord's suffering and redemption on the cross that comes to life on the altar.
This is why the Eucharist is reserved for Catholics who believe that Jesus is consecrated on the altar and remains present to us. The mystery enables us to unite our sufferings, prayers and offerings with Jesus in the Mass. In other words, I can offer my prayers, joys and challenges in my daily work, suffering in the day for someone close to me or acts of thanksgiving every day and take it to the altar. At the altar, I place it there spiritually, and Our Lord unites our earthly suffering with his eternal redemption for our sake and for those with whom we pray.
So why is the Eucharist reserved for Catholics? If, as Christians, we do not believe in the real presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, we might take for granted Our Lord's tender body which we consume. It would be like disregarding an important guest of honour as unimportant. A more concrete example (said with the utmost respect) is if we believe that anyone can stand before believers and repeat the words of scripture, "Take, eat; this is my body" (Matthew 26:26) over crackers and juice, we risk blaspheming Jesus who is made present in the Mass.
This is where Catholics can seem they belong to some exclusive club. Definitely not! Why is it not the same thing? I answer the question by posing another question. Can the pastor who repeats words from Matthew's gospel over cracker bread and grape juice be traced back to an unbroken line with the first apostles? In other words, did he receive the laying on of hands directly from Jesus, who lay His hands on Peter, and Peter on his successor and so forth up to Pope Francis? Any priest in the Catholic Church who consecrates unleavened bread and wine was consecrated a priest by a bishop who was consecrated a bishop by the Pope. Every Pope over the past two millennia had received the laying of hands, starting with Peter when Jesus entrusted the Church to him.
Our Lord, after his resurrection, instructed Peter to "feed my sheep" (John 21:15-17), meaning he gave Peter the keys to govern the house of God, the Church. Well, on another occasion, he gave the apostles the power to "bind and loose" (Matthews 18:18), meaning they had the authority to absolve sins, pronounce doctrinal judgements, and make decisions in the Church (CCC, 553).
For about 1,521 years, all Christians were Catholic (which means universal). There was no distinction, and we all believed the same thing. Martin Luther, who started out nobly by wanting to correct the misuse of resources in the Church at the time, broke with wisdom that had been accumulated over the last 1,500. He "protested" against the core teachings and broke with the universality and created his own church that believed some things and lost others. Most significantly, he lost the Eucharist, the central belief.
Up to 2023, his split had resulted in more than 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide (undoubtedly, that is not what Our Lord wanted when he died for us on the cross?!). Only one of those 45,000 "denominations" believes and holds true to where and how the Church all began. The Protestant (coming from protest) bible was edited and replaced with what Lutherans considered necessary. Unfortunately, this division means many Christians have forgotten about history out of no fault of their own for the last 500 years.
Sadly, this break has separated many Christians with good intentions from the real presence of the sacraments that ultimately point us to the Eucharist (the summit of our faith) and where we truly encounter the living Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wishing you and your families a Blessed Easter as we await the Risen Lord.
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