Friday, 3/7/14
That wonderful first reading from Isaiah, Chapter 58 needs
no explanation. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to say a few words about how
attending Mass can do more for us if we see ourselves as taking part in the
Last Supper.
St. Paul, in Chapter 11 of his First Letter to the
Corinthians gave us an account of what happened at the Last Supper; and
although he wasn’t there then, he tells us that Jesus himself told him just what
happened.
St. Luke, who was Paul’s disciple, describes the Lass Supper
in the same words Paul used. Both of them penned their accounts in the Greek
language. They both wrote that Jesus took up the bread after the eucharistesas. Oddly, though, our
English of what Paul wrote translate eucharistesas
as “haven given thanks;” while our English of what Luke wrote translates eucharistesas as “said the blessing.”
If they translated eucharistesas
literally, they both would have written that he took up the bread after “the
pleasing gift.” Taking the word apart, eu
means “pleasing,” charis means
“gift,” and tesas means “after.”
Even though Jesus used his own words for the blessing at the
Last Supper, he followed the traditional Jewish formula for it. For the first
part he asked everyone to call to mind God’s favors. For the second part he
prayed that God would come down into their hearts. For the third part he asked
everyone to join him in making themselves part of the pleasing gift he was
making of himself.
We misuse the word Eucharist when we have it apply only to
Jesus under the form of bread and wine. He is of no use to us there if we do
not join him, becoming our own part of the Pleasing Gift.
First Century accounts of our Sunday worship referred to is
as “our sacrifice,”not just the sacrifice of Jesus or of the priests.
Jesus chose that moment in his reciting the Last Supper blessing
to give himself to us in Communion. He wanted us to be physically part of his
Pleasing Gift, his Eucharist.
By hurrying through Mass to supply ourselves with a consecrated
host for benediction, we are missing out on the beauty of identifying ourselves
with Jesus as part of the Pleasing Gift.
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