From Pesach to Priesthood: A Holy Thursday Reflection
- Fri 10th April 2009, 12:10 am
Yesterday, we celebrated the command of Jesus to serve that he’s recorded as giving in John’s gospel as the establishment of the priesthood at the last supper. Interestingly enough however, John’s gospel does not record anything remotely resembling what we would recognize as Eucharist. Even the other Gospels where it is recorded as such, it still doesn’t completely match what we see today whether it be either in Novus Ordo (Ordinary Form) or Tridentine (Extraordinary Form) circles. Even after the early Christians started doing this in memory of Jesus, it was generally the heads of each individual sect, better known as bishops who lead the prayers. So why do we celebrate it as the institution of the priesthood when the instructions and examples were given to the people who are generally accepted as the first bishops? To answer this, we need to look into issues of priesthood, passover and sacrifice.
When it comes to priesthood, the question is, what does a priest do? In antiquity it meant primarily offering sacrifices to the main god or gods of a city or area for divine protection. In Latin, the term for mass, missa, is a participle of the verb mittere and means to send. In this context, the thing sent is the body and blood of Christ himself and the act of sending it is the mass. The command at the end of mass in Latin (both Novus Ordo and Tridentine forms), “Ite missa est” literally means “Go.It is sent.” as in the sacrifice has been sent to God. The fact that newly ordained priests receive a chalice and paten points out the cultural ideal that while he can celebrate a whole host of sacraments he could not as a deacon, his main function in the community is to offer the sacrifice of the mass and celebrate Eucharist.
While offering a sacrifice is by definition the function of a priest, the sacrifice itself often has some special circumstances attached. In most cases, large expensive animals were offered to please the gods. The god of Israel, who we call God the Father now, had a special series of sacrifices required on certain occasions as did gods in the Greek and Roman pantheons and the Canaanite pantheons. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is an interesting one for two main reasons. First, he was crucified – a uniquely Roman method of execution, not sacrifice, and second, Judaism specifically prohibits human sacrifice – which is what his was. Even further, Jesus is referred to as the Passover lamb – a required sacrifice for the feast of Pesach, Passover’s name in Hebrew. John’s Gospel takes it a step further by having Jesus killed on Passover, or the 14th of Nisan – truly making him this lamb.
So what does all of this have to do with the last supper and the institution of the priesthood? In 3 of the four gospels, the last supper was a Passover Seder with the twist of Jesus breaking some of the matzo and saying that it was his body and passing another cup around saying it was his blood and saying to do this remembering him. After the crucifixion, his discipuli, or students followed his example, leading eventually to a theological understanding that the consecrated bread and wine are really the body and blood of Christ, offered to God again for the salutare (protection/salvation) of all on a weekly basis. Therefore while he may not have explicitly ordained anybody that night, he did leave the main tools priests use today – his own body and blood originally offered for the Passover of all.
