"Paschal Sacrifice: A Heavenly Banquet for Earthly Beggars" Dr. Scott Hahn

let me say a word and defense of reason in dialog with faith because faith is that proof faith unites us to that substance a reason in order to realize its full potential needs the horizons revealed by and truths contained in the faith and not just any sense but the Catholic what a joy it is to be here with all of you and to also hear the speakers and just to draw on the graces of this day I really want to extend my thanks not only to Jason and to Rob Palladino for shepherding this but especially to our Shepherd Bishop Tsereteli for coming here and sharing his own wisdom and experience and dr. Dennis McNamara as well as Adam what a fine presentation you gave I just yeah I'm really in awe of what our Lord is doing not only in the day but in this season of the church's life I'd like to begin our time together in a word of Prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen Almighty God our Heavenly Father we thank you for forming us to be part of your earthly family but even more we thank you that this family not only reaches around the world but it stretches from Earth to heaven that there aren't two families nor are there two churches there is one because there is one liturgy one covenant that unites us to the angels and saints it unites us to your own inner life to the divine love of the Eternal Trinity of a father in the name of Jesus we ask you now for the gift of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds with the light of truth but also to in Kindle our hearts with the fire of your divine and passionate love to empower us to not only learn but to live out all that we learn and to share it in justice and with mercy help us then and hear us as we pray the family prayer that Jesus taught us 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 them 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 Saint Francis of Assisi Saint Teresa of Avila in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen my presentation this afternoon is entitled Paschal sacrifice a heavenly banquet for earthly beggars and so I want to strike a balance between the celestial and the terrestrial but between the divine mystery and our own human experience which sometimes lags behind all of that which is sacred in our midst as many of you might know Ukrainian Christians love to tell the story of how their ancestors discovered the Eucharistic liturgy it was the year 988 that Prince Vladimir in Kiev was seeking to unite his kingdom and he sent emissaries out to various centers to various cities including one group that went to Byzantium Constantinople and they entered Hagia Sophia and they experienced the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist in that wondrous context and of course they came back and reported to the prince we did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth never have we seen such beauty we cannot describe it but this much we can say their God dwells among mankind and of course we have the baptism of the conversion and the subsequent enculturation of the gospel there in the ukraine and throughout russia well that was over a thousand years ago just about 25 years ago I had an experience myself I was still a Protestant because it was this year I'm celebrating my anniversary my quarter of a century 25 years in the church but it was a couple of months before Easter when I was finally driven crazy enough by curiosity to attend for the first time masse I'd never been to one before I'd never wanted to go but I was studying the early fathers and reading Hippolytus that data Scalia the Apostolic constitutions and these doctoral seminars wondering what if any residue remains of the ancient liturgy in your mass and so I wasn't sure exactly when or where to go until I heard that I actually read in the campus bulletin about this noonday Mass in a basement chapel on a weekday which sounded so safe that I just snuck away and went down there and I sat in the back and I just witnessed like a journalist or an observer the Eucharistic liturgy unfold and I won't go into the details I've done that before in books and so on but what struck me right off the bat was what an amazing match what a correspondence between what I just been reading from the second century and st. Justin Martyr to what we had in the entrance antiphon and the opening right and the penitential right and then the reading of the scriptures first from the old and then the new and then the prayer of the faithful it was like a checklist from the first and second centuries but what really struck me was the shift from the synaxis as I knew it the Liturgy of the word is you probably knew it too the Liturgy of the Eucharist as all the action shifted away from the the Ambo to the altar I listened for the first time to the Eucharistic preface and the anaphora and all of that and as I caught the Paschal overtones of the ancient Jewish liturgy as well as the apostolic tradition I then was struck immediately by the words of consecration which had heard for the very first time when that priest pronounced the words of consecration it was like my heart was suddenly transfixed this is my body which was shall be given up for you and that's when I knew by a grace that I didn't see coming and I didn't deserve it was no longer bread whatever term I might have used I knew that I knew that I knew it was Christ's body blood soul and divinity by the time he was done consecrating the chalice I found myself in that back view literally drooling for holy thirst of this precious blood as as is his body and as the people all around me suddenly stood up and began chanting as if on cue Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world have mercy on us they said it a second time and then a third time and drop to the knees and that priest lifted up the host and said a fourth time behold the lamb of God and that's when the light came on for me because it was not just the real presence of Christ it was the truth and the reality of a book in the Bible that I'd been studying for years the apocalypse when I heard the Lamb of God four times in less than a couple of minutes I watched as the people went forward to receive but I was turning into the back of my Bible to look and find the many places where Jesus is called the Lamb of God they're using the technical term from the liturgy that no other New Testament book employs to describe Jesus Jesus is called the Lamb of God 28 times in 22 chapters in the apocalypse and nobody had ever been able to explain to me why is that the primary title so I'm looking down and seeing the Lamb of God Lamb of God Lamb of God but I'm also looking down and seeing the holy holy holy in Revelation 4 verse 8 and as the people are coming back from receiving Communion I'm looking down and I'm also seeing the Alleluia which was the liturgical acclamation from the temple worship I'm also seeing that Jesus is wearing a white liturgical vestment there are candles there's an altar and I begin to notice all sorts of things on the pages that I had never noticed before I never been to mass by the time it was quiet and then after the words of benediction and they were dismissed I was left alone sitting in the back view somewhat stunned trying to figure out where I had been did I go downstairs for a basement chapel and a weekday mass or was I whisked up to the heavenly Jerusalem for the Liturgy the angels and saints and somehow clearly both were true I had gone to Mass and yet I'd gone to heaven and I stuck around for nearly an hour not knowing what to do except to pray and to give thanks I spent the rest of that afternoon in the library taking out sources after dinner we got our kids down and I spent the rest of the evening looking through the book of Revelation which I had not only read many times but I had translated in its entirety as my senior Greek seminar project back in college I had figured out way back then that this book is not preoccupied with the Antichrist or the rapture or the second coming words and phrases that aren't even found a single time in the entire book but I didn't know positively what it was about until that night when I began rereading it from beginning to end from stem to stern it just struck me that the one thing you found on every page of the apocalypse is the liturgy in the first two or three verses you have the first of seven liturgical benedictions and then you discover all the visions are given in verse 10 when he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day which was the liturgical day of worship in the new what the Sabbath was in the old and as you continue reading you find as I described in my book the lamb supper that there is an altar in heaven there are candles incense chalices canticles acclamations the song toots the glory of the Alleluia there are trumpets this is why I discovered later that in the Eastern tradition among the Fathers the book of Revelation was characterized as quote an icon of the liturgy and as I was reading it that evening I didn't finish until it was nearly 3:00 a.m. and by the time I was halfway through I began to notice a very enlightening pattern a twofold structure to the book of Revelation that I knew from years of research correspondent to the twofold structure of the mass that I had witnessed for the first time in the first eleven or twelve chapters of the Apocalypse all the action revolves around a scroll in the Greek the term is bibley on where we get the word Bible its unsealed and opened and proclaimed as having been fulfilled precisely by the lamb and we see a vision of that fulfillment at the centerpiece in Revelation 12 but that's where all the action shifts away from the Liturgy of the word and to an altar where Jesus now stands wearing that could tone that liturgical vestment and he described John describes how there are seven chalices that contain wine but when they're poured out they've become blood at the end of this the end of which the angel invites all of the faithful in Revelation 19 verse 9 to come to what the wedding supper of the Lamb the wedding banquet of the Lamb and that marriage supper was where I had been earlier that day and so the next day I was back in fact for the next two weeks I was sneaking down those steps and participating in the heavenly liturgy down in a basement Chapel experiencing heaven on earth and after doing that for several weeks in a couple of months I was a goner I was receiving the church Easter Vigil vigil as I said a quarter of a century ago but I want to recount another experience because something happened to me about 15 years ago here in Steubenville I have six kids five sons one daughter where as I say one thorn I'm sorry one rose and five thorns and it was when my daughter was barely five years old she had heard me give a talk on campus going through the book of Revelation describing the chalices the candles the vestments the book and all of these liturgical songs and prayers and acclamation ''s climaxing with this declaration that somehow when we are in the mass heaven comes to earth that we don't have to die to go to heaven all we've got to do as Catholics is go to Mass in heaven is where we are and that's where I enter the talk a few days later I'd forgotten about it but apparently she hadn't because she came to me at the ripe old and mature age of I think five and a half or so and she said daddy I don't think I want to go to heaven what what are the alternatives and she said I don't know and I didn't want to scare so I just asked her why not and she said because if what you say is true then I'm going to be really bored because you know if it happened is just like the mass and it lasts forever it's already too long you know and I went in search of an answer which I didn't find right away I just tried my best as her daddy to explain that when we're there you know things are going to be different we're going to see a glorious and spectacular beauty that will make thousands of years go by like a few minutes and I could see her trying to extend to her daddy a line of credit it was very difficult you know but I'll be honest I've gone back and I have thought about that many times because I'm looking now at the new translation and I realized that a balance is being struck throughout perhaps more than it was in my experience 25 years ago the thing that I'm perhaps most happy about in this new translation that will all be experiencing starting next month is what we are going to hear near the very end and at the climax of the mass instead of happy are those who are called to the supper which always struck me a little bit like it's dinner time we now hear blessed are those who are called blessed you can be blessed whether you're happy or sad because the blessings are what flow from the Covenant that God has established which he renews through us with us through the sacraments you see the sacraments as Adam mentioned are not primarily what we do for God so much as there are what God is primarily doing for us as he's fathering us through Christ the high priest and by the power of the Holy Spirit blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb really a direct quotation from Revelation 19 9 the climax of John's visions and the climax of our liturgy where we as the bride are united to the groom by the sacrifice and by this Holy Communion as dr. Bergsma described it so magnificently earlier today this is the reality whether we know it or not this was the reality whether I believe that or not and by disbelieving it I didn't make it unreal by coming to recognize it it did make it any more real it just made it a whole lot more meaningful and powerful in my own life and my personal experience and so I'm grateful to hear this change which really which really concurs with the Latin and with most all of the other European language translations since the 60s and the 70s because as I said it captures that one side of the divine mystery of the heavenly liturgy where we share the songs the prayers and the sacrifice of the Lamb alongside of the angels and the Saints and a mother of God the woman of Revelation 12 as we are surrounded and enveloped in this mystery but there's another aspect to this translation which we are also going to become familiar with which I think is going to help strike the balance and that is the words of Matthew 8 verse 8 where we are going to be practically quoting the Roman centurion who said what lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof but only say the word and my servant shall be healed at that moment I think we need to reflect upon the other side of the mystery because we are going to be saying what lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed what are we doing two things simultaneously on the one hand we are going to be identifying ourselves with the humility of that Roman centurion as well as his great trust in Christ and his authority to do what I am asking from a distance such humility such trust startled Jesus who says I have not found such faith in all of Israel and here was one of the Roman occupation soldiers Ali who knew that he was not only an outsider but unwelcomed one and yet he could also see that Christ like him was under authority his father's but he was also someone who exercised that authority but not only do we identify ourselves with the Centurions humility because he's not worthy but also his trust but we identify ourselves with his servant because we basically say what our soul shall be healed which implies that our soul is sick like that Centurions servant was so while we exercise that trust and the humility of the Centurion we also recognize our own condition and need and I think this is what helps us to understand how it can be a heavenly banquet and yet how we as earthly beggars come with such great need Lord I am not worried but I sure AM needy and it's on the basis of our own need and our humble recognition of that that God the Father longs to feed us with his son through the power of the Spirit much more than all of us longed to be fed put together and this is the plain and simple gospel truth for us as Catholics now I've already covered some of the texts from the Apocalypse at least quickly by way of allusion concerning the Lamb of God the holy holy holy the Amen the Alleluia the marriage supper of the lamb the book that is opened and unsealed and proclaimed and fulfilled the altar up there with seven chalices containing wine poured out they've become blood and how it is we are united as we renew our covenant with our groom as the bride and in a life-giving way I'd like to shift from the visions of John and the apocalypse and I want to move backwards to the Gospel of Luke I want to look first at Luke 22 but I also want to consider Luke 14 so if you have a Bible turn with me to Luke 22 which we will consider briefly I realized that most of your cradle Catholics so that's why we're not hearing the rustling of many pages but we all know that please pardon a little convert humor even if an after a quarter century it still is somewhat irrepressible we have in Luke 20 to the fullest account of the institution of the Eucharist in the synoptic tradition Matthew and Mark give us an institution narrative but Luke's is longer and fuller than Matthew and Mark combined but Luke gives us even more than just a fuller institution narrative because what Luke provides us throughout his gospel is what has been described as banquet theology because in Luke's Gospel there are 10 to skit distinct discrete meal scenes seven of them before the Eucharist two of them after and it's not just accidental or arbitrary it is deliberate it is strategic it is cumulative we're going to be considering one of the earlier meal scenes after I briefly consider the Eucharistic institution but there are seven leading up to the Eucharist the first and the seventh are with tax collectors Levi and Zacchaeus the second and the sixth are with Pharisees who should have learned their lesson and maybe thought twice about inviting Jesus but the eighth following the seven that is the Eucharistic institution and then the ninth and the tenth both occur in Luke 24 and are related directly to what is described in Luke 22 the first of those last two number nine is of course what takes place in the village of a mass when Clovis and his companion have been walking with this apparent stranger for hours on the road that leads from Jerusalem to a mass and what was he doing he was opening up the scriptures beginning with Moses and all of the prophets explaining to them the things concerning himself and why it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things before entering into his glory and later when they look back on those hours how did they characterize their experience did not our hearts burn within us as he open up the Scriptures but while their hearts were burning their eyes were still shot so what had to happen well in this ninth meal scene we read in verse 30 when he was at the table with them he did something he actually does four things there are four verbs he took the bread blessed it broke it and gave it to them the exact same four verbs in the same sequence that you find in Luke 22 where the Eucharist was instituted except Clovis and his companion weren't numbered among the twelve and so it wasn't just a case of reminiscence it was a case of divine revelation because when he took the bread blessed and broke it and gave it to them their eyes were suddenly opened and they recognized him and just as suddenly he vanished out of their sight why did he do that was he playing you know now you see me you know once their faith had reached the point where it grasped the mystery of his real presence in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread his physical body his visible presence were no longer needed if anything it might have posed an obstacle or an impediment to faith maturing but it was after he took blessed broke and gave it to him that their eyes were open and then he vanished and they finally acknowledged how their hearts had been burning within them and yet they only recognized him how in the breaking of the bread they got up that hour walked all the way back and recounted to the eleven what had happened this of course becomes a paradigm for the early church because of course we know that Luke wrote a sequel and in his sequel the book of Acts breaking the bread becomes practically idiomatic for what we would call the mass in acts 2:42 in acts 20 verse 6 and 7 as well as in 1st Corinthians 10 and 11 and so Luke's banquet theology is clear really something that is carefully orchestrated it is a kind of cumulative and symphonic presentation vii that prepare for number eight and then this ninth and then of course the next one because he appears once again on the Lord's Day to his apostles in the context of a meal setting a pattern and at the same time establishing belief that on the Lord's Day when we gather to break the bread it's more than a meal it's the Passover of the New Covenant and if it's the true Passover it's a sacrifice first and then a meal second so there in Luke 22 where we really have the hinge in which all of these meals turn away from the ordinary meals and banquets to the sacrament and then to the real presence of the Eucharistic Lord we have something of decisive significance especially for us as Catholics and I just want to relate something that's been happening in the last three or four months I've had a friendship rekindled that goes back to the 70s a classmate named Chris we went to high school and graduated in 75 he was the valedictorian he was also you know a regular masculine Catholic and so in the cafeteria I don't remember this but he basically swears that this happened frequently I would sit down and after small talk I would launch into a sort of you know we're in the New Testament do you find the sacrifice of the mass and you know he recounted this to me recently because about eight years ago we saw each other for the first time in decades at an airport and he's like oh Scott you'll be happy to know that I'm an evangelical Bible Christian and I said Chris I'm not sure whether you'll be happy or not to know that I'm an evangelical Bible Catholic he was beyond startled so he had to sit down in about ten minutes I had to kind of spill the beans I had to get out as much as I could and then of course we just exchanged business cards and started calling each other irregularly at that point I want to make a long story short I basically shared with him what the father shared with me along with this other theologian who I began to study carefully his name is Ratzinger perhaps you've heard of him about 27 years ago I began devouring this man's work and it really struck me as being so similar to what I had been reading in the father's Ratzinger makes a point that for me proved to be decisive that this idea you know where do you find in the New Testament the sacrifice of the mass you know non Catholics would not point to the mass as the sacrifice but to what Calvary Calvary's the sacrifice and would we disagree of course not Calvary is not only a sacrifice but the supreme sacrifice of all times but Ratzinger was the one who stated the obvious that I had never seen before when he pointed out that nobody's standing at Calvary on that day Good Friday would have gone home and to describe their experience in terms of a sacrifice why not because it took place outside the walls it took place far from the temple where there were no altars there were no priests stressed in vestments there was no sacrifice what they would have gone home and recounted would have been nothing more than a Roman execution plain and simple in great brutality - so the question became for me and then for Chris how does a Roman execution suddenly get transformed into a sacrifice that all Christians agree on and the supreme sacrifice that retires all the animal offerings to boot and I pressed Chris the same way Ratzinger had pressed me because it's not something that is easily answered especially when we remember that most all of the early beliefs were Jewish Christians who simply lacked the categories to translate a Roman execution into the supreme sacrifice and I pointed out to him again what Ratzinger had shown me namely that it had happened very early through the work of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the Apostles as we find for instance perhaps earliest of all in Paul's letter to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 5 verse 7 what does Paul announce Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast in the subsequent chapters 6 through 11 he goes on to describe that feast in terms that we recognize as the Holy Eucharist especially by the time he gets to chapter 11 Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed is what really opened my eyes to see that the only way the early church could interpret an execution as a sacrifice on Good Friday was by rewinding the tape by taking a giant step and looking at what happened on Friday in the light of what Jesus did on Thursday what was he doing in the upper room with his disciples on Holy Thursday he was celebrating the Passover of the Old Covenant one last time but that's not all he was doing he was fulfilling fulfilling it as the lamb but he wasn't just fulfilling it as the Lamb of God said to retire the Passover he was transforming the old into the new the Passover of ancient Israel became the Eucharist of the New Covenant and so the disciples in the midst of this familiar liturgy which they had experienced since childhood suddenly hear something strange sort of out of the rubrics What did he say this is my body which will be given for you is that written down anywhere no he just added it this is my body which will be given up what kind of rhetorical insertion is that and near the end of the meal they heard something else and that is this is the cup of My Blood the blood of the New Covenant could be translated New Testament kind idea they K and the Greek can go either way the blood of the New Covenant the New Testament poured out for many for the remission of sin is do this in remembrance of me and again they must have been scratching their heads wondering what is he talking about what is he doing what is this new rhetoric this additional ritual and I suspect they were wondering even as they left that night and walked with him to the Garden of Gethsemane I don't think they realized what he was really saying or doing even the next day only with the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit did they realize later on he wasn't just adding a little bit of rhetoric or ritual he said what he meant he meant what he said this is my body which will be given up for you that's how he was fulfilling the Passover of the old as the true lamb that's how he was transforming it into the Passover of the new by instituting the Eucharist and so when he says this is the cup of My Blood the blood of the new covenant the New Testament that chalice contained why no longer it contained Christ himself and so with the help of the Holy Spirit these early believers realized that the Eucharist is what transformed Good Friday from being a mere execution to becoming the culmination and climax of what the new Passover and I can tell you this much if the first mass wasn't a sacrifice then Calvary is only an execution only if the first mass was a sacrifice can we understand the belief of the first generation that transformed an execution into the supreme sacrifice that fulfilled all previous animal offerings the Eucharist is what transforms Calvary into the sacrifice its inseparably one and the same self offering and just as Holy Thursday transformed Good Friday from being a brutal execution to a divine sacrifice I want to propose that Easter Sunday is precisely what transformed that sacrifice into a sacrament something that the Apostles with the power of the Holy Spirit could do in remembrance of him because that's who is really present in the mass it isn't the battered body of Jesus corpse hanging on the cross gasping for air and then finally dying it's one in the same sacrifice and it's the same body only it is the resurrected body of Christ it is the ascended body it is the glorified deified sacred Humanity of Christ that is present in our Tabernacles on our altars on our tongues whenever we receive this heavenly pass over this Paschal sacrifice precisely because it's a Passover we don't have to figure out well is it a sacrifice orders at a meal because what was the Passover in the old as well as the new it was a meal but only a meal second it was a sacrifice first and foremost which was ordered to the sacrificial communion of the Passover meal and so Luke 22 in giving us the institution of the Holy Eucharist is what illuminates the mystery of the Cross showing us that Jesus wasn't simply the victim of Roman and justice and violence he was the victim of divine love he didn't lose his life on Friday if in fact he gave it to them and us on Thursday and he did or as st. Thomas Aquinas would say it isn't how much he suffered on the cross that saves us rather it's how much he loved because suffering in itself doesn't save it doesn't satisfy divine justice but love by itself is not enough either to paraphrase again Pope Benedict suffering without love is unendurable but love without suffering is mere words or feelings how do you express love how do you prove true love how do you perfect and purify love through suffering and what does love do to suffering it transforms it into a sacrifice the offering of Christ the self sacrificial offering in the Holy Eucharist that loop describes in chapter 22 is precisely what transforms the brutality and the violence of Jesus own personal suffering on Good Friday into the holiest sacrifice of all but not one that he offers so that we don't have to but precisely one that he offers so we can by receiving the Holy Eucharist in love we can offer up our meager sufferings and unite them to Christ's redemptive sacrifice as some of you who are cradle Catholics have told me over the years you know if you stubbed your toe or if you missed the bus you know what was the refrain in the domestic liturgy from your mom offer it up and it isn't just you know pietistic rhetoric it is a Eucharistic mystery because the love that we receive becomes our own the sufferings that we endure can be transformed by that love into a holy sacrifice and in the process we now have a capacity not to win arguments with non Catholics but to win brothers and sisters in Christ to show them that not only is the Eucharist necessarily a sacrifice or else Calvary is just an execution but I also want to throw this in at no extra charge the next time somebody says we're in the New Testament you find the sacrifice of the mass ask them what they mean by the New Testament and of course they'll point to the book the twenty-seven documents that are forming the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation but then ask them if we're really going to follow the New Testament where does the New Testament ever call itself the New Testament and the short answer is it doesn't nowhere does it but the New Testament does in fact employ that phrase the New Testament or new covenant and where well as I mentioned in Luke 22 verses 18 through 20 as well as in 1st Corinthians 11 chapter 20 Raaj verse 20 and following and what do you find there this is the chalice this is the cup of My Blood the blood of the New Covenant the blood of the New Testament and what does he say write this in remembrance of me no he doesn't well he says read this in remember no he doesn't say that he will execute this and preach that no he says do this do what the Eucharist and what is the Eucharist the New Testament the New Covenant at least according to the New Testament according to the New Testament the New Testament is a sacrament long before it ever started to become a document according to the document and so what did they do after the Paschal mystery they went out proclaiming the word baptizing new believers and as we read in acts 2:42 breaking the bread celebrating the Eucharistic liturgy why because they were commanded to do this in remembrance and the this was the New Testament the New Covenant and wherever the church spread and boy did it spread they were doing this though they weren't necessarily writing in fact over half of the 12 never contributed a single book to the collection we call the New Testament not because they were unfaithful or disobedient but because Christ had not commanded them to write the New Testament but to do it Christ never wrote a thing he never commanded them to write anything don't get me wrong I am more grateful than new for the New Testament document now as a Catholic that I was when it was all Sola scriptura but when you subordinate the New Testament document to the Eucharistic sacrament you don't devalue the Sacred Scripture you revalue and reinvigorate it and you empower that book to illuminate the mystery that it was written to pair people to celebrate in fact within about 10 or 20 years the New Testament books were complete were begun but they weren't completed until the end of the first century what are the earliest records that historians can find where did people when did people first start begin calling these books the New Testament it isn't until the end of the second century in the second half of the second century are the earliest references to people calling this book the New Testament why did they begin calling this book the New Testament or these books that they were gathering well historians tell us because the liturgical proximity of those books to the Eucharist the Eucharist was the New Covenant the New Testament in the first half of the first century and from there on but because these were the books that were written by the Apostles to be read in preparation for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and since the Eucharist is the New Covenant then it would be natural to call these books the New Covenant because these were the ones that were brought out and read in preparation for the new Passover the Eucharist the New Covenant isn't it ironic that these people who embrace Sola scriptura like I once did refer to the New Testament though the New Testament never calls itself the New Testament they're just simply echoing our living tradition how ironic is that but it's an opportunity for us again not to win arguments but brothers and sisters in my case it's also an opportunity to win back a daughter because I want to look now in the closing moments at something that you find in Luke 14 in Luke 14 as I mentioned you find something that we read in the church's liturgy in fact it was read just a few weeks after my daughter came to me and told me she didn't want to go to heaven and I was still kind of puzzling over how to respond to that sort of unexpected statement now when she said that the mass it seems too long and I'll be honest daddy I'm bored and I didn't have enough humility to admit that sometimes it's long to me and sometimes I found myself bored and distracted you know I quoted Saint Jose Maria one evening to her I said listen to this the math seems long because our love is short and she's like that's nice daddy you know it certainly didn't scratch where she is though no but I remember one Sunday at st. Pete's downtown hearing the reading from the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 all about this meal number of six one Sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler belonged to the Pharisees they were watching him why because there was a man with dropsy edema you know what are they going to do it's the Sabbath and so he goes ahead and heals and they're kind of bugged by that and so he replies which of you having a son or an ox it's fallen into a well will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day and they could not reply to him and then he quickly follows it up with a parable no with a second parable no with a third parable right after this encounter at the Pharisees house where he was hosting a banquet where Jesus was invited Jesus follows up that tense encounter with what some scholars call a parabolic triple play three parables back to back and we all know them but what I want you to notice is the context because they not only come right on the heels of this meal number six but right before the meal we had just heard Jesus talk about how people are going to come from east and west north and south and sit a table in the kingdom of God so beginning in verse seven he told him a parable to those who are invited so he turns to all the invitees and he said to them when you're invited by anyone to a marriage feast don't sit down in a place of honor lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him and he invited you both will come and say to you give place to this man and you'll be to be shamed to take the lower place when you're invited go and sit at the lowest place then you might hear the master of ceremonies a friend go up higher and the point is not sit in a lower seat so everybody gets to see you promoted the point is rather everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and He Who humbles himself will be exalted so at the conclusion of the first of the three parables he's telling all of the invitees that when you go to a marriage feast take the lowest seat because only if you humble yourself will you be exalted they must have been scratching their heads you know why does this guy have a marriage feast you know on his on his brain I mean this is a Sabbath banquet a marriage feast what a strange thing to say but it's clear throughout the Gospels Jesus is frequently revealing the fact that he's got a marriage supper on his mind and so he talks about what to do when you're invited to a marriage supper a marriage feast humble yourself so that you'll be exalted and then he follows it up with a second parable after having insulted all of the invitees who had been jockeying for position of honor there he turned to the man who invited him so having you know basically put the invitees in their place he now turns the hosts when you give a dinner or a banquet don't invite your friends your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid at that point it must have gotten really awkward because you know you're looking around the room and who basically do you see you see his friends his brothers his kinsmen and rich neighbors and why because he wants to be repaid how tense how awkward how untimely Lord instead when you he's talking now to the host when you give a feast invite the poor the maimed the lame and the blind and you will be blessed because they can't repay you and I'm thinking to myself as I'm here in this red how impractical is that okay you're not going to necessarily invite all your friends and brothers and rich neighbors to be repayed you might just kind of go a little lower in the social ladder invite them but what would it even look like if you were to invite the maimed and the lame and the blind of the poor I mean the blind are sitting there at the banquet and they can't even see the food much less know where to pick up the utensils and you know and the MAME they can see it but they can't grab it because they're crippled Jesus you know get real and at this point having turned on the guests and then having turned on the hosts in verse fifteen when one of those sat at table with him heard this he said blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God because Jews associated the kingdom of God with eating bread in other words let's find some common ground let's just settle down you know let's just detox you know what do we all agree on blessed is the one who leads bread in the kingdom we can agree on that right wrong this time Jesus turns on him he said to him a man once gave a great banquet and then of course he recounts what we read in Matthew 22 all about a marriage feast hosted by a king for his son sound familiar and so all the invitations are sent and all the excuses come back so at the end of this third parable in the triple play what does the King what does the master end up deciding upon go to the highways and the byways and bring in the poor maimed blind and lame the exact same four words and the exact same sequence in parable three that you find in parable number two and so the servants go out and do just that so that my house may be full and I'll be honest when I heard this gospel and I was looking down at it in the context of the Sunday Mass I tuned out of the homily because I felt like our Lord was tuning in to me and to my daughter because suddenly I could realize okay Luke has described all of these meals to kind of present a banquet theology to prepare for the Eucharist and how it is that the resurrected Lord makes himself known after his death and resurrection precisely in the context of meals on the Lord's Day in Luke 24 but after the banquet and the healing the first of the three parables is where Jesus says if you're invited to a marriage feast and it occurred to me that would be me I'm here Sunday morning to celebrate the Eucharistic liturgy with the people of God if I'm invited to a marriage feast what should I do humble myself so I should be exalted if i exalt myself i'll be humbled if i humble myself i'll be exalted okay but what form does that take how do we go about humbling ourselves well funny you would ask Scott because look at the second parable because I'm not like the Pharisee hosting all of my rich friends who will repay me unlike the man that Jesus was talking about and so who have I invited the poor the maimed the lame and the blind and what has he invited them to the marriage feast the marriage supper of the Lamb the heavenly liturgy were the angels and the Saints and all of us faithful gather around the altar to celebrate with the angels and saints see but for us it looks like bread and it tastes like wine I remember what Cardinal right of my native town of Pittsburgh once said when he heard people saying the Eucharist isn't a sacrifice it's just a meal he was over 300 pounds he said a meal it's not even a snack but as I was pondering the second parable I realized why I was there because I must be numbered among the poor the maimed the lame and the blind and when I heard blind it suddenly occurred to me why is it sometimes long why is it sometimes boring why is it that I say the angels and the Saints all surround us and our songs and our prayers and our sacrifice are one of the same heaven and earth are united and yet I am oblivious why because I am blind why can't I stay why can't I go from here to there and just stay in heaven for the rest of Sunday and the rest of my life because I'm lame and so as I see the third parable and I realize that the King has thrown this marriage feast for his son and all kinds of excuses later he's invited precisely those who know themselves to be poor and blind and lame suddenly I knew why I was where I was and why sometimes I'm born and why always God my father is patient and merciful in accommodating himself to us and our weaknesses because far better than we know it he knows were poor and lame and blind and maimed and what a glorious thing it is to recognize on the one hand through the eyes of faith we are surrounded by the Angels on the Saints we have been invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb we don't have to die to go to heaven as Catholics we just go to Mass and heaven is where we are and yet unworthy servants are what we are we're not worthy to have you come under my roof but only say the word and my servant which is my soul which is sick will be healed and so the next time you feel a little bit bored the next time your mind one at mass realize that God isn't up there ready to zap you God as a father is tending to your needs as a beloved yet blind daughter or son someone who knows our lameness better than we do and someone who loves us and wants to forgive us more than we want them to and this and this alone is what will get us home this and this alone is what will make us Saints this and this alone is what will empower us to overcome temptation and I want to conclude by referring to one of my favorite texts in 1st Corinthians where Paul is talking all about the Eucharist in chapters 10 and 11 because I want to conclude on a semi practical note and by the way it helped a little with my five and a half year old I went home and at lunch him like Hannah let me explain that though we're in heaven we still have earthly bodies and we're physically blind to what we know is spiritually there and she's like that's nice now god be praised she's engaged to a convert who's finishing a PhD at the medieval Institute who absolutely loves this liturgy like she does and we have conversations about it all the time you got to be patient with sons and daughters just like God is with me in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 Paul says something very profound and practical therefore in verse 12 let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall we know that phrase because it's paraphrase we we say pride goeth before a fall let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall if you think you're rich look again you're poor if you think you're strong look again you're lame if you think you've got 20/20 vision look at the Eucharist and tell me what appears to be there we're all sharing this kind of physical blindness in our natures but then Paul goes on to say in verse 13 no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man in other words don't think you're terminally unique in the problems you face a lot of other people have the same or worse that's helpful but that's not enough so Paul goes on to say God is faithful he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape so that you may be able to endure it and that is helpful that's consolation so you're not going to face any trial that's just a better translation of / Osmos than temptation you're not going to face any trial or temptation that is unique others have faced it plus God will give you the grace to withstand the temptation to endure and then in almost every English translation there's a paragraph break in mine there's actually a new subheading and it looks like Paul's changing the subject except the next verse begins in verse 14 therefore my beloved but that's not how you begin a new subject that's how you draw a conclusion and Paul's a logical thinker whenever you see him using therefore ask what it's there for because he's about to draw an important conclusion therefore my beloved I'm speaking as the sensible men judge for yourselves what I say the cup of blessing which we bless is it not a participant at Koinonia in the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ you know and the corinthian readers just like modern readers might have been looking and say yeah okay the cup of blessing which we bless it's a communion in the blood of cried the bread which we break yeah it's a it's a communion in the body of Christ but what's your point I mean you kind of Zig where we thought you'd zag you were talking about how God will always provide a way of escape so that you can endure whatever trials and temptations come your way and then you seemingly change subjects or did he when we are tempted and I was on the Turnpike a couple of weeks ago and everybody was first really speeding I mean it's 65 they were going 75 I was too and I saw this clearing you know about a mile and a half straightaway just thinking I can go 80 I got to get there and as I was about to give in to the temptation I saw the cop before he saw me is that it's do you think that's what Paul's talking about that he provides the way of escape I don't think that's what Paul's talking about what is he talking about what is the way of escape that he provides so that we can endure whatever trials come our way the very next verse therefore I'm speaking as the sensible men judge for yourselves what I say the cup of blessing which we bless it's the Eucharist it's the Eucharist that Jesus instituted to make his life a gift of love not a life that was lost on Friday but a life that was given on Thursday and to prove that his body was given up to prove that his blood would be poured out he endured the agony of Good Friday but only to prove that this was more than rhetoric this was more than ritual the reality of his love is life-giving and he gives it to us because of Easter Sunday we have the resurrected body of Christ so that in our own mortal bodies we can endure trials and face temptations and not give in to our own weakness not given to our own lust our temper our own willfulness and pride we can take that love and transform our suffering into a holy sacrifice we can experience Holy Thursday and Good Friday and anticipate Easter Sunday you know I taught the last six years at st. Vincent's on Monday I love teaching future priests all about the Bible you know and there was really fun to get to know the Benedictines there are Jaffa Douglas was the one who tapped me to kind of teach Scripture his predecessor was named can you believe this arch abbot Egbert I never met him but I met all these benedictines who loved him and who shared the memory because he was greatly beloved but he was guilty of a lot of rhetorical infractions malapropisms I mean he would often miss speak on grand public occasions and just innocently not notice and I talked to one it was the unofficial archivist he told me 30 or 40 occasions as the arch abbot I mean it's like an archbishop over an archdiocese this is an arch Abbey in Latrobe but of all the stories I got to hear one of them was my favorite because there in the Basilica at st. Vincent's with a place that was just it was packed standing-room-only with all of these dignitaries surrounding him Archbishop's and Cardinals and bishops he said at the very end without noticing a thing this ass is mended let us go in peace and over heard through the microphone was an archbishop who leaned over and said truer words were never spoken brothers and sisters in Christ we go to heaven every time we go to Mass whether we know it or not it's time for us to know it but it's also time for us to discover in the context of a heavenly liturgy our own earthly weakness and the need for personal humility to recognize why our mind wanders at Mass why it seems long and why we feel bored because we're mud were poor we're blind were lame were maimed but God in His infinite richness gives us not only the cure but also the way of escape for us to endure whatever trials we face so that no matter how stubborn or willful we are and donkeys are often as we we often act like stubborn fools God reaches down to us in our lowliness and raises us up to his own heavenly glory in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in Heaven we are your sons and daughters on earth because you are our Father we know that we're your family but because you are in heaven we know that we are pilgrims in exile no matter what we might call home we know that heaven is our only one true home and while we long for it we also thank you for gathering us together in every Eucharistic liturgy to come home under the appearance of bread and wine to come home under the sacraments through them we ask you dear father in the name of Jesus for the Holy Spirit to increase our faith our hope and above all our charity so that no matter what trials we face we can trust you more than we trust ourselves and overcome them by the blood of Christ and through the bread of life help us and hear us as we pray the family prayer that Jesus taught us 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 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 Saint Francis of Assisi Saint Teresa of Avila in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Keywords: Faith and Reason, Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, Scott Hahn, Paschal, Sacrifice, Heavenly, Banquet, Earthly, Beggars, Supper of the Lamb, Mass, Heaven, Earth, Conference

Id: 4ACgaIJH_0E

Length: 63min 8sec (3788 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 28 2012