Chapter IV: The Last Supper
I: Judaic Ritual of the Passover
Before recounting the doings of that evening meal, when Jesus celebrated the Pasch for the last time, it is quite important to recall its symbolic rites; for the Saviour made such frequent allusions to them that His words scarcely can be comprehended by the reader who is not initiated into the customs of the Hebrew people.
"Israel's Great Festival" was now no longer distinguished by the simplicity of earlier ages. We should search in vain for the Jewish household, all standing, with staff in hand, loins girded and sandals upon their feet, eating in haste the lamb garnished with bitter herbs, and the unleavened bread. Had these olden customs been altered even before the Captivity? Or did he change take place only during the Jews' sojourn in Babylon? This we do not know; still we cannot doubt but that the new Schools of the Scribes, which became so numerous after the return to Jerusalem, must have exercised as profound an influence upon the rubric of the Paschal Supper as they did upon very many other Mosaic institutions. Under colour of reviving ancient usages they really disfigured them, and transformed them into inflexible rules. It is to this narrow formalism, exemplified in the Talmud and its commentaries, that we must refer today for a representation of the Passover as Jesus celebrated it.
On the evening of the 14th day of Nisan the different families gather together to partake of the legal repast. The lamb baked in the furnace must preserve a form whose prophetic significance was manifest. It was attached to two branches of pomegranate, whose wood is less sensitive than any other to the action of heat; one of the branches penetrated the whole length of the creature, while the other, shorter than the first, fixed the front feet which was stretched out in form of a Cross. These preparations were the object of scrupulous precaution, for they must needs beware of breaking one of its bones; the least infraction of this law was punished by forty blows from a thong.
At nightfall the guests, whose number varied from ten to twenty, bestowed themselves upon couches slightly raised from the floor, the left arm supported upon a cushion, the right hand free to reach the food. To lie at ease during their meal was the distinctive privilege of all freeman; hence it was fitting that upon the anniversary of that great deliverance Israel should comport itself as a people unenthralled by any servitude.
The father of the household first took up a cup of wine mingled with a little water.
" Blessed be the Lord," he said, "Who hath created the fruit of the vine!"
Whereupon each guest in his turn, drank from this cup. Undoubtedly this was the same cup which Saint Luke speaks of as blessed by Jesus at the beginning of the Last Supper.
A basin fall of water and a napkin were passed around the assembly immediately afterward, that all might purify their hands; the washing of the feet narrated by Saint John is probably connected with this rite. When these ablutions were completed each one took his place at the table among the rest of the guests.
The board was spread with sundry dishes; at one side of the Lamb were set bitter herbs, such as cresses and parsley, in remembrance of the sorrows of Egypt; then azyme-bread, thin and tasteless, like the paste which the yeast had not had time to leaven before the precipitate flight of Israel. One last symbolic dish completed the repast; it was called the Charoseth, a compound of various fruits,— apples, figs, and citrons,— cooked in vinegar; by the use of cinnamon and other spices they gave it a ruddy tint like that of bricks; this colour, together with its long, flat shape, recalled to their minds the mortar-pits of Phithom and Ramases. Often they added several viands prepared and blest at the same time as the Lamb; these were, according to the commandment set down in Deuteronomy, a young kid or a sheep roasted, which later on became the Chagigah; but generally they reserved this sacrifice for the 15th of Nisan and the days following. The master of the house, as soon as the food was put before him, took the herbs, dipped them in the Charoseth, while thanking God for having created the good things of earth, whereupon all ate thereof a portion not less than the size of an olive.
A second cup was then poured out, and the youngest of the company requested the father of the family for an explanation of these rites. The latter, to lend a more solemn significance to his response, lifted up in succession before the eyes of all the different dishes forming their repast, and while so doing recalled what memories of past times were attached to each,— the Lamb, immolated to turn away Heaven's anger, whereat the Angel of Death passed over Israel without striking their first-born; the parade of anguish, eaten during the terrors of their flight;1 the herbs, bitter as the slavery from which they had come forth triumphant.
"And for such wonders as these," he added, "it behoveth us to praise and exalt Him Who hath changed our weeping into gladness, our darkness into light; and to Him alone doth it behove us to sing 'Alleluia!'"
Then at once the whole company intoned the Hallel:—
" Sing praises, Oh ye servants of Jehovah
praise ye the Name of your God!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.
From the rising onto the setting of the Sun
the Lord’s Name is to be praised!"
So they continued on to the end of the following Psalm, chanting their song of triumph over the deliverance out of Egypt:—
" O Sea, wherefore didst thou flee away?
and thou, Jordan, wherefore turn backward?
Ye Mountains, wherefore skip like kids?
and you, little Hills, like young lambkins?
In the Presence of the Lord, tremble, Oh Earth,
in the presence of the God of Jacob.
For He changeth the rocks into fountains,
and the stones into springs of living water!"
During these canticles of joy they drank the second cup. The father of the family then took the azyme-cakes and broke them before blessing and distributing them. In order that all might recollect that this was the bread of sorrowfulness no-one might eat more than a morsel, along with a few herbs, and soaked in the Charoseth. Then came the time for the Lamb; when once carved and distributed to each guest it must needs disappear entirely, and no other meats were served up thereafter.
Then the father of the house all poured out a third cup,— the Chalice of Benediction,— and this probably was that which the Christ changeth into the Blood Divine. So soon as ever it was drunk he intoned the final hymns of the Hallel, wherein their grateful hearts burst forth into transports of joy:—
"Not unto us, Lord, not unto us,
unto thy Name belongeth glory,
O source of Mercy and Truth!
Now let the Nations come unto us, saying:
'Where is your God?'
Our God is in the heavens:
that which He willeth that doeth He.
. . . . . . .
Then what shall I render unto Jehovah
for all his benefits?
I will lift up this Cup of Salvation,
and I will invoke His Name.
Yea, I am Thy slave, Jehovah,
Thy slave and the son of Thine handmaid.
Thou hast broken my chains in pieces:
to Thee well I offer a sacrifice of praise,
praising I will call on the Name of the Lord!"
Then appealing to the whole world, Israel, in a holy ecstasy, endeavours to entice them all unto the service of the true God:—
"O all Ye Peoples, praise ye Jehovah:
ye Nations, exalt His Name!
For His Love is mighty amongst us,
and the Truth of Jehovah endureth forever!
Alleluia!"
A fourth cup hereupon passed from hand to hand and marked the end of the repast.
Such was the Jewish Passover when Jesus celebrated it for the last time. With this description before our minds it will be easy for us to supply what is omitted in the Evangelist's narrative, while, too, by this means we may decipher the allusions and understand the transformation of this Figurative Rite into that holiest function of religious worship,— the most Holy Mystery of the Mass.
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