The Gospel Truth

This article on The Eucharist builds upon our article on Salvation.

Covenant

Genesis 12:1-8  †  Genesis 15  †  Genesis 17
Exodus 19-24  †  Deuteronomy 31:15-18

We know from Scripture that God prefers a covenant relationship with man. The bond formed by a covenant is one of kinship. It is not a mere contract, but a grant made by the greater party. The Greek word διαθηκη (diatheke) indicates that the terms of the agreement are established solely by the initiator. The promise of performance is collateralized with the initiator’s own life, and the animals cleaved in two in the ritual seal of a covenant symbolize the consequences should either party violate its terms.

And so it is with God’s promise of prosperity to his Chosen People, the descendants of Abraham, given freely so long as they desire to remain a party to his covenant. As an outward sign of that desire, each male must be ritually circumcised or else be cut off from the People and the covenant. How assured must the Chosen People have been in this promise, for how can the almighty creator of the world forfeit his life for breaking the seal?

Many generations later, after God had freed the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt, he made another covenant with them. He gave to them through the prophet Moses the Law which they were to follow if they were to remain his. God foretold to Moses that the people would eventually break this covenant he made with him.

Sacrifice

Genesis 4, 8, 12-13, 15, 22, 26, 31, 33, 35

Sacrifice is an ancient practice. The earliest sacrifices recorded in Scripture were those made by the second generation of man, the brothers Cain and Abel. Sacrificial altars were erected by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Probably the best-known sacrifice of the Old Testament is Abraham’s offering of his own son by God’s command. God finds sacrifices acceptable in accordance with the hearts of those who make them, and with Abraham he was especially pleased, for Abraham trusted God wholly.

Atonement Under the Law

Leviticus 1, 4, 5, 6, 7:1-10  †  Numbers 15:22-31
Leviticus 16:1-19  †  Numbers 29:7-11

The primary way in which the Chosen People were to express heartfelt repentance for wrongdoing, either personal or communal, was through sacrifice. The word atone literally means at one, indicating that the one making the sacrifice is seeking reconciliation and communion with both the community and with God. In his covenant with Moses, God stipulated the manner in which sacrificial offerings were to be made to him. Sacrificial animals had to be without blemish and the meat completely consumed, either eaten or burnt in the fire.

Animal sacrifices could be made at any time for the atonement of particular offenses, but one day each year was set aside as a Day of Atonement to purify the whole community from their sins. On that day alone, the High Priest was allowed to enter the innermost shrine within the Tabernacle (dwelling place) of God and sprinkle sacrificial blood on the altar.

Thanksgiving Sacrifices

Leviticus 2, 7:11-21  †  Numbers 15:1-21
Exodus 12:1-30, 13:3-10  †  Leviticus 23:4-8  †  Deuteronomy 16:1-8
Jonah 2  †  Isaiah 38  †  1 Chronicles 16

Another reason for making sacrifice to God is to express gratitude. Grain offerings were made as memorials and had to be seasoned with salt. A fellowship offering made as a thanksgiving to God must include a grain offering of thick loaves of unleavened bread, and supplemented with a drink offering of wine. This was in addition to any animal sacrifice made for the occasion.

God prescribed a specific offering, the feast of Passover, as an annual memorial in thanksgiving for the delivery of the Chosen People out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. A lamb was to sacrificed on the day of Passover, but the feast was then perpetuated for a week in the Festival of Unleavened Bread. During this time, nothing made with yeast — a symbol if sin and evil — was to be consumed, only the unleavened bread (matzah) made especially for this celebration. It is worthy to note that the first Passover was celebrated by God’s instruction on the evening before the Chosen People were delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

A more generic type of thank offering called a todah was often made by someone who had been saved from great peril. This could take the form of a prayer or a song, but commonly included a sacrifice as well. The todah offered by King David following the defeat of the Canaanites, for example, was a fellowship offering that included both burnt sacrifices and grain offerings.

Empty Sacrifices

Psalm 51:16-19  †  Isaiah 1  †  Malachi 1  †  Jeremiah 31

God grew angry with the Chosen People because they no longer offered heartfelt sacrifices. They made burnt offerings in accordance with the stipulations that God had given them, but felt no sorrow for their misdoings and continued to lead lives that did not please God. Therefore, their offerings were meaningless. God spoke through the prophets a message: he would no longer accept the sacrifices of the People for they had broken his covenant with them. Instead, he would make a new covenant, one in which man would no longer die for any sin except for his own, and his wickedness will be forgiven.

Supreme Atonement

John 1:29-31  †  1 Peter 1  †  John 3:16-18  †  Romans 3:21-26
Hebrews 2:14-18  †  Hebrews 7-10  †  Hebrews 13:9-16

Before this new covenant could be established, a final and lasting atonement for sin under the old covenant had to be obtained, not just for offenses against the Law, but for the original disobedience of man. God provided a sacrificial lamb whose death would atone man once for all for his rebellion in the garden and restore the harmony between God and man. This lamb was the very man promised at the time of the fall, the one who would smash the head of the tempter and redeem God’s creation. He was without blemish, a spotless victim. This was the ultimate — and therefore final — sacrifice for the atonement of sins, reconciling God and man. To believe that it is insufficient is blasphemy, for nothing is impossible for God who created all things. The lamb was his own Son, Jesus.

Having sacrificed himself, Jesus is also the Great High Priest who knows the weakness of the human heart yet did not sin. Having opened the door to his holy dwelling place by his own blood, all people are free to enter into the new covenant. For those who do, there is no animal sacrifice remaining for atonement. Thus, to remain a party to the covenant, one must live according God’s will and return to him with repentance whenever sin once again disrupts that harmonious union.

Perpetual Thanksgiving

Matthew 26:17-30  †  Mark 14:12-26  †  Luke 22:7-23
John 6:25-66  †  Matthew 5:13  †  1 Corinthians 5:6-8

The bloody sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was made for atonement, but just as the Passover was established as a memorial feast to commemorate the delivery of the Chosen People from the bondage of slavery, a memorial sacrifice was also established in thanksgiving for the delivery of all from the bondage of sin and death. And just as the Passover was first celebrated in anticipation of the deliverance, Jesus instructed his followers on how to celebrate this feast on the evening before he gave his body over to crucifixion and death.

Since Jesus was the last sacrifice, he also became the paschal lamb in this new and perpetual thanksgiving feast. The thought of eating the flesh of Jesus would have seemed repulsive to his contemporary Jews, for that would be cannibalism, a forbidden and sinful practise. Indeed, he lost many followers over this issue. At Passover, the meat of the lamb was eaten on the first day, and the feast perpetuated for an additional seven days through the consumption of the unleavened bread that had been prepared for the occasion. The new thanksgiving was to be offered, not for seven days, but until the end of the age. Jesus, therefore, gave his body and blood to man in a new way, through the transformation of ordinary bread and wine. Because this grain offering is a memorial sacrifice, it must be seasoned with salt — the salt of the earth that has retained its saltiness.

Anyone who partakes in this feast unworthily — out of union and harmony with God and his people — invites upon himself condemnation for his own hypocrisy. For those who remain righteous, however, keep the feast.

The Mass

The word Eucharist comes from the Greek εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), which means thanksgiving, and this sacrificial feast is celebrated daily in the Mass. Following the instruction of Jesus, the priest makes an offering of bread and wine at the altar of God, and receives from the heavenly altar the very Body and Blood of Christ. Just as the complete separation of blood from flesh is the mark of death, the commingling of these elements symbolize new life in Christ. In the West, the bread used is made without yeast, reminding us that Jesus our victim contained within himself no sin. Seeing the wisdom of God in the annual establishment of the Day of Atonement and the thanksgiving feast of Passover, the Church requires the faithful Catholic to reconcile his relationship with God and his people and to partake in the Eucharistic feast at least once a year, during the season of Easter, the Christian memorial of atonement. The Mass gets its name from the final words spoken to the congregation, ite missa est. With these words, the people of God, fortified by the feast, are dismissed to live out their faith and to spread the Good News of the salvation that has been promised by God in the new covenant.

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