The Last Supper, Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova, Monreale, Sicily, Italy.

Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”    John 6:53-56.

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In the very early days of the Christian church, it was strictly illegal to be a Christian. They  refused to worship the pagan gods who protected the Roman Empire and refused to worship the Roman emperor (and so be guilty of treason). They refused to talk about or explain the “mysteries” (which is still mentioned at today’s Mass, our sacred mysteries), so it was not very surprising that the rumors began to fly, especially when other charges were thrown at them. We Christians were atheists (to believe in one god was akin to believing in none, compared to the pantheon of Roman gods and goddesses, protectors of the empire), we were incestuous (with Christians forever praising the love between us brothers and sisters) and we were cannibals, which can be easily understood from today’s passage from St. John’s gospel. Indeed, Jesus’ language even today can be shocking and uncomfortable, even when we know what it means. Only with the language of the Last Supper does it all become understandable. And so with all this profound misunderstanding of what Christianity was all about, its early persecution is indeed easy to understand. Remember that groupings of any kind were unwelcome in the Roman Empire. In distant Nicomedia, for example, after a huge fire damaged the city, the emperor Trajan refused to permit a fire brigade to be created for fear of it becoming an anti-Roman secret society. The Roman population was generally in agreement with the subsequent persecution of the rebellious Christian sect, holding it responsible for any and all calamities afflicting the empire because of the Christian idolatrous beliefs and actions. Not too surprising when you consider that list of highly undesirable qualities!

But, on the other hand, taking Jesus’ words literally (which we Catholics do, becoming in this very rare instance, fundamentalist), there is an ineffable intimacy between each of us and the Lord Jesus. Each Mass is an enactment of the Last Supper. Each Mass has Jesus’ exact words as spoken in the gospels. At each Mass, the priest stands in Jesus’ place and pronounces the words “This is my body” and “This is my blood”, exactly as at the Last Supper, and this is in obedience to the command “Do this in memory of me” also spoken at the Last Supper. No obfuscation there; it is utterly clear, completely in obedience to the Lord’s command. And his words were uttered over bread and wine, the very unleavened bread and wine of the Last Supper of the Passover (of which the anti-Christian Roman pagans had not a clue). The bread and wine become, in some holy way, the body and blood of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. It is the core, central belief of Catholics everywhere. Jesus becomes actually present among us at every Mass. That is why it is the single, most important action in the church, and the greatest privilege for any priest, or bishop or even the pope himself to enact. And Jesus himself instituted it. 

One final thought which springs from the first reading today from the Book of Proverbs. It starts by saying, “Wisdom has built her house”, and talks in a way that seems prescient, a prequel if you like, of the Last Supper. Note that Spirit and Wisdom are very often spoken in the same breath in Scripture; it is through the Holy Spirit of God that we achieve true wisdom. And the reading talks of the Holy Spirit of God as feminine, which that word is in Hebrew. And if our Christian scriptures had been written in Hebrew instead of Greek, we would have been referring to God’s Holy Spirit as “she” for the last 2000 years! Now there is a thought to remain with us and to brood on. A Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit complementing each other for all eternity.

Eucharistic Revival, Archdiocese of Philadelphia 2022, Philadelphia PA, USA.

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