Q&A 127
Q. A third objection.
A. Shoot!
Q. You Catholics say that the Last Supper was the first Mass. Correct?
A. Correct.
Q. You also say that the Mass is somehow a re-enactment of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Correct?
A. Correct.
Q. This then is my question or objection or reason I don't believe what the Catholic Church teaches on this point: if the Last Supper was celebrated before Jesus' crucifixion, how can it be a reenactment of the Crucifixion? That would make no sense at all!
A. That, I have to admit, is a brilliant question!
Q. Any brilliant answer?
A. Answer there is. Whether it is brilliant or not I will leave to you to decide.
Q. OK. Let's hear it!
A. Actually two answers.
The second is that for us, the Mass is a reenactment of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. In this you are correct. For Christ however, it wasn't - for the reason you mention. For Christ it was much more. Which leads us to the first answer.
The first answer is that the Last Supper and the Crucifixion are not two separate and unrelated events. They are one long continuous oblation of Christ.
Q. Really?
A. What Christ begun in the upper room on that Thursday night was completed the following afternoon on Calvary.
Q. You'll have to explain that one for me.
A. Our difficulty is that we are not Jews or at least have not bothered to familiarise ourselves with Jewish religious traditions - traditions Jesus observed. And for that reason, when we read the Scriptures, we miss out many details that your ordinary Jew would pick out blindfolded.
The first example I ever came across is Jesus' cry on the Cross after He'd been hanging for 3 hours already and His last moments were at hand: "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice 'Elo-i, Elo-i, lama sabach-thani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'" (Mk 15:34)
Q. What about it? Jesus was experiencing a bit of abandonment after God the Father refused to save Him from the cross... That would be a normal emotion for any normal human.
A. That's just it! When Jesus cried those words of desolation, He wasn't simply expressing an abandoned emotion! He was praying! Reciting a Psalm actually! Psalm 22. Which begins with the same words "My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?" and goes on to prophetically describe the sufferings that Christ Himself was going through 1,000 years later. And those words don't end in despair and abandonment but in hope, security in and praise of God: "I will tell of thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee..." (Ps 22:22)
So any Jew standing by the Cross of Christ by hearing that first line of Psalm 22 would immediately recall the rest of it having been trained - like Muslims of today - to memorise these sacred texts.
It's almost like a would-be criminal unjustly brought before a firing squad and before he is shot dead shouts out the first line of our National Anthem: "O God of all creation!"
Q. Wow!
A. Exactly my reaction when I first read that.
To be continued...
Happy feastday!
27thNovember 2016