III: The Institution of the Eucharist
Matt. xxvi. 26-29; Mark xiv. 22-25; Luke xxii. 19-23; John xiii. 23-30.
The meal was drawing to its close. "And whilst they were still eating, Jesus took one of the loaves of unleavened bread and having given thanks He blessed it." The Ritual of the Passover ordained that all bread should be broken before it could be eaten. Therefore Jesus parted that which was in His hands and offered the fragments to the Apostles.
" Take ye and eat," He said; "this is My Body, which is given for you," broken for your sakes, bruised and beaten by the blows of men.
Deep silence ensued upon these words,— the silence of awe and amazement doubtless, but also of humble and submissive faith; for every one there well remembered the promise made to them long since on the lakeside: " the bread which I shall give you shall be My Flesh, for the life of the world. My Flesh is truly meat and My Blood is truly drink." And whether Judas secretly revived the murmurs then uttered by the people of Capharnaum yet there was nothing of the sort now among the other disciples; thereafter for them there was to be no more room for doubt; and to them this saying of Jesus is neither a figure barren of meaning nor an obscure comparison. It declared that here, in their presence, under the appearances of bread, was the flesh of their God made Man.
The bread of azymes, broken and changed into the Body of Jesus, rested now on the dish upon the table. Each one received a portion, and so in this, the first of communions, side by side with the sacrilegious spirit were pure souls exulting in this chaste union, overflowing with the delights of its holy harmony. "In the raptures of human love, what mother, what lover knows not the impulse to consume, nay, to absorb, after any fashion whatsoever to be incorporated with the beloved? . . . As though by devouring the loved one it were possible to possess his soul and body, to feed thereon, to be one with him, to live in him? This is that fury of tenderness which can never be satiated by any human passion, but is, indeed, the prompting of truth and wisdom, in the love of Jesus: Take, eat! This is My Body; and by consuming satisfy thyself; it is not a morsel of My Body, that thou dost absorb, but even the whole."
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| First Holy Communion: the Apostles kneel to receive. J-J Tissot. |
Wholly and entirely Jesus had given Himself for them, and to this He testified by adding at once, without waiting until the consecration of the Cup:—
" Do this in remembrance of Me."
But, nevertheless, it remained for Him to tender them a concrete or representation of His Death by showing them that, after His Body was immolated, His Blood must be shared. Mark in what manner he chose to do this.
The repast was concluded; the third cup— "The Chalice of Benediction," which must be drunk before singing the final hymns— was now poured out. Jesus took it, blessed it, and presented it to the Apostles.
" Drink ye all of this," He said; "this is My Blood, the Blood of the Sacrifice, which shall be shed for many in remission of sins," words whose substance Saint Luke has reduced to those words: "This Cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which shall be shed for you."
Therefore within this cup there was a Blood which soon must gush forth to consummate the New Covenant. Full of these thoughts Jesus beheld nothing now but that fast-approaching death, and found no words wherewith to consecrate this sacrificial wine better than the words of Moses, when He likewise sealed in blood God's alliance of ancient times! Yet at the same time the Lord offered unto His own, in this His Chalice, a source of eternal life.
"Of a truth, I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine until that day when I shall drink it with you new in My Father's Kingdom. But for you, as often as you drink thereof do it in remembrance of Me."
As Jesus finished speaking these words He met the eyes of Judas.
"Behold the hand of the traitor," He said, "who sitteth with me at table!"
Then condemning the sacrilegious act He repeated:—
"The Son of Man goeth away according to the Divine Decrees; but woe to him by whom He is betrayed!"
At this anathema the Apostles shuddered with alarm, asking anew which of their number was to commit this crime.
Now one of them, he whom Jesus loved, while leaning upon the Master's breast, had tried to read the answer in His eyes. Peter remarked John's attitude, familiar as of old, and thought that he at least must know all,— that, perchance, by some gesture or word he had rather divined than heard the name.
"Who is it?" he whispered.
But John was still as ignorant of the truth is he.
"Master," he asked, "who is it?"
"He to whom I shall reach the morsel of bread dipped in this dish," Jesus replied, and having moistened it, He gave it to Judas, Son of Simon, the man from Kerioth. " And with the morsel of bread Satan entered into him."
"That which thou doest," Jesus said to him, "do quickly."
The Apostles heard these last words; but as Judas kept the common purse, they believed that Jesus was telling him to "buy what we need for the feast, or to give certain alms to the poor." John alone understood what had taken place; he saw the traitor straightway upon receiving the bread, rise up and at once disappear from the hall. "It was night," he adds. And Judas went forth to be lost within the blackness of an everlasting gloom.
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