This is a great read. I was going to post a link but the website I got this from had graphics SO bad that it was even worse than reading this VERY long post. Happy and sacred Easter to all.
Transcript of a taped address by Dr.
Scott Hahn, former Presbyterian minister and Professor of Theology at
The Fransiscan University of Steubenville The original tape was
distributed by Catholic Answers.
I'd
like to cover a lot, and I'd like to tell you in advance what I'm
going to tell you. I'd like to move from one to another to a third
area. The first area I'd like to focus on is how it is that Christ in
the Last Supper and in the Eucharist offers himself up as the New
Covenant Passover, and how the Eucharist and the Old Testament
Passover are in a sense two sides of the same coin. The second focus
of our time will be on the Nature
of the Mass, then, as a sacrifice. That was big problem for me,
and that's a big problem for lots of people outside the church and I
think for some people in the church too, who wonder about how it is
that after Calvary we can still speak of any activity that is
performed on earth as being a sacrifice of Christ. And then finally
the third area for our consideration will be on what Our
Proper Response would be to our Lord in the Eucharist, in the
blessed Sacrament. In other words, why should we adore our Lord in
the Eucharist as opposed to just any old place we happen to be? In
other words, we'll conclude on the note of Eucharistic adoration, and
why that is a fit, proper, and very necessary act of devotion in the
family of God, the Catholic Church.
Let's go back to the first, the Eucharist as Passover. What I'd
like to share in this first part is not what theologians would call
de fide; it isn't infallibly defined dogma that binds the conscience,
the intellect and will of every Catholic believer. Instead, what I'd
like to do is just to share my own Scripture study in sort of an
abbreviated form that led me to see something that I didn't think was
possible - it led me to see that the Last Supper and Christ's
sacrifice on Calvary and the Eucharist are all of one piece. Some
scholars might dispute this. You can't find all Scripture scholars
agreeing on anything these days, so I don't lose much sleep over the
fact that there might be some scripture scholars who dispute this
point. But through my own study (and I've checked this with others
who are more qualified and better trained scholars than me) it
helps. It's been an explanation that has provided insight for others
as well. It's not entirely original, but for me it was a discovery of
my own before I discovered it in the writings of other great and holy
and wise authors.
When we think about how Christ instituted the Eucharist, we're
obviously taken back to the Upper Room. And just recall if you will
some well known facts. He and the disciples were celebrating what
well known feast? The Passover. Probably the most important feast in
all the Jewish calendar back then, because it signaled the event - it
signified the salvation deed of God, the work of God. Centuries, over
a thousand years before, when Moses and the twelve tribes of Israel
found themselves in bondage down in Egypt. And you know how it was
that God called Moses from the burning bush and said, "Go and
tell pharaoh the following: 'Israel is my firstborn son.'" Now
that's a very interesting statement to begin with, because that idea
of firstborn son is very essential to the Passover itself. "Israel
is my firstborn son." God is saying something to Egypt and to
all the other nations: 'You are enslaving and ignoring and
mistreating your eldest brother'. It almost implies that all the
nations in God's eyes are like sons, but that Israel back then held a
kind of primacy, like the oldest brother. "Israel is my
firstborn son. Go tell pharaoh that Israel is my firstborn son. Let
him go to serve me or else I will slay your firstborn sons." And
you know the story about the plagues and how they came upon Egypt and
pharaoh kept hardening and turning away from God and wouldn't listen,
or he would listen and act like he was going to give in but at the
last minute he'd turn away and harden his heart some more. Until
finally the tenth plague came, which was the plague of the angel of
death visiting death upon the firstborn sons in Egypt. All firstborn
sons would have died, not just the Egyptian firstborn sons, except
for one thing - the Passover. If you and your household through the
father took a lamb and slew that lamb and sprinkled the blood on the
doorpost and ate the meal you would wake up and your firstborn son
would be alive. And of course the Egyptian families didn't, the
Israelite families did and with that they were brought up in the
exodus out of Egypt to Mount Sinai where God made a covenant with
them, where He, like a father, entered into a loving relationship
with the son. It's almost like a bridal....it's like a marriage
encounter.
That's the Old Testament background. What it all meant was that
this was the covenant event. In other words, what God was interested
in doing was to restore the family purity and the family communion of
His children, the people of Israel. The Passover was the bonding
agent that brought it about, through the blood of the lamb, that
sacrifice. And so it was celebrated for thousands of years, and still
is by Jews, as the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Now remember, a
covenant is a sacred family bond; it's more than just a contract. And
remember also that firstborn sons were marked for destruction. In
other words, Egypt offered up a sacrifice and so did Israel. Egypt's
sacrifice was unwilling: their firstborn sons. Israel's sacrifice was
voluntary: the unblemished lamb. All of this is key, I believe, to
understand the New Testament context of the Last Supper and our own
Holy Eucharist, because when Christ institutes the Eucharist, as I
said, it takes place in the upper room at the Last Supper. And what
are they doing but celebrating the Passover? Luke 22:15: "I have
earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you." So likewise in
Mark chapter 14: "His disciples said to him, 'Where will you
have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?' And he gave them
instructions and the disciples set out and entered the city and found
it as he had told them and they prepared the Passover."
And you know the circumstances and
details surrounding the Last Supper. I won't recount all of them, but
let's just go over the more salient features. In Mark 14:22ff we
read, "And as they were eating he took bread and blessed and
broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take; this is my body. And he
took a cup and when he had given thanks (the Greek word for that
is eucharisto) he gave it to them and they all drank of it, and
he said to them, 'This is my blood of the new covenant which is
poured out for many.'" And then he adds a kind of unusual
statement: "Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom
of God." And then, when they had sung a hymn, they went out into
the night to the Mount of Olives. Now that might not seem very
significant to you but to scholars who study the gospel accounts of
the Passover in the upper room, there's a big problem. Why? Because
we know the way the Passover has been celebrated for centuries, for
millenia; it's a very ancient liturgy, it's well known, it's no
secret. Jews still celebrate it according to the same structure.
There are four cups that represent the structure of the Passover. The
first cup is the blessing of the festival day, it's the kiddush cup.
The second cup of wine occurs really at the beginning of the Passover
liturgy itself, and that involves the singing of psalm 113. And then
there's the third cup, the cup of blessing which involves the actual
meal, the unleavened bread and so on. And then, before the fourth
cup, you sing the great hil-el psalms: 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118.
And having sung those psalms you proceed to the fourth cup which for
all practical purposes is the climax of the Passover.
Now what's the problem? The problem is that gospel account says
something like this: after the third cup is drunk Jesus says, "I
shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until I am entering
into the kingdom of God." And it says, "Then they sang the
psalms." Every Jew who knows the liturgy would expect: and then
they went ahead and said the grace and the blessing and had the
fourth cup which climaxed and consummated the Passover. But no, the
gospel account say they sang the psalms and went out into the night.
I'm sure this doesn't seem like a big problem and for a long time
it didn't seem big to me, but it had led many scholars to question
whether he was celebrating a Passover at all because you just don't
blow apart the liturgy that way. You don't just sidestep the most
important part. It would be like saying the Mass and skipping the
Eucharist, forgetting the words of consecration. So why did Jesus do
it? Other scholars say, well back then there must not have been a
fourth cup. But ancient revered traditions like that don't just
spring up overnight and then cover the globe like the Passover
liturgy has, with all four cups. And so it seems likely that there
might be a better explanation. But where? Why did he skip the fourth
cup? After all, he was raised a Jew, he'd been celebrating the
Passover every year of his life since he was a little boy according
to the strictest laws of Moses. Well, maybe there's a psychological
reason. Maybe he was so anxious, so uptight about what he knew he was
going to do, he - for instance, we read in Mark 14:32, "They
went out to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples,
'Sit here while I pray.' He took with him Peter, James and John and
began to be greatly distressed and troubled, and he said to them, 'My
soul is very sorrowful even unto death.'"
That's what our Lord was feeling, so
some have said that maybe he just wasn't alert enough to get all the
way through the liturgy; he was distracted. Doubtful, very doubtful.
He wouldn't skip over something so essential and climactic as that.
Everything else functioned according to plan. They sang the psalms
and then they went out into the night. I think the answer lies
elsewhere. Where did they go? Well, we just read, Gethsemane. And
what did he do? He prayed, because his soul was so distressed. Notice
what he prayed, and why, and how he did it. Three times he fell down
to the ground and said to his Father, he cried out. "Abba,
Father!" The most intimate of terms. "All things are
possible to Thee. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but
what Thou wilt." Remove this cup. Take away this cup. What is
this cup? Now, some scholars suggest that this harkens back to an
image used by Isaiah and Jeremiah to speak about the cup of God's
wrath that the Messiah, God's suffering servant, must drink. There's
certainly some connection that can be made there, but much more
likely, I think, is a connection between an interrupted liturgy that
had been followed strictly up until the very end and this heartfelt,
earnest plea and prayer of our Savior. Remove this cup. He also said,
though, "I shall not taste of the fruit of the vine again until
I enter into the kingdom."
So what do we see as the drama unfolds? Well, in Mark 15:23, on
the way to Calvary, after being beaten and scourged and abused, what
do some people offer our Lord? In Mark 15:23 they offer him wine
mingled with myrrh, which was an opiate, a painkiller, but he
wouldn't take it. Why not? Well, certainly because he was there to
accept the suffering for the sins of the world. But he had also said,
"I will not taste of the fruit of the vine again until I come
into the kingdom." So He wouldn't take the wine. But then we
turn to John, chapter 19 - (If you have a Bible, turn with me to
John 19. If you don't have a Bible you're probably a cradle Catholic
(laughter) Sorry, one of those convert jokes; shame on me!
(laughter)) - John 19 describes in unique detail the sacrifice of
our Lord. There's no mistaking the fact that St. John, the beloved
disciple, understood our Lord's sacrifice as the culmination, the
fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover. For instance, why is that
Jesus happened to be wearing a seamless linen garment at the cross,
when just coincidentally that's what the priest was legislated to
wear when he sacrificed the Passover? Here is the true priest, as
well as the true victim. And when he was crucified, unlike the two
thieves whose legs had to be broken to expedite death, his bones were
not broken. Why? To fulfill the scripture where it says, "None
of his bones shall be broken." What's that talking about where
it says, "None of his bones shall be broken"? One of the
things is that if you took a lamb to sacrifice for the Passover and
you discovered that it had a broken bone, you had to throw him out
and get another one. The only fit sacrifice was a lamb without broken
bones. John sees in this so much more than we can get into, but one
thing in particular. Verse 28, "After this" - at the very
end of his cruel sufferings - "Jesus, knowing that all was now
finished said, in order to fulfill the scriptures, 'I thirst.'"
Now, he's been on the cross for hours. Is this the first moment of
thirst. No, he'd been wracked with pain and dying of thirst for
hours. But he says, in order to fulfill the scripture, "I
thirst." Why? To fulfill the scripture.
"A bowl of sour wine stood there. They put a sponge full of
the sour wine on a hyssop branch - the same kind of branch the
Israelites had to use to sprinkle the lamb's blood on the doorpost,
coincidentally enough - and held it to his mouth. Before when they
offered him wine, what did he do? He refused it: "I will not
taste of the fruit of the vine I am coming into the kingdom." He
skipped the fourth cup and then he went to pray, 'Remove this cup,
not as I will , but as thou wilt,' And now he has gone and fulfilled
that will to the uttermost, in perfect suffering obedience to the
Father, in an act of unspeakable love.
"They put a sponge full of the sour wine on hyssop and held
it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine he said the
words that are spoken of in the fourth cup consummation, "It is
finished." What is the it referring to? That grammatical
question began really bothering me at some point. I asked several
people and their response was usually, "Well, it means the work
of redemption that Christ was working on." All right, that's
true, I agree it does refer to that, but in context. An exegete, a
trained interpreter of the word is supposed to find the contextual
meaning, not just import a meaning from a theology textbook. What is
Jesus speaking of when he says, "It is finished?" I mean,
our redemption is not completed once he - he's not yet raised. Paul
says, "He was raised for our justification."
So what is the 'it' he is talking about? He said, 'It is
finished', and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, his breath.
The 'it,' of course you realize by now, is the Passover sacrifice.
Because who is Jesus Christ? He is the sacrifice of Egypt, the
firstborn son. Remember, the Egyptians involuntarily had to offer up
their firstborn sons as atonement for their own sins and wickedness.
Christ dies for Egypt and the world. Plus, he is the Passover lamb,
the unblemished lamb, without broken bones who offers himself up for
the life of the world. This fits with John's gospel, because as soon
as Jesus was introduced in chapter 1 of the fourth gospel by John the
Baptist, what did John say? He said, "Behold the lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world." And here is the lamb, headed
for the altar of the cross, dying as a righteous firstborn and as an
unblemished lamb. I believe that it's best to say in light of
scripture that the sacrifice of Christ did not begin with the first
spike, it didn't begin when the cross was sunk into the ground. It
began in the upper room. That's where the sacrifice began. And I
would also suggest that the Passover meal by which Jesus initiated
the new Covenant in his own blood did not end in the upper room, but
at Calvary. It's all of one piece. The sacrifice begins in the upper
room with the institution of the Eucharist and it ends at Calvary.
Calvary begins with the Eucharist. The Eucharist ends at Calvary. But
in another way of thinking, it ain't over yet! Cause it ain't over
till it's over. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, "Christ
our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, therefore" - what? - we
don't need to have any more sacrifice? Therefore we don't need to
have any more ritual, therefore all we have to do is have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ and invite him into our hearts and
everything else is taken care of? No, he's too knowledgeable about
the Old Testament to say any of that. He says, "Christ our
Passover lamb has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the
feast." What feast? The whole Passover feast. It's not complete
yet. What do you mean?
Well, go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus. Suppose
that night as head of my household and father, I sacrificed an
unblemished lamb with no broken bones, and I sprinkled his blood on
the door post, and then I said, "Family, we're safe, let's go to
bed', and we went to bed. I'd wake up in the morning to tragedy. My
firstborn would be dead. Why? You had to eat the lamb. It isn't
enough to kill him. That is the satisfaction for sin, but the
ultimate goal of sacrifice is not blood and gore and God making sure
He sees the death. The ultimate goal is to restore communion, to have
fellowship with God restored. And that's what's signified by eating
the lamb. Who shares a common meal? Family. What is this a sign of?
Covenant. And what is a covenant? A sacred family bond. In the Old
Testament any family that sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled the blood
had to eat the lamb. It wasn't enough to say, 'Well we don't like
lamb do we, kids? Why don't we make lamb cookies? Little lamb wafers
that symbolize the lamb? We'll eat those and those'll be enough,
right? Symbolic presence of the lamb, and all that?' No, you'd wake
up and you'd be dead. You ate the lamb and you burned what was left.
But you ate the lamb to reestablish and restore communion with your
heavenly Father through His firstborn Son and Lamb. That's the way it
was in the Old Testament, and St. Paul recognizes that it's still the
way it is in the new covenant, only in spades, only with more glory.
Why? Because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Once and
for all on Calvary he's been put to death, therefore - what?
Therefore we've nothing to do. Just celebrate the sacrifice, which is
over and done with - No, something's missing. We need to eat the
Lamb. We need to receive the Lamb to restore communion and to
complete the sacrifice and to keep the feast. It's proper, and we now
judge it to be necessary. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, "Christ our
Passover Lamb has been sacrificed and now let us celebrate the
feast." And the next five chapters in many ways St. Paul
describes how the Eucharist is to be celebrated, because it's the
culmination of the Passover sacrifice.
This is a true sacrifice. It's an unbloody sacrifice, because
we're not killing Jesus again. This was something I never really
understood as a Protestant anti-Catholic. I thought for sure that
because you speak of sacrificing in the Mass, that therefore in some
way you believe we're killing Jesus again and again and again, as
though one dying is not enough. So we just assumed and I always
taught that there was suffering imposed upon Christ supposedly in the
Mass. This is blasphemous because his one act of dying wasn't enough
and we had to continue to have him die and bleed and suffer, which is
what the Mass is for. No way! That's anti-Catholic. No Catholic can
believe that because the sacrifice of the Mass involves no bleeding ,
no dying and no suffering of the person of Christ, who is enthroned
in glory and reigning triumphant in heaven. He is resurrected. He is
ascended. He is enthroned, and he rules as king of kings.
How is it that he's enthroned? The New Testament answers that
question in a very revealing way. At least it was revealing for me. I
turned to the book of Revelation. In chapter 5:5-6 where John sees
the scroll that is sealed seven times and he begins to cry because no
body can break it open; no body can break open the seals to read the
book. And the cry goes out, "Lo! The Lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David has conquered, the lion of the tribe of Judah is
worthy to open up the seals to read the book." The lion of the
tribe of Judah; the root of David; the conquering king, right? So
John turns to see the Lion of the tribe of Judah and you expect to
see this great lion with a dazzling mane like in Narnia or something,
some beautiful royal beast and instead he turns and what does he see?
In verse 6 John says, "I saw a lamb standing there as though it
had been slain." The conquering king, the lion of the tribe of
Judah , the root of David ruling and reigning in the new and
glorified Jerusalem, up in heaven, and when you see him what's he
look like? A lamb, looking as though he'd been slain. Why? because
Revelation 5, and then 6 and 7 and 8 all describe what St, John saw
in spirit on the Lord's Day up in heaven. And guess what? It's what
you see in the spirit on the Lord's day down on earth. A Eucharistic
liturgy. And the Lamb leads all of the saints and the angels and the
people of God in this beautiful heavenly liturgy.
In the early Church fathers it went
without argument, it went without saying that the liturgy on earth
was patterned after the vision that St. John had of the heavenly
worship. But notice the appearance of our conquering king. He's a
lamb looking as though he'd been slain. Why? Because the Holy Spirit
resurrected the body of Jesus and it was ascended into heaven and it
was enthroned and it appears as a lamb because the sacrifice
continues. Because the Passover sacrifice in the Old Testament was
not complete until all of God's people who trusted the Lord and
wanted to obey the ordinance received the Lamb and received the
covenant and the sacred family bond of the Lamb. And so likewise the
New Covenant, the heavenly family the spiritual supernatural bond
that unties us as brothers and sisters - we are more brothers and
sisters than your own earthly, biological siblings with whom you
share a family for 60 or 70 years - we've got 70 trillion years and
that's just the beginning. We are God's family; that isn't just
quaint sentimental pastoral metaphors. That isn't just a nice
emotional analogy that stirs our hearts and makes us feel warm and
fuzzy inside. That's more real than anything in this room. We are
God's children, purchased with the Lamb's blood, and that Lamb is
there for us to receive. The Lamb is a continual celebrant in heaven.
He is our high priest and he is our king. He is our teacher, our
prophet, and he is the one celebrant who leads the whole liturgical
worship of the entire universe as an act of continual praise and
offering through the Sacred Heart to the Father. All of us who are
united to Him as members of His Mystical Body, our worship is only
acceptable because of His sacrifice. He has covered our sins, he's
made an expiation, and yet for the sacrifice to be complete, what
must we do? We must receive him.
This fact was taught us long before the crucifixion. For instance
in John chapter 6, let me read from verse 50 and following and see
how it is that Jesus prepared the way and instructed his disciples so
that they would know exactly what they were to expect. John 6:50,
let's go back to 6:4: "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews
was at hand." In other words the backdrop for the entire bread
of life discourse was the Passover season. Jesus says, "This is
the bread that comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and
not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone
eats this bread he will live forever and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is my flesh." Passover season. The one
who was introduced in John 1 as the 'Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world', at Passover time he tells us that, "The
bread that I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. The
Jews then disputed among themselves, saying 'How can this man give us
his flesh to eat?' So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly' - in the
original it's Amen, amen: we usually close our prayers with amen, but
he begins this with it because he knows it's going to be so
important, so true - "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in
you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I
will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my
blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me and I in him." And what response does he get? "Many
of his disciples when they heard it said, 'This is a hard saying. Who
can listen to it?' But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples
murmured at him, said to them, 'Do you take offense at this?'"
And we read on and find that many of his disciples drew back and no
longer went about with him.
What did Jesus say? Come on, guys, I
was only speaking in symbols, huh? I was only using an image. I don't
mean to offend you. Come on back. I'm about to lose a few thousand
here; come on, Twelve, help me. No, he turned to the Twelve and he
said to them, "Do you also wish to go away?" He's not going
to water down the truth. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to
whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life."
Underneath that tone of voice we hear, 'We might think about
leaving, 'cause what you've said is rather incomprehensible if not
downright offensive. Any advice on alternate messiahs? Who shall we
go to if we leave you? Since there are no others, we'll stay by your
side, uncomprehending.' Like many of his sayings, they didn't
understand it until after he was raised, after he ascended, and after
they had a vision of their risen, glorified and enthroned king.
Enthroned as a lamb, 'looking as though he had been slain.' Because
he bears those scars, and he continually postures himself before his
Father on our behalf and for our sake as a sacrificial victim,
uniting himself with us so that as members of his own mystical body
we might join in with that sacrifice. St. Paul says in Romans 8 that
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered for God's sake, not just
the Lamb, but we all enter into him and become identified with that
sacrifice of the Eucharist in the Mass. So, what is the sacrifice?
There's a once-and-for-all sacrifice on Calvary. Once and for all.
Once and for all time it continues on into eternity as the one
perfect sacrifice. I used to take it to mean once and for all and
therefore it needs no repetition; it needs no representation. But
then you read in Revelation 5 that Christ is continually
re-presenting his paschal sacrifice as the Lamb of God, looking as
though he'd been slain, before the Father forever, for our sake.
That's the significance of our earthly liturgy, of the Eucharistic
banquet, of the Eucharistic Passover, whereby God's firstborn Son,
the Lamb of God, has taken away our sins and calls us to unite
ourselves with him. Baptism is the sacrament of faith in which we
unite ourselves and receive the Holy Spirit. Confirmation is the
sacrament of hope in which we gain the extra power to overcome the
sin which we begin to consciously commit, because in confirmation we
have solid reason for hoping that God's grace will overcome our sin.
But faith, hope are nothing, are profitless, without love. And the
Eucharist is the sacrament of love. It's an oath that God has sworn:
"I love you. You don't believe me? I swear to God."
You know how people swear an oath: 'Cross my heart and hope to
die, stick a needle in my eye,' as little kids say? 'Cut my heart
into four pieces and gouge out my eyes?' An oath is a self-curse. "I
swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help me, God." Meaning, 'I need your help, God, or I might
perjure myself. And if I do and only you know, may the curses in this
Book come down upon me. And if I tell the truth but am accused of
lying and found guilty, may the blessings here come down upon me from
heaven.'
That's what an oath means. God says, "I love you; do you
believe me? Yeeaaahh, sortta. "I swear by myself." He
swears by Himself. He'll accept a curse upon Himself for our sake, so
that we know He loves us. And then He calls us to unite ourselves
with Him and He says, "Do you love me?" We believe you,
we're baptized, we hope that Your grace and power is sufficient to
overcome our sin, and so we're confirmed. And then when we receive
the Eucharist we receive the sacrament of love by which we swear
ourselves to God. We say, 'Swear to God, I love you, so help me, God.
Give me the grace I need to overcome my defects.' That's what the
Eucharist is. One of the passages that many people sidestep that I
want to call to your attention is in 1 Corinthians 11. St. Paul says
in verse 27, "Whoever, therefore, who eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning
the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself and so eat
of the bread and drink of the cup. For whoever eats and drinks
without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. And
that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died."
Because they received the Eucharist in an unworthy manner. Now do you
really believe that Paul really believes that people are weak and
sick and dead because they received the Eucharist in mortal sin? It's
exactly what he believes and teaches us to believe. He goes on, "But
if we judged ourselves truly we should not be so judged, but when we
are judged by the Lord we are chastened so that we are not condemned
along with the world." If I tell you a big story about my 12
kids all of whom are doctors and lawyers it'd be a lie, right? It
wouldn't be appropriate in a place like this, but it'd just be a lie
and I couldn't get in any more trouble than to get my reputation
discredited. But suppose that this were a different kind of place, a
courtroom, and this were a different kind of setup here and this was
a witness stand and I proceeded to tell those same things. What would
you call it then? A lie? Perjury. Lying's a sin. Perjury's a crime. I
couldn't go to jail for a sin like lying; why could I go to jail for
a sin like perjury? As the judge in Perry Mason says, "I remind
you, you're still under oath." The Latin word for oath is
sacramentum. Jesus Christ says to all of us, 'I remind you you're
still under oath. You have sworn yourself to me.' You say, 'So help
me, God, I promise to live the whole truth and nothing but the truth
so help me, God. You know me, God, better than I know myself. Help
me, God! And if I play games with you and the world doesn't know, I
know you do, and I won't be surprised if I become weak or ill or die.
So help me, God! Help me because you've pledged yourself to me and
now assist me in pledging myself to you.' That's what the Eucharist
is all about It's a sacrifice because sacrifice is the essence of
love. You don't just give your things, you give yourself. Christ
continues to give himself because Christ continues to love us so
much. So what can we make of all this? First we can see that the new
covenant Passover is the Eucharist which is a re-presentation of
Christ's once and for all sacrifice on Calvary. We don't kill him
again, he doesn't suffer and bleed, he's not humiliated again on the
cross on Calvary. That was once and for all that he died, and now his
death and resurrection are re-presented forever in heaven as the Lamb
leading them all in worship, and it's re-presented here below as the
Eucharistic Lamb leading all of us in worshiping the Father as good
faithful children in His family. That's the heart and soul of our
faith, that's the ground of our hope; that is the soul of our life as
Christians, as the mystical body of Christ, the corpus Christi. We
are what we eat.
Let's renew and deepen our commitment to Christ by renewing and
deepening our commitment to the Holy Eucharist in the blessed
sacrament of the altar. This isn't superstition or hocus-pocus. I was
teaching class earlier this week, and about 30 of my students were
there and I said to them, "Suppose you're in your dorm room
tonight and you were watching the six o'clock news and all of a
sudden you saw Roger Mudd come on and say, 'There's evidence now, the
report is confirmed now, that Jesus Christ is back on earth and is
walking the streets of Joliet about two blocks from the College of
St. Francis.' You're hearing this and you're sitting back with your
feet up on a chair and suppose your roommate came in and said,
'What's that?' You say, 'They say Jesus is walking around a couple of
blocks from here, and they're trying to get an interview with him.'
What would you do?" They all said spontaneously, "I'd run
to see him." Now what would you say to your roommate if he
replied, 'Aw, Jesus is God and God is everywhere; I can talk to Jesus
right here or in the bathroom or out in the country, so why go out
and see him?' No, no, if you love Jesus and he's really there two
blocks away, you'd go rush to see him. If you love him. And then I
said to my students what I'm going to say to you: He's less than two
blocks away.
Do we really believe that? I don't
understand why it is that in thousands of parishes across this
country people receive the Eucharist, sit down and then do the
hundred yard dash to the parking lot even before the blessing is
finished. Why? Some people have to leave even before they sit down. I
call that the Judas shuffle. He received out Lord and then went out
into the night. They receive our Lord and go out into the morning or
afternoon. Do we really believe that we're receiving the second
Person of the blessed Trinity, the Logos, the Creator, the Redeemer,
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? He has just entered into our
body and soul, we've just received him body and blood, soul and
divinity. Do we believe that? Do we act like it? Is there enough
evidence to convict us of such a belief? God, I hope so. If not,
let's start stockpiling more evidence, let's make the case against
ourselves much easier for the world so they look at us and say, 'They
really do believe that they're receiving the God-man.
The early Church was accused of cannibalism; the world saw and
understood - partially. It's not cannibalism, he's alive in glory,
with power - for us who need it most - if we love and believe that
much. The Eucharist is our oath, our pledge and God's assistance. So
what about Eucharistic adoration? Is it pre-Vatican II? Is it an
outmoded, medieval rite? Is it some meaningless ritual just for those
old fuddy-duds who like the old Latin Mass and need everything the
way it was a hundred years ago? No. it's for every man, woman and
child of God. Why? Why is adoration of the blessed Sacrament so
important? Because it's Christ whom we adore - the most adorable
being in the whole world.
I want to read to you some things that occurred to me last night
in prayer and study. I came across a statement by St. Cyril of
Alexandria who said about the early Church - this is a belief that
goes way back to the beginning - "Neither Christ is altered nor
his body changed, but the force and power and vivifying grace always
remain with it - the Eucharist." St. Augustine: "No one
eats the Flesh without first adoring it. Not only do we not commit a
sin by adoring it, but that we do sin by not adoring it." St.
Augustine taught as a Doctor of the Church that we do sin by not
adoring the Eucharist. Pope Paul VI: "Such visits are a proof of
gratitude, an expression of love, an acknowledgment of the Lord's
presence. The pope recalled Vatican II. Pope John XXIII once said,
"To keep me from sin and to prevent me from straying from Him,
God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the blessed
Sacrament. My life seems destined to be spent in the light radiating
from the tabernacle, and it is to the heart of Jesus that I must go
for the solution of all my problems."
St. John Vianny - the Cure of Ars - said, "To pray well there
is no need to talk a lot. One knows that the good God is there in the
holy tabernacle. One opens his heart to him, one rejoices in his
presence; this is the best prayer." Pope John Paul II, our Holy
Father said, "I wish to reaffirm the fact that Eucharistic
worship constitutes the soul of all Christian life. The visit to the
blessed Sacrament is the great treasure of the Catholic faith. It
nourishes social love and gives us opportunities for adoration and
thanksgiving, for reparation and supplication. It becomes a prefect
and yet simple, loving prayer."
Our Lord is just a few feet away. He is no less real here and now
that he was two thousand years ago on the dirty streets of Judea.
It's only our five senses that block our view. The eyes of faith can
see it, and we are the ones who walk by faith and not by sight. Do we
really believe that? Do we really love him? Will we really commit
ourselves to receiving all that we need as we tell him, 'I solemnly
swear to live the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help me, God.'
Someone once said, "He hides his adorable humanity in the
humble appearance of ordinary bread and wine so that we might find
that peace and joy that comes from being despised and rejected as he
was in his life." He hides his adorable humanity. Do we adore
it? In the humble appearance of ordinary bread and wine? He will
sustain our soul and the life of the Spirit like bread and wine
sustain the life of the body. So that we might find that peace and
joy that comes from being despised. The world would laugh at such a
statement. The Eucharist is proof that it's true. Peace and joy that
comes from being despised and rejected as he was in this life. In the
Eucharist he is forgotten, rejected and sacrilegiously received and
profaned, yet he remains there to nourish us with his precious body
and blood." When I first read those words of Brother Francis
Mary right before Christmas, having received this mailing from
Marytown, I had to leave the room and confess my sins and I cried,
and I'm not that emotional. But I tell you, the Sacred Heart of Jesus
calls out to us to deepen our love, and if we don't have what it
takes, he says, 'Come and get it.' It's free. It ain't cheap, but
it's free. He says, 'It cost me my life, but I give it to you for
free, just for the asking and seeking.'
Do we love him that much? Do we believe him that much? Let us
pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the glory of the
gospel. This world is too small to contain it. Our bodies are too
small to live it and to contain it in its fullness, so spend us,
Lord, and make us a living sacrifice united with Christ, so that
through his holy and acceptable offering we might be holy and
acceptable, that through our life, through our suffering, through our
loving, through our words and deeds, Christ might live and die and be
raised in the world around us, in his mystical body. These truths,
Lord, are not truths that we sense or see. Increase our faith and
help us adore You more, and help us to commit ourselves with
resolution and consistency to regular time of adoring You in the holy
Eucharist., We thank You for this holy and august sacrament. Impress
upon our hearts and minds how incomparable it is, inestimable in
value, that it might be the treasure that we store up in heaven, and
it might be that for which we live and work on earth. Hear us, Lord,
as we join together in the family prayer that our Lord taught us so
long ago. Our Father.....
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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