Dr. Scott Hahn - Finishing Strong: Partakers of the Fourth Cup - 2018 Defending the Faith Conference

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how do you live up to that live if I didn't know me I might be impressed but I do know me hid so I'm not all that impressed but I am impressed with our Lord and the life that he has given to us through the Holy Spirit so let's turn to him now and you're not our hearts in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in heaven we thank you for the gift of Jesus who became flesh to dwell among us to teach us and to heal us but also to suffer and die for our sins to rise again to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us and so we gather now and implore you Father in the name of Jesus for the spirit of sonship the spirit of adoption that we might cry out to you not just with their lips but with our hearts and our lives Abba Father lead us closer to your son the firstborn among so many sisters and brothers and hear us as we pray once again our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen the title of my talk as you can see from the program is finishing strong and it's subtitled partakers of the fourth cup and it's based upon book that came out on Ash Wednesday entitled the fourth cup unveiling the mystery of the Last Supper and the cross you may have heard me give this talk before because I've given a dozens of times dozens of ways it never comes out the same and so I based the book upon all of the different versions of the talk that came out over the years but I think back to when it first began because I was trying myself to finish strong it goes all the way back to my last year as a seminar in my last semester in fact the very last month as I was rounding the corner to kind of score you know to make it home because I was getting ready to graduate the top of my class and all my was I impressed with myself I'm not much but I am all I think about and I remember it was April with just about one month to go when we were at our favorite church listening to our favorite pass-through also happen to be my Hebrew professor and my Old Testament instructor and it was Palm Sunday so we were listening to the passion narrative and I remember this because I was a seminarian and I was getting ready for graduation and ordination ministry Proclamation all of that and you know what it's like I know what it's like now because I've got two sons in seminary and so I'm kind of looking at them as they continue on their course I'm also reminded of another fellow who I I encountered he had just graduated from seminary himself ordination and then Proclamation I was a Catholic professor at this point a freshman my very first teaching assignment and I would head from class late afternoon and go down to a 5:00 p.m. mass at st. Mary's in another city in another state everything will be unidentified I remember this too because he was reading and preaching from the New Testament the passage was 2nd Peter chapter 3 where Peter announces the coming of the Lord and the judgment that will come in fire and so I couldn't wait to hear for the gospel what he would say but I wasn't sort of pleased with what I heard because well he talked about how he had studied in seminary and learned that this sort of passage from Peter was the reason why the early church was so mistaken about the second coming and so Peter just kind of passed on the confusion and then what centuries later they figured out that Jesus wasn't really coming back again and you could just see the ordinary faithful there for a daily Mass looking at each other kind of confused and I'm sitting in the back sort of churning and burning like wait a minute why would you do that well he's a new graduate right out of seminary ordination all of that so he's taking what he learned and trying to share it and I'll be honest I was distracted for the rest of the mass of the way that I should never have been you know and I just want to stop for a moment and kind of tell you something because you might think it must be really tough for you know any priest to have to preach with me in their presence I don't think there's anybody who is less critical of a homilist than me I've made it my habit since I entered the church to enter the mass as a beggar who is coming to get the bread of life and I have never been disappointed not only through the Eucharist but hearing the word of the Lord I'm always able to pick up some crumb from the floor and so I was looking for something but that day I was just really troubled and I prayed and I prayed some more and after Holy Communion after the benediction I wasn't sure what to do but on an impulse I just went back to the sacristy and I could see that he was getting ready for something else I said you have a minute he said not realize it used to have a half a minute he said what do you want and I said you you you you preached on second Peter 3 you made it seem as though the end of the world what he was talking about he was confused he was confusing the early church he said yes so what and I'm like well I just came into the church recently I'm doing a doctorate in theology I've been studying this material in the New Testament and I would propose to you that if you were look at the Old Testament background you'll see that what Peter was talking about was not the end of the world but the end of the Old Covenant the judgment of God upon the jerusalem temple that came in 70 AD when all of the sacrifices ceased and gave way to the new covenant he said are you done I said I suppose so he said good because I've got a novena to lead if you don't mind and so just leaving that sacristy feeling totally sorry for myself I gave it my best shot Lord I prayed I tried and as I'm walking out I hear him tap the mic and he said look before we do the novena I'd like to clarify something I'm just out of seminary but I want to say that somebody came back and showed me that I was kind of wrong in my explanation of second Peter 3 Peter wasn't talking about the end of the world but the end of the Old Covenant the old Jerusalem and in fact that prophecy was fulfilled and I'm in the narthex and I turn around and I look at him and he's like let's go on with the novena and I'm just like thanks be to God and I kept going back and he never did that again but he always has fed me over the years in fact he just had me back to his parish last year to give a kind of uh well a day of retreat and when I brought it up he said I don't think I don't think that ever happened I'm like ok but it did but I know the feeling of trying to finish strong as a seminar and get ready for graduation ordination because it was one month from graduation and I'm sitting there listening to my favorite preacher go through the passion narrative in John chapter 19 and of course all of this is familiar ground and so when he gets to the point in John 19 verse 28 after this Jesus knowing it all was now finished he said to fulfill the scripture I thirst and a bowl full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth when Jesus received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit now as he's reading through the narrative in the middle of his homily he just kind of stops and says did you ever wonder what he was referring to when he said it is finished what is finished and I'm sitting in on halfway back with Kimberly thinking oh that's an easy question what is finished our redemption is finished and he must have been reading my mind because he said if you're sitting there thinking that our redemption is finished think again because Paul says in Romans 4:25 that he was raised for our justification and since the resurrection hadn't happened yet our redemption wasn't complete what was finished frankly I don't know so let's move on and I'm just sitting there thinking was that some sort of rhetorical trick I mean it's a great thing to ask a question and then answer it but to ask a question that you don't even have an answer for I mean on the one hand it's a sign of humility and honesty and transparency on the other hand I found it deeply troubling and so to be frank I don't think I heard another phrase from that homily because I am looking down on John 19 trying to figure out okay what is finished and I'm looking through the pages backing up reading it in context reading John 18 and 19 by the time I was done reading through those two chapters the sermon was finished and on the way out I shook his hand as was our custom and I said you can't do that you can't ask a question and then not answer is what are you talking about it is finished what is it he's like I still don't know but I'm sure you'll figure it out and come back and tell me I'm like okay I took that as a personal challenge and so in Kimberlin I got back to our apartment we had lunch and afterwards I just basically went back to the books and I'm like I want to go back to my professor and kind of give him the answer it would impress him one more time so I spent the afternoon and moved to the evening burrowing through the Scriptures trying to figure out a quick and easy answer well one day became a week and it became several weeks and even after graduation even after ordination I was still doing my research I felt like Kyle that old TV series you know Peter Falk looking for clues kind of clumsily stumbling around and then finding one that led to another and another and I remember the first stage of my detective research was really that day Sunday afternoon and evening and the rest of that week because it struck me as obvious that the first major step to answering the question is by looking at the text in context not just the literary context but the historical context because we all know what was going on at the time of the passion narrative the Jews were gathering his pilgrims to Jerusalem for the purpose of celebrating Passover and so I just simply took a giant step back and kind of refreshed my memory by doing research on the Passover of course it's set forth in Exodus 12 the very first Passover was celebrated by Israel when they were still in Egyptian bondage when God gave to Moses the instructions that all Israelite families were to follow and it wasn't terribly complex you take a lamb an unblemished male lamb without any broken bones and you slaughter the lamb and then you get a hyssop branch and you sprinkle the blood on the doorpost and then as a family you roast the lamb and gather around the table that evening in order to eat the lamb and you do so standing up with staff and hand your loins are girded ready to flee from slavery into freedom following Moses the leader and so Exodus 12 is the narrative the Haggadah as the Jews still call it and as I looked I realized whoa I could connect some dots just with the very first Passover because this is where the covenant is sealed the blood of the Covenant the blood of the Lamb this is also where you see this renewal that takes place between God and His people but the Hebrew word for people arm is literally kinsfolk or family and so Jesus on this occasion gathers in the upper room with his disciples and basically follows the pro calls that can trace all the way back to exodus 12 he gives thanks he also renews the covenant but what's so interesting is as you look carefully you can see what John notices as an eye witness the Beloved Disciple was there at the foot of the cross and he sees what the other evangelists don't tell us that the two thieves on either side of Jesus had their legs broken to expedite their deaths but not our Lord and why because he had already expired and so the narrator interruption says thus to fulfill the scripture not a bone of his shall be broken what scripture Exodus 12 46 because the Lamb that you sacrifice was not allowed to be a lame or a gimpy lamb no broken bones and John notices that likewise John also notices what the other evangelists spotted that they offered him sour wine vinegar but Matthew Mark and Luke don't tell us whether he drank or not only John because only he was there but what John also notices is that they lifted it up to his lips on a hyssop branch there in John 19 29 exactly as Exodus 1222 stipulates that the blood of the Lamb was to be sprinkled using a hyssop branch John also notices that they the soldiers before they crucified him stripped him of his garments and after he hung there dying they what they drew lots for the seamless linen garment and the word in greek for the garment i noticed was the liturgical vestment worn by the high priest when he offered the lamb in the temple for the passover just as the lambs were offered way back then and so for me I was feeling like I was getting some traction because the more you look into the old the more it illuminates the new and the more you really study the new the more you can see how it fulfills the old but I was already two or three weeks into this research getting closer to final exams and so I kind of had to put it on hold after graduation came ordination and I was still kind of gaining traction momentum because I realized that my study didn't really it was and complete it's not enough to study the first Passover as it was celebrated in Egypt you really have to look at the Passover as it was in the 1st century because it's obviously different because it's it there in Jerusalem not in Egypt and so it it gathers sort of customs and so what I did was I picked up some rabbinic sources in order to understand better how was the Passover celebrated by Jesus and all of his fellow Jewish contemporaries back in Jerusalem in the 1st century and what I discovered was that there was a standard form that was true back then even as it is still true today without a temple without a high priest without all of the sacrifices that were done back then but the Passover meal then and now is basically divided into four courses and you can pick this up almost anywhere by reading rabbis who reflect upon how Orthodox Jews celebrate this now when you look at the Passover liturgy the first part of the meal is just the preliminary course it's called the kaduche because the first of four cups of wine is blessed and then share and it is this kaduche cup that is the cup of sanctification and as soon as the preliminary course is done you pass around a dish of bitter herbs to remember how bitter it was to be in bondage in Egypt and thus you proceed into the second course of the meal and that's where you hear the story of the Passover because the youngest member asks the questions that the oldest male there answers so probably the Beloved Disciple and then Jesus would answer these questions as they went through the narrative in Exodus 12 and at the end of this you would sing the little Hallel the little praise Psalm 113 and then this was followed by the halacha the second cup of wine and now you're now you're ready for the main course the third part of the Passover this was the main meal and a consistent of course of the lamb as well as the unleavened bread and after that you come to the third cup and this is known as the cup of blessing the Baraka Cup and we know all of this because well this is where Jesus consecrates the chalice and this is what Paul is referencing in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verses 16 and 17 when he's reminding the Corinthians of the origins of the Eucharist he says the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a communion in the blood of Christ now where did he get that terminology the cup of blessing I never knew until I looked at the rabbinic background and I realized the cup of blessing was the third cup the Baraka Cup Baraka is that term for blessing well at this point you've practically reached the climax of the Passover liturgy because after you share this third cup you proceed to sing the great praise the great hello which consists of a series of psalms beginning with psalm 114 and climaxing with psalm 118 I will take the cup of the Lord psalm 118 and so there really is something holy something special something climactic about this great hello and once again you can see the reflection of this tradition there in the Gospels so for example mark 14 verse 26 describes how after he consecrates the chalice and passes it around for all the disciples to share they sang a hymn of course this refers to the great Hallel at this point though my research suddenly ran into a wall because what I discovered was that when Jesus and the disciples reached the climax of the Passover liturgy they sang a hymn and they should have processed into the fourth cup the cup of consummation but instead what we read in mark 14 is and when they sang a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives now it was very difficult for me to sense anything wrong with this but the more I looked at the rabbinic commentaries on the gospel narratives the more I realized that the rabbi's were troubled by they read one of the most famous rabbinic scholars in the 20th century was a professor at Oxford University Rabbi David Albee da ube he wrote a book that I ran into in the library called the New Testament and rabbinic Judaism because what David Albee does in this chapter entitled the omission of the fourth cup is to comment upon what most Jewish readers the New Testament observe and that is Jesus saying truly I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new and my father's kingdom until I drink it new in the kingdom of God and it concludes by saying clearly the meaning is that the fourth Cup is not going to be taken for this would be the normal thing but instead Jesus decides to postpone it until the kingdom is fully established I didn't know what he was talking about until you look clearly and carefully at the Passover liturgy and sure enough the climax of the Passover is the fourth cup the cup of consummation which is shared immediately after the great Hallel is sung but instead what you read is that after they sang a hymn they went out into the night and where do they go the Garden of Gethsemane and so what rabbinic commentators pointed out to me is that they sang a hymn and went out into the Mount of Olives without drinking the fourth cup close quote that again was from rabbi dobby's book and so I'm wondering why didn't I ever notice this before well I mean from a Catholic perspective I suppose we can understand because if you took a Jewish friend or a neighbor to Sunday Mass and for whatever reason your priest either skipped say the words a consecration or the Rite of Holy Communion would every Catholic present notice of course would any Jewish observer catch the omission no because it's unfamiliar like the ancient Passover was to me but all these Jewish readers who notice that in the gospel narratives there are multiple cups like you find in Luke 22 we have the fullest description of the institution narrative the question keeps rising again and again why did he skip the cup and only a few Christian scholars even noticed one of them suggested that perhaps there were psychological reasons because we read in mark 14 32 he began to be greatly distressed untroubled and he said to them my soul is very sorrowful even unto death perhaps he was just simply too anxious or upset to be bothered with liturgical precision and following all the rubrics well I mean that struck me as plausible but still somewhat unlikely because if Jesus is so distracted and confused why would he interrupt the Passover liturgy after the third cup sing the great hello and then say I'm not gonna dirt taste of the fruit of the vine again until you drink it new till we drink it new in the kingdom of God why would he declare himself so plainly before acting in such a disorderly fashion Jesus was clearly anxious about what was going on you can tell that from the prayer and the Garden of Gethsemane but he's a man who is in control of himself so why did he choose not to drink the question just lingered in my mind furred for days for four weeks and then it was just sort of like I found the answer and was hiding in plain view because when you follow Jesus and the disciples to the Mount of Olives where do they go to the Garden of Gethsemane and what does he do he prays for almost an hour and then he finds the disciples sleeping but each time the Evangelist described the prayer what is the prayer of Jesus Abba Father take this cop from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done three times all together he praised the father to take away this cop now I was wondering what cup is he referring to you check the Christian commentators and they suggest that maybe Jeremiah 25 or Isaiah 51 where you have these Oracle's concerning drinking the cup of God's wrath but there's nothing from Isaiah or Jeremiah in the context but what you have is clearly the three cops that they shared the fourth cup that they skipped they go straight to the Garden of Gethsemane and he prays three times take this cop take this cop take this cup nevertheless not my will but thine be done and then on the way out of the Garden the cohort arrives and what does Peter do he draws a sword and what does Jesus say in John 18 eleven shall I not drink of the cup which the father has for me so at the beginning of the time in the death cemani until the very end when they take him away to the trial he has this Cup on his mind so he has given us this pledge not to taste of the fruit of the vine again until he drinks it new in the kingdom and so I naturally assumed like most of the others that I read that this must refer to the end of history the second coming the eschaton when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God the marriage supper of the Lamb the eschatological messianic banquet or whatever and sure enough when you read in mark 15 about the way up to Calvary the Via Dolorosa you see in verse 23 they offered him wine mingled with myrrh but he refused to accept it now of course myrrh is a kind of sedative an opiate and so he wasn't interested in deadening a pain but even more he had pledged not the taste of the fruit of the vine until he drank at new in the kingdom and so I assume that this must refer to the end of history when he returns again but when I went back to the Gospel of John I began to realize that John always sort of provides a complimentary perspective some scholars say Oh John contradicts the Synoptics no its supplemental its complementary but it sort of fills in some of the blanks and so what you discover from John's Gospel is that the essence of Jesus kingdom is not the power that he's going to wield at the end of time when it's payback time the essence of the kingdom of God as Jesus reveal is love but not just love lu v like in a summer of love back in 68 its life-giving love greater love hath no man than this than the lay down his life for his beloved as he told the disciples in the upper room in the midst of celebrating the passover and instituting the eucharist and so john gives us sort of ironic perspective it's like the opposite of what we think john's take on the kingdom is like the opposite of my previous understanding so for example in John 12 we read about this demonstration of divine power and how he's going to basically cast Satan out of heaven and I when I am lifted up from this earth I will draw all men to myself and then he refers to the fact that the prince of this world is going to be cast down when I am lifted up from the earth that must be the resurrection perhaps the Ascension no John adds parenthetically so his readers don't miss it this he said to show by what death he was to die because the death of Jesus that looks like the ultimate victory of the devil is actually the defeat of the devil and the triumph of love and a manifestation of the true kingdom of God because it reveals the the power of God is not coercion or force that instills fear it is this love it is life-giving and that is the mystery of what is happening at Calvary and John should know because he was the only one of the twelve who was there so with these kind of clues in hand I began to kind of return to the scene of the question it is finished what is it well on the one hand the Passover is the key but it's the first-century Passover the way that you celebrate it back then just as they celebrated in the 21st century it's the fourfold structure of the liturgy the four cups three of which he shares the third of which he consecrates and then he says I'm not going to taste to the fruit of the vine again until I drink it new with you and the king them and so when you return to the passage that my pastor was reading from there in John 19 I noticed something I hadn't seen before or if I had I hadn't connected the dots after this Jesus knowing that all was now finished all was now consummated he said to fulfill the scripture I thirst so moments before he expires he says I thirst you can be sure that hours before he expired he had been racked with pain but also thirst and so John observes that he's saying this to fulfill the scripture and so like the other evangelist he notices how they raised up a stick with a sponge full of sour wine but if all we had were Matthew Mark and Luke to go on we wouldn't know whether he drank in fact we'd probably conclude that he didn't because he said that he wouldn't until he drinks it new in the kingdom but guess what John shows us what he saw so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch haunted' to his mouth when Jesus had received the sour wine he said tell tell us died it is finished you could translate that it is consummated what is finished what is it that is consummated it suddenly occurred to me like a Eureka moment it's the Passover it's the Passover that they had been celebrating together in the upper room and then suddenly they had kind of suspended and somehow postponed the fourth cup until he would drink it new and manifest the essence of the kingdom of God which for John he's doing precisely here and so he bowed his head and gave up his spirit and if you look at all of these details you can see that way back in the book of Exodus the Passover was not an end in itself it was a means to an end the Passover was how the Exodus was made possible it was the tenth sign the final plague and it was all ordered to flee from bondage to freedom under Moses because the Lord was with him and so the Passover is ordered to the Exodus but the exodus is not an end in itself because ultimately the destination is Sinai to renew the Covenant and so 40 days later they arrive at Sinai and there's a connection not only between the Passover and the exodus but in the Jewish tradition there is a bond that links the Passover with Pentecost because Jews to this day still celebrate Pentecost 50 days after Passover and what do they commemorate well in Passover it's liberation from slavery but at Pentecost it is the proclamation of the law of the Covenant because that's what they received there at Sinai and so in three days the Lord will come and when the Lord came down we read the glory of the Lord was there until the sixth day and then Moses was invited to come up now where have we seen a link between Passover forty days and then nine more days and then comes what Pentecost Pentecost arises its name 50 days from the fact that it is 50 days after Passover and so in the Old Testament I began to recognize the fact that this was all about the giving of the law now in the Old Testament you get the law of God and it's considered a great gift but if you don't get the power to keep the law what happens well what happened then Moses came down with the stone tablets and seized them worshiping a golden calf they violated practically every one of the Ten Commandments as the rabbi's would point out so he smashes the tablets to show how they smashed the law and three thousand perish that day the idolaters at the edge of the sword wielded by the Levites but when you fast-forward from the Old Covenant to the new you see the link between the Passover and Calvary and what began in the Upper Room with the Passover is complete when Jesus drinks as it were the fourth cup but I also began to recognize there's a link between the Passover the New Covenant and Pentecost forty days and then Waits and how long did they end up waiting the first novena wait and then the glory of the Lord the cloud came down at Pentecost only this time it was the Holy Spirit who enables the early church to keep the commandments the stone tablets are the old law the Holy Spirit is the new law so how many people in the Christian Pentecost and by the way these are the only two Jewish feasts of the Mosaic calendar that we still observe to this day how many people perished and came to life in the waters of baptism through the preaching of the gospel which is the sword of the Spirit three thousand three thousand at the new Pentecost like three thousand perished at the old Pentecost only they were brought to life in the power of the Spirit and so Jesus gave up his spirits to prepare his people to enter out of the old and into the new after days after weeks after months I began to realize this is the Passover the old covenant that Jesus came to fulfill is the Lamb of God but in order to do so he didn't just celebrate it one last time he was fulfilling it but not to do away with it but to transform the old Passover into the new and what was the Passover in the Old Covenant it wasn't just a meal it was a sacrifice and so this is what came to me this is why Jesus is using the language that really never made a lot of sense because for us the Eucharist ters are we've called it the Lord's Supper was just a meal Calvary was the sacrifice only for you Catholics was the Eucharist somehow understood as a sacrifice where as we saw it as a meal Calvary was the sacrifice but when you go deeply into these sources you discover it what I found and that is no Jew standing there on Good Friday at the foot of the cross or even near Calvary would have witnessed a sacrifice because for a sacrifice to take place in the old cover it has to be inside the temple on top of an order with a priest standing by to preside at the sacrifice Jesus has sacrificed he's crucified outside the walls far from the temple where there were no altars what you would have witnessed as a devout Jew would not have been a sacrifice it would have been a Roman execution and so for me the questions became how in the world does a Roman execution get turned into a sacrifice and st. Paul provides the answer when he writes in first Corinthians 5:7 Christ our Passover has been sacrificed therefore let us keep the feast and the feasts that he goes on to the strive is what we call the Eucharist you can only understand Good Friday Calvary as a sacrifice and not an execution but looking at what Jesus was doing in the Upper Room celebrating the Passover fulfilling it as the lamb but transforming the Passover the Old Covenant into the Passover the new coven precisely by Institute of the Eucharist and so what of the four chalices does he consecrate the third what of the four chalices do we continually receive as Paul says in 1st Corinthians 10 the cup of blessing which we receive is a communion in the blood of Christ so the Passover is still sort of the backdrop for the Eucharist but it's always the third cup as it were so he drinks the third he shares with them he says I'm not going to drink it new until it's in the kingdom and then he drinks the sour wine there at the cross what is that that's the fourth cup that's the consummation of the Passover that is the transformation from the old to the new not some irrational animal the lamb but the son of God the Son of man the Lamb of God so for me I went in search of a church that had come up with these amazing discoveries of mine only to find out in the next year or two that I had reinvented the Catholic wheel and at one level it was very humbling at another level it was very exciting because to discover this is to really enter into the mystery of faith in a way that I never saw coming for us the Lord's Supper was just you know a meal but I'm reminded of all the the late great Cardinal Wright the Bishop of Pittsburgh who is a rather corpulent fellow at over 300 pounds when he heard that people called the the Eucharist a meal he roared he said a meal it's not even a snack [Laughter] well it's not a snack naturally but it is supernaturally the marriage supper of the Lamb and this is what came to me over the course of time I began to share with my Protestant friends and professors as well they just backed off they could see where this was leading me and they were not in any way supportive but I'll be honest it led me not only to attend my first mass and to discover the real presence of Jesus and the fulfillment of the sacrifice of the Old Covenant Passover in the New Covenant Passover we call the Eucharist it began to show me how to connect the dots not just between the old and the new but between Holy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday Holy Thursday the Passover the Eucharist if it's just a meal Good Friday is just an execution but if the Eucharist is in fact where the sacrifice of the new Passover begins then we can understand how an execution is transformed into the consummation of the new Passover so he can declare it is finished because the manifestation of the mystery of God's kingdom is a love that is life-giving and He pours himself out as the blood of the water flow from his side as he breathes the spirit upon his people and so if Holy Thursday is what transforms Good Friday from an execution into a sacrifice Easter Sunday is what transforms that sacrifice into a sacrament because his body is no longer bleeding on the cross it's no longer buried in the tomb he's raised from the dead but not just resuscitated his body is deified it is transformed into a communal a communicable gift so that can all do this in remembrance we can receive in the unleavened bread the the Lamb of God we can receive in the third cup the cup of blessing the blood of the new covenant and we continually drink from the third cup all of our lives because sooner or later as we carry our cross just like our Lord we will come to the hour and what is that the hour of death and what occurs there well up until Calvary everybody who ever died lost their lives but on Good Friday what Jesus did was not lose his life but he made his life a gift of love and suddenly you begin to realize that he transformed suffering into sacrifice pain into passion not just for himself but for all of us and he continually strengthens us with the Holy Eucharist and with the chalice of salvation the cup of blessing knowing that we will come to the hour of death when we have to make the ultimate exodus but he's given us his body and blood he's given us the spirit of the new Pentecost he's given us the power when he breathed his last and he gave us the spirit he enables us to do what we could never do on our own and that is keep the Covenant fulfill the law and so what I discovered in the course of my study was these connections these connections between old and new the Passover the Eucharist Thursday Friday and Sunday the Paschal mystery the triticum so that when I went for the first time to the vigil mass to be received into the church it became for me not only the climax of a long pilgrimage but the consummation of the Covenant that I had been studying the new Passover the third cup for me the precious blood as well and then of course that just led me back into the scriptures I don't have a lot of time so I'm gonna have to share just briefly what I discovered because a lot of us tend to think that the Eucharist is what Jesus instituted because well everybody's turned on him you know palm sunday hosanna in the highest then Friday morning crucify him crucify him knowing the night before what's gonna happen you know plan B we're gonna have to consolidate our gains cut our losses we're not going to usher in the kingdom so what am I going to do I'm going to I don't know celebrate the Passover maybe Institute a sacrament you know and leave that as a token because nothing else could happen and so it almost feels like an afterthought a plan B but what you discover when you read John's Gospel in the light of the cups in the light of the hour is that this is what Jesus planned all along this isn't Plan B you go back to the very first sign of the seven that John records in his gospel and it's the tourniquets at the wedding at Cana and it's the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee and what does the mother of Jesus observe they're out of wine and when she points it out to him what does he say so my hour has not yet come now we all know what the hour refers to in John's Gospel in John 7 verse 30 we read that they tried to arrest him when he was in the temple but they couldn't because his hour had not yet come you turn the page in the next chapter John 8 verse 20 once again they tried to arrest him because they he was in the temple but they couldn't because his hour had not yet come so what does the hour refer to in John's Gospel when Jesus finally does get arrested tried and executed that's the position that's the perspective of his enemies the opponents but here in John 2 is the first of four times that Jesus speaks of the hour not looking at it through the eyes of his enemies they're out of wine so my hour hasn't come did that response ever strike you as strange or she says as they're out of wine so why does he reply so my hour hasn't come it just doesn't seem to follow the only way to make sense that of that is to assume that Jesus associates the coming of the hour with providing something we call wine they're out of wine so my hour hasn't come do whatever he tells you and so he goes ahead and provides the best wine performs his first sign so from the very beginning of his public menace what does Jesus associate with the coming of his hour providing wine what else does he associate with the arrival of his hour the next time he uses it is in John four once again there's a woman only it's a Samaritan woman at a well and they have this conversation and at one point Jesus says woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain Gerizim where the sumerians worship nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father you worship what you don't know we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when you will worship the father in spirit of the truth so the second time Jesus speaks of the hour that he knows is coming what does he associate with the arrival of the hour not only providing wine but in an entirely new way of worshipping a new way of worshipping God has father not in Jerusalem not at Gerizim but worshiping God as father in the spirit as family to unite Jews and Samaritans the third time he speaks of the hour is in the very next chapter of John 5 and this is where he heals the paralytic who'd been by the poolside for 38 years and the Jews want an explanation and so he gives it to them he says truly truly I say to you the hour is coming and now is when the Dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live now the Jews understood the meaning of our they didn't have a clock with a second hand and all of that but our was not just a designation of time it was also a liturgical reference so in acts 3 we read that Peter and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour the hour of prayer have you ever heard of the Liturgy of the hours guess what we didn't invent it we inherited it from the Old Testament Jewish faith so the hour is a liturgical designation and in the temple and in the synagogue you hear the law and the prophets you pass from darkness to light from error to truth only now it's not just the word of the Lord the law and the prophets since the word has become flesh to dwell among us Jesus says the hour is coming when the Dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and they're gonna pass not from light darkness to light but from death into new life so hearing the word of the Lord at the hour is hearing the word made flesh the fourth and final time that Jesus speaks of the hour in John's Gospel and by the way the reason I'm doing this is because what is coming in just a few minutes a holy hour guess where it starts in the heart of Jesus the fourth and final time he speaks of the hour is in John 12 when he comes to the Passover for the last time and so among those who went up to worship of the feast were some Greeks and they came to Philip was from Bethsaida and Galilee and they said to him we wish to see Jesus so Philip went and told Andrew Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus why Philip and Andrew because they're from Bethsaida where everybody speaks Greek so the Greeks approached Philip and Andrew we want to see Jesus Philip and Andrew approached Jesus and say there are some Greeks here in Jerusalem for the Passover and they want to see you and jesus answered them the hour has come now if that's all he said and if he had stopped there I think Philip and Andrew would have said hey he's ready come on in but he continues he says the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit why for he who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life and if anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there shall my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him and I can just picture Philip and Andrew looking each other like did he understand what we said there are some Greeks and they want to see you the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified for less a grain of wheat fall the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies then it bears much fruit and then Jesus concludes now is my soul trouble - what shall I say father save me from this hour No for this purpose I have come to this hour father glorify thy name Jesus meant what he said he said what he meant he knew what he was talking about not just Jews and Samaritans but Greeks here at the Passover but it is a rather strange answer it's a strange image unless a grain of wheat falls the earth and dies it remains alone Oh pity that poor grain he's just so lonely what a metaphor but if the grain of wheat falls the earth and dies it bears much fruit what is the edible form of fruit that a grain of wheat bears when it falls the earth and dies what do you call a grain of wheat when it becomes edible bread so what does Jesus associate with the arrival of the hour providing bread as well as wine and a whole new way of worshipping God has father together as a family that will unite jews and samaritans and gentiles greeks and in the process of hearing the word of the lord and passing out a darkness in the light and even more out of spiritual death into divine life now where do we ever experience an hour where we hear the word of the Lord fulfilled by the son of God the Word made flesh where do we ever would gather to worship together with all ethnic groups in spirit and in truth and then at the climax we receive the Son of man glorified in the bread of life and in the best wine at this marriage supper of the lamb I want to propose to you that the Gospel of John when it's read from the heart of the church shows us that the hour is what Jesus had on his mind from the beginning where do you have bread and wine a new way of worship a new way of hearing the word of the Lord what do we call it today the mass and what is it Holy Thursday Good Friday and Easter Sunday all rolled into one so why call it an hour if it takes hours if it took two or three days because what took place in the first century over three days takes place today in about one hour the mass is not Plan B it isn't an afterthought it's what Jesus had on his heart and his mind at the very beginning of the dubuque his public ministry his incarnation or debut his very first sign and everything else that he is doing is showing us that in the Eucharist we have the resurrected Lord of lords we have the King of Kings it might look like bread but that's because we walk by sight not by faith we've gotta walk by faith and not by sight and in this hour of adoration we are going to commemorate the sacrifice of Jesus and prepare once again to make it so that when we come to the hour of death when we drink the fourth cup in in the first four or five centuries of the church I described in my book the fourth cup numerous examples from the martyrs that whenever they came to the time of their martyrdom their prayer would be an echo of the Eucharistic prayer of the mass and then they understood that this was the hour when they got the drink the cup but it wasn't the third cup for them it was the fourth cup and whether we're martyred in public or whether we die in private we will experience the transforming power of the Spirit the new covenant will make it so that the hour of death is not the loss of life but the culmination of Christ giving his life to us so that we can give our lives back to him brothers and sisters the hour has come in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in heaven once again we wish to express our gratitude for a goodness that knows no limits for grace that is boundless for the gift that goes beyond this creation to the uncreated Life of your beloved son who became our servant so that we as disobedient servants might be transformed so that our suffering could become sacrifice our pain could become passion that we could become a little Christ's your children I pray for these beloved sons and daughters of your that you would pour out the breath of Christ the Spirit of God that as we continually renew this covenant and drink from the third cup and partake of the Lamb we would be prepared to allow you to transform our life and our death into the most glorious Exodus into the fulfillment of the Pentecost as we enter into the cloud of your glory our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil on that hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now the hour of our death amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen thank you so much god bless you [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 43,871

Rating: 4.9114218 out of 5

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: xqcFMpB8pd4

Length: 55min 6sec (3306 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2018