Mass of the Lord’s Supper (2)

Title

Relive the Covenant rather than Remember it

Outline

1. I remember the event well, early in my teaching career

I was teaching through the Pentateuch and was in Deuteronomy

Moses says, “It was not your fathers, but you that the Lord delivered from Egypt”

How can that be? With the exception of Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, their fathers were dead and they were not yet born

Ah, but they had “been there” in that they celebrated Passover - the celebration transcended time and made them present at the covenant forming event

That is why Moses says in Exodus that this was a memorial for all generations - each generation needed to be present, to relive

2. Paul picks this up in the solemn liturgical form of 1 Corinthians

After the words “This is my body” and “thus chalice is the new covenant in my blood” he uses ἀνάμνησιν rather than μνημεῖον (a monument of remembrance, such as a grave or tomb) or even μνήμη (remembrance or memory, although this would be closer)

He is quoting Jesus as saying on Passover or the eve of Passover that this is the covenant forming event and its celebration places one at the event, in a sense collapsing time

3. But, as Jesus indicates, what an event it is

The king is not crowned in an eternal covenant as were Israelite kings, but instead serves as an eternal example

He washes the feet of his disciples rather than their serving him

And it is necessary for salvation

On the one hand, it is, as both John and 1 John will say, his laying down his life for his “friends”

On the other hand, it is, as both 1 John and our Gospel indicate, his establishing the new order of the kingdom in which each sees and serves the king in the other

We only need to read the lives of the saints and martyrs to discover that many “got this” - and had more Popes and Bishops gotten this we might not have had the splits and “Reformation” in the church that were at root over a misuse of power or a desire for power

4. We could go farther, Sisters, but let us instead close with two brief observations:

You do not need a towel or washbasin to serve the king in the other, even if it is their stinking feet that you cared for metaphorically in their stinking behavior. Think of Mother Theresa or of the Little Flower

You do need to constantly return to the covenant forming event, to being at the foot of the cross, to get the power to do this. For, as Israel fell into sin when they forgot the meaning of the Passover and turned it into a feast or a cultural memory, so we lose our grip on God’s reality when we fail to look up at the cross in all its dimensions every time we celebrate it with Jesus

Readings

Old Testament

Epistle

The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition Chapter 11

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Gospel

The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition Chapter 13

1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. 5 Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. 6 He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”

12 When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

Notes