Lectio Divina Study | Lectio: Eucharist | Brant Pitre

welcome everyone to our first session on this new bible study series entitled eucharist discovering the mass in the bible my name is dr brant petry i am professor of sacred scripture at notre dame seminary in new orleans louisiana where i've taught for about five or six years um i received my phd in new testament from the university of notre dame up in indiana and i am happy to be here together with you today to study one of the most exciting topics in all of sacred scripture and that is the mass in the bible looking for the eucharist in the pages not just of the new testament but as you'll see of the old testament as well this topic is one of my favorite of all to talk about in fact a couple years ago i published a book entitled jesus and the jewish roots of the eucharist unlocking the secrets of the last supper and we're going to be drawing on some of the material in the book jesus and the jewish roots of the eucharist but i'm excited to say we're also going to since go beyond it as well because we're going to be doing a kind of journey from genesis to revelation with the eucharist as our center with the eucharist as our focus right so although we'll be drawing a material from the book we're actually going to expand upon it and go even more in depth into where the eucharist is hidden in the pages of sacred scripture and i chose this topic because of course the eucharist as vatican ii taught back in the 1960s is quote the source and the summit of the christian life that's the teaching of the church the eucharist is the source and the summit of the christian life and we'll look at that in a minute that's exactly what that means and we know that this is the case practically because the mass is in the sense the most visible sign of what it means to be a catholic right it's what unites us together as catholics every sunday we gather together to come and worship the lord and to receive the eucharist right and even people today when they say i'm a practicing catholic what do they mean at the very least they mean i go to mass right so the mass really is the center of catholicism it's the center of our faith it's what marks us out as catholics and yet at the same time at the same time it can also be a bit of a stumbling block because sometimes christians from other denominations will look at catholicism they'll look at the mass and they'll say why do you do what you do at the mass some christians will ask where is the mass in the bible right if you open your bible look at the old testament look at the pages in the new testament for the word mass guess what you're not going to find it are you you're also not going to find the noun the eucharist in the new testament right so is the mass biblical is it scriptural right and if so where right and if you walk into the eucharist if you walk into a eucharistic service what are you going to see when you go to mass you're going to see what holy water fonts you'll see priests investments you're going to see altars and candles maybe some incense people kneeling people standing hearing the word of god images like lamb of god blood of the covenant right and some of this can be strange if you didn't grow up catholic knowing it right being familiar with it and yet as we're going to see all of these different images some of which can be a bit disturbing or unnerving to people whenever they come across them are found in the pages of scripture itself right however in order to see that clearly we have to do something very significant this could be very important over the course of our time together we can't just look at the eucharist in the new testament we have to go back and look at the old testament i love to tell my students this all the time if you ever see anything weird or strange about catholicism we got it from judaism right we got it from the old no it's true it's true we got it from the old testament right and a lot of times one of the reasons many christians don't understand the catholic faith in fact many catholics don't understand why we do what we do it's because we don't know the old testament well enough right so in our time together in this series of bible studies we're going to start with genesis in the next session and we're going to work all the way through from genesis to revelation from the beginning of history to the end of time right from the beginning of the bible to the end and ask where is the mass where is the eucharist in the pages of sacred scripture that's our goal for our time together however in this first session in our introduction we're going to start with actually the catechism of the catholic church i want to begin with the catechisms teaching on the eucharist in part two of the catechism the catholic church which is focused on the sacraments right if you've read through the catechism of the catholic church maybe you're familiar with it you'll know this is an official compendium of all the church's teachings on doctrines of faith and morals it's published by saint john paul ii now saint john paul ii in 1994 and the section on the eucharist is going to kind of be our guiding light as to how to structure this bible study it is a beautiful and powerful introduction to the mystery of the eucharist so that's where we're going to start today we're going to just look at what the catechism has to tell us about what the church means by saying that the eucharist is number one the source and summit of the christian life and then second we're going to walk through some of the names for the eucharist that the catechism gives us there are literally dozens of names to the eucharist and they each reveal a different facet of the mystery of the eucharist and as we'll see several of them are straight from the pages of sacred scripture and in the catechism of the catholic church paragraph 1323-1327 the church gives us basically four key explanations four key reasons so to speak for what it means to call the eucharist the source and summit of the christian life and why we believe that as catholics so let's just work through each one of those together the first and most important reason that the church teaches that the eucharist is the source and summit of the christian life is because the eucharist is jesus that's the first and most important reason the eucharist is not some thing the eucharist is some one the eucharist is the source and the summit of the christian life the other sacraments and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the eucharist and oriented toward it for in the blessed eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the church namely christ himself our past there it is again the word pasc meaning passover and we're going to talk a lot about the passover over the course of our bible study together so notice what that last line says that in the eucharist we receive christ himself this is so important for us to share especially with our non-catholic brothers and sisters namely that the reason we're so caught up with the eucharist and the mass as catholics is because we're caught up with and in love with jesus christ all right that's the first and most important reason however the catechism goes on and gives a second reason the second reason the eucharist is the source and summit of the christian life might not be one you expected to hear but it's very significant as we'll see over the course of our bible study namely that the eucharist is also a trinitarian mystery through the eucharist we participate in the life and the love of the father the son and the holy spirit the most blessed trinity right listen to the words of the catechism here the eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the people of god by which the church is kept in being it is the culmination both of god's action sanctifying the world in christ and of the worship men offer to christ and through him to the father and in the holy spirit do you see the trinitarian language there at the end right the father the son and the holy spirit and this trinitarian language is really what the church is referring to when it describes the eucharist as giving us a share in the divine life what does that mean the divine life whenever you see that expression the divine life in the catechism it's a reference to the life of the trinity that eternal exchange of love between the father the son and the holy spirit this is important to emphasize because for some catholics and some christians we tend to think of or reduce the trinity to a kind of a math problem right like one times one is one right or we use a triangle or a clover or something like that to try to illuminate this deep mystery but in reality the trinity as the catechism teaches is the central mystery of the christian faith because it's the mystery of god in himself from all eternity the father loving the son begetting the son the son being begotten of and loved by the father and the love between them being so real this eternal exchange of love that is the third person the holy spirit and that's what we participate in every time we receive holy communion we're made partakers of the divine life and as we'll see over the course of the bible study especially when we get to the book of revelation this is the reason we were made according to the catechism paragraph 260 is my favorite paragraph in the catechism the ultimate end of the divine economy meaning the history of salvation is the entry of god's creatures into the blessed life of the holy trinity we were made for the trinity and the eucharist gives us a share in that already so it's the center it's the source it's the summit it's where we came from the life of the trinity and it's where we're heading the life of the trinity now a third reason that the eucharist is the source and summit of the christian life is that the eucharist doesn't just give us a taste of the trinity it gives us a taste of heaven and of the end of time in a sense the eucharist every single one points us up to the life of glory with the saints and angels in heaven and forward to the end of time to the end of the world to the new creation the catechism says in paragraph 13 26 finally by the eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy we'll look at that in detail in revelation and anticipate eternal life when god will be all in all and this is something i don't think as catholics we always think about that the eucharist is really a foretaste of eternal life when god will be all in all in the same way as he takes the bread and the wine and he changes it completely and entirely into god into christ himself so too at the end of time god will be all in all we will be partakers of his divine life and the eucharist is a foretaste of that eternal life finally the fourth reason given by the catechism for our faith in the eucharist as the source and the summit of the christian life goes back to one of the ancient church fathers saint irenaeus who lived in the second century a.d and he was in a debate with the gnostics at the time the gnostics were a heretical group of christians who had a very negative theology you could kind of sum up their theology in two expressions spirit good body bad right the gnostics saw the material world as bad and intrinsically evil and the spiritual world as intrinsically good and in this fourth paragraph from the catechism the church has something interesting about how the eucharist refuted that gnostic view of christianity and what it means for us this is what the catechism says in brief the eucharist is the sum and the summary of our faith and then it quotes saint irenaeus our way of thinking is attuned to the eucharist and the eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking what did irenaeus mean by that what he was saying was was that the gnostics were going around saying they were christians celebrating the eucharist and receiving the body of christ and yet at the same time saying that the body was what evil right and he said this is clearly heretical because the eucharist teaches teaches us about the redemption of the body the goodness of the body the truth of the incarnation and so what the catechism here is getting at is very simple namely whatever you believe about the eucharist is going to affect the way you see all of reality all of the material world right as well as the spiritual world right the visible and the invisible so we need to get our thinking in a eucharistic mode we need to attune our minds to the truth of the eucharist and when you do that you'll see something interesting everything else will fall into place i've seen this time and time again especially with friends and family who've become catholic right once they can grasp their truth of the faith the truth of the real presence of jesus in the eucharist guess what happens everything else starts to fall into place and they start to really embrace the fullness of the gospel that is contained and transmitted by the catholic church so i hope you'll be thinking about that as we're moving through the bible study asking you know how does the eucharist shape my world view my view of all of reality every day in my life is going to be affected by what i believe about this most [Music] blessed foreign the next part of the catechism's introduction to the eucharist is one of my favorite sections on the eucharist in the catechism because it treats the eucharist as almost like a diamond by looking at each of the names of the eucharist that the churches use both in scripture and tradition and using them to kind of show you the facets the different facets of this most inexhaustible mystery right just like when you look at a diamond as you turn it you see different colors you see different aspects of the diamond that reveal its true beauty so too with the eucharist a great way to introduce it is just walk through step by step some of the names that the church has used to describe this sacrament so let's take a few of these that come from both the scriptures and then also from sacred tradition and see if we can use them to unpack the meaning of the mystery the first and uh foremost name that is given is of course eucharist that's the title of our bible study and some people might ask you know where do you find the word eucharist in the bible why do you catholics refer to this as the eucharist and it's true if you open the pages of your new testament in english you're never going to find the noun the eucharist as a reference to the last supper or the early christian celebrations of communion and such but the verb eucharist actually does occur in the greek new testament right because the new testament was not originally written in english it was written in greek and the word eucharist greek verb for thanksgiving occurs in all places at the last supper so for example if you turn to the gospel of luke chapter 22 verse 19 and you read it through you'll find that when jesus was instituting the eucharist the word occurs in the greek when it says and he took bread and when he had given thanks given thanks the greek word there is eucharist he broke the bread and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me so the reason the early christians and to this day catholics refer to uh the communion as the eucharist is because of the act of thanksgiving that jesus himself performed at the very first eucharist at the last supper now the question that that name raises for us is if we call this the eucharist then what are we giving thanks for right how is the mass an act of thanksgiving what am i giving thanks for when i receive the thanksgiving the eucharist right and this is something we're going to have to ask ourselves as we study through the gospels especially at the last supper because it is paradoxical that when does jesus offer this thanksgiving it is paradoxical that he's offering thanksgiving right on the verge of his crucifixion now i don't know about you but if i knew i was about to be crucified giving thanks might not be my first inclination and yet that's what he judges because he's setting the stage for us to give thanks for the mystery of our redemption our salvation so the eucharist as the thanksgiving is a sacrament of salvation of gratitude to god for the gift of salvation another name for the eucharist is the lord's supper the lord's supper now if any of you have protestant friends and family or maybe you came from a protestant denomination you'll know that in many protestant christian churches this is the name that has pride of place for the eucharist because it does occur explicitly in the new testament in the writings of saint paul in the first letter to the corinthians in chapter 11 verses 20 through 22 saint paul uses the expression the lord's supper to refer to the assemblies of the early christians where they're meeting together to break bread and to drink the wine that they identify as the body and blood of the lord and in first corinthians 11 verse 20 we read these words saint paul says when you meet together it is not the lord's supper that you eat for an eating each one goes ahead with his own meal and one is hungry and another is drunk what do you not have houses to eat and drink now you might be wondering what is saint paul talking about here people getting drunk at these early christian eucharists well we'll come back to that a little bit later when we turn to the pages of first corinthians in one of our later sessions for now just notice that saint paul refers to these early christian gatherings as the lord's supper that's what he calls them the lord's supper now the question that that raises though for us is what exactly is the connection between the celebration of the eucharist and the last supper right because by me by the lord's supper he means the one that was celebrated by the lord in the upper room so how is that supper connected to early christian celebrations for that matter how is that supper connected to what we do now in the 21st century this is going to be one of the key questions we have to ask how can we understand the eucharist as something that jesus is doing now right that it's still the lord's supper even though priests from africa or asia or the united states are the ones offering the sacrifice of the mass right what's the connection how do those things come together another name for the eucharist that goes way back to the early church is the breaking of the bread now this is one that most catholics might not be as familiar with because as a general rule we don't talk about the eucharist these days as the breaking in the bread but interestingly enough this is in a sense the earliest name for the eucharist in the apostolic churches we find it described in the book of acts chapter 2 verses 41 through 42. if you turn to the pages of acts and you're familiar with the story there in acts chapter 2 this comes on the heels of the great miracle of the feast of pentecost when the apostles are gathered in the upper room at that jewish feast the holy spirit comes down them upon them in tongues of fire and then peter gets up and he preaches a homily essentially a sermon where he gives the gospel to the people of jerusalem and in acts 2 verse 41 we read these words so those who received his word meaning peter's word were baptized and they're they were added that day about 3 000 souls now that is a good homily right i mean i've heard some good homilies but i've never seen 3 000 people convert as a result of one okay so peter has a special gift of the holy spirit of course here at this first pentecost but notice what these converts do where do they go after they convert what happens after they're baptized what's the next step in their life of discipleship well in verse 42 it says so they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching apostolic teaching to the fellowship communion amongst the early christians and to the breaking of bread and the prayers right so what's the next step for these converts after baptism the eucharist which they called the breaking of the bread that's an early christian reference not just for them gathering together you know to have dinner or supper or lunch together but gathering together to reenact the breaking of the bread that jesus himself had accomplished in the upper room right and so we want to ask ourselves again why is the breaking of the bread so significant what is the symbolism and the meaning of the breaking of the bread on the one hand it points back to the fact that at any jewish passover meal the host would not just eat the bread before he would do that he would give thanks and then he'd break it and distribute it right so it's just an echo of the last supper but on a deeper level too it's also pointing us back once again to the cross because if jesus is the bread if the bread is christ and the bread is broken it's a sign of his crucifixion of his being broken on the cross of his death so we're going to keep asking ourselves over the course of our bible study how is the eucharist not just related to the mass that we celebrate today how is the last supper connected to our eucharistic services but how is the last supper connected to the cross i mean what happens on thursday what happens on friday how do we link the two together in the breaking of the bread another name for the eucharist that the catechism mentions is the memorial the memorial and this one again comes straight from the words of the new testament and it comes from the words of institution back to the gospel of luke in chapter 22 verse 19 we read these words jesus took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you and then he adds something significant do this in remembrance of me or some english translations will read do this in memorial of me right as a memorial of my passion and death the greek word there is enamonisus which literally means to remember right to remember but the question this this name raises for us is this is the eucharist just a memorial right because there are memorials where we can just remember some past event right right and we do this all the time we'll have anniversaries we'll have whatnot where we are remembering a past event and we're thinking back right but in ancient judaism as we'll see when we get to the passover although they saw the the passover as a memorial as an enemy since a remembrance of what happened at the time of the exodus they also saw that a memorial doesn't just look back it also in a sense makes present that past event think about for example when a couple renews their wedding vows right they're both remembering that initial covenant act of saying i do i will right but they're also in a sense making it present again renewing it right so that there's a past element to it and a present element as well and this is what we're going to see with the eucharist jesus doesn't just want them to you know remember me when i'm gone right you know like a farewell meal he's instituting a right a sacrament that's going to actually make present that what happened that first night in the upper room at the last supper so that whenever we celebrate the eucharistic memorial in a sense we go back and we're there with the disciples now what about the language of sacrifice another name for the eucharist that's very common especially if you grew up in the preconciliator era if you grew up before the second vatican council you probably grew up referring to the eucharist as the holy sacrifice of the mass right so there's a real emphasis especially in the wake of the protestant reformation which rejected the idea that the mass was a sacrifice there was a real emphasis among catholics on the fact that the mass isn't just a meal it's not just a memorial it's a sacrifice and this is one of the most controversial names for the eucharist in the history of christianity because at the time of the protestant reformation men like martin luther and john calvin rejected the idea that the eucharist could be called a sacrifice because they argued that there was only one sacrifice namely the sacrifice of jesus christ on calvary and citing the book of hebrews as an argument they said christ died once and for all so that they argued whenever you call the eucharist to sacrifice what you're saying in effect is that jesus is being re-crucified right and they argue well this is blasphemy to say that jesus is re-crucified and there's a sense in which that's true right jesus died once and for all and if we did believe as catholics that jesus was being re-crucified at the mass then we would be saying that well something was lacking in the sacrifice of calvary but the reality is that that's not what we mean as catholics when we call the eucharist sacrifice what we're saying as catholics is that the eucharist is the making present in our time of the one sacrifice of jesus on calvary right and if you want an example of this the catechism actually cites the letter to the hebrews which was used by many of the protestant reformers as an example of referring to the eucharist as a sacrifice in scripture itself if you go back to the letter to the hebrews chapter 13 verses 9 through 15 you'll find these words in this letter which was written to christians who were being tempted to fall back into judaism to fall back into attending the sacrifices of the bulls and the goats and lambs at the temple in jerusalem the author of hebrews enjoins them to stay with the new covenant and not to go back to the old sacrifices precisely because in the eucharist they have the fulfillment of all the sacrifices of the old testament listen to these words in hebrews 13 verse 9-15 do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings for it is well that the hearth be strengthened by grace not by foods which have not benefited their inherence now paul's there what kind of foods are they talking about he's not talking about the eucharist at this point he's talking about the sacrifices in the temple many of which christians don't always know this were eaten they would offer bread they would offer wine they would offer the flesh of the lamb and they would not just offer to god they would eat it they were foods and drinks associated with the temple and then look at this verse in verse 10 we the author says have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat paul is there what altar is hebrews talking about it's the altar of the eucharist what he's saying is we christians have an altar from which the priests in the temple don't have a right to eat because they're not part of the new covenant but what that means then is if the eucharist is being received from an altar then guess what it is it's a sacrifice it's not just a meal it's a sacrifice and he actually goes on to say that explicitly in the following verses he says in verse 11 for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp so jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood for we have no lasting city but we seek the city which is to come so therefore through him let us continually offer up what a sacrifice of praise to god that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name so taken in context then what is this sacrifice of praise well it's both the hymns of praise and prayers of the early christians but it's also the sacrificial banquet of the christian altar of the eucharist the next name for the eucharist that is important for us to grasp is probably the one we're most familiar with namely holy communion we all know this one especially if you grew up a cradle catholic because you have to make your first holy communion so this is one of the names we're very familiar with again though if you look in your english bible you might not see the word communion anywhere and this is one of those examples where in the new testament you have to go back to the original greek to see the presence of the language of communion in the writings of the apostles and here we go back again to saint paul and his first letter to the corinthians he uses the language of communion or fellowship to describe the eucharist when he writes in chapter 10 verse 15 through 17 these words i speak as to sensible men judge for yourselves what i say the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a in the greek word here is coinonia or participation or you could also hear it translated as communion right so the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a communion coinonia in the blood of christ and the bread which we break isn't not a communion or koinonia participation in the body of christ because there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread now notice something important here does paul feel like he has to defend the idea that the bread is actually jesus body and the wine is actually his blood no he just assumes that his christian audience knows that do you not know that the bread which we break is a communion a fellowship a participation in the body and don't you know that the wine is a communion in his blood so notice he seems to think i've already taught you about this right i brought this up to you already i catechized you on this point so he's just reminding them of the basic apostolic instruction now the question that raises for us then is this what are the implications of the fact that when we receive communion we are communing with jesus christ we have union with jesus christ we have fellowship with christ we participate in his blood and his body that was poured out for us what must i do then to prepare for such communion to prepare for union with jesus this is going to demand something of me right in my spiritual life and my moral life to prepare for that kind of intimacy with christ and so that's one of the questions we want to ask over the course of our bible study if the eucharist really is jesus's body and blood how do i get ready for it how do i prepare myself to receive it and what does that mean about what jesus wants from me right how many of us have ever heard the question do you have a personal relationship with jesus christ anybody ever been asked this question yeah i mean we all have and that's a great question we have to have a personal relationship with jesus christ but the reality is is that that language is not biblical that's more of a tradition right the language of scripture is coinonia communion fellowship covenant because christ actually wants something deeper than just a personal relationship with us he wants communion he wants intimacy he wants a covenant so we're going to look at that image of the covenant and of marriage right christ the bridegroom and church the bride as we move through our bible study together in real communion with god the last two images that i want to talk about and that the catechism highlights are images that are not found in sacred scripture but in sacred tradition they don't come from the bible they come from the writings of the early church fathers and also the traditional language of the church the first one is the idea of the eucharist as quote the medicine of immortality the medicine of immortality this language goes back to saint ignatius of antioch he lived in the second century a.d and he was a martyr he died for the christian faith and already in the second a.d he was describing the eucharist as the medicine of immortality as an antidote to death that when we receive gives us eternal life now the reason i like to highlight this one is if you look around the world today ask yourself how much money is spent on medicine right how many people are chasing after medicines that will extend their natural life right i mean billions and billions and billions of dollars and imagine if there was a pill called the immortality pill that you could sell over the counter right how many people would flock to buy it well that's really what the eucharist is except it's not about natural immortal life it's about supernatural immortal life eternal life with god forever and ever and ever and the great thing about the eucharist is it won't cost you a dime right the church just gives it away well it's not entirely free it will cost you something namely your whole heart your whole soul your whole mind and all your strength right your whole life is really what god is asking in exchange for eternal life but it won't cost you any money and that's what the eucharist really is the medicine of immortality right and that's what we receive every time we go to the holy mass the final name for the eucharist the holy mass why do we call it the mass why is the bible study entitled discovering the mass in the bible because this is the name that the church gets from the liturgy itself from the mass itself the very last words of the mass in english are go forth the mass is ended right and in the latin that word mass is missio and you know what english word we get from that mission or sending forth so literally what happens at the end of the mass is that we are all sent forth on a mission to bring the gospel to the world and sometimes it's hard to see this in the english translation because in the english we say go forth the mass is ended but the original latin actually says ite misa s literally go forth it is the mass right now i was always confused by this as a boy because i would hear the masses ended and then we would respond thanks be to god and i always said that thinking you know thanks be to god the mass is over and now i can go home but i didn't realize that that's not really what the church is saying the reason we give thanks is because we are being sent on a mission because in the eucharist we have received the body blood soul and divinity of jesus we have received god we've received the medicine of immortality we've received the antidote to death we've had communion with the divine bridegroom we've eaten the flesh of the true passover lamb and now our job is to take that out to the world not to keep it to ourselves but to be sent forth to bring that good news to the world and to live that good news with our very lives so in this bible study we're going to see what does that mean what exactly is that mission and what do we receive every time we hear those words go forth it is the mass the mass has ended thanks be to god so when we come back we'll look at the story of the mass and we'll go all the way back to the beginning and see how the story of the mass the story of the eucharist really begins in the garden of eden [Music] you

Channel: Augustine Institute

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Keywords: lectio divina, bible study, eucharist, brant pitre

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Length: 39min 42sec (2382 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2020