Scott Hahn- Where is the Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Bible?

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've 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 belief 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 and 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 thinking and the Greek can go either way the blood of the New Covenant the New Testament poured out for many for the remission of sins 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 - 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 on 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 or is it 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 Saint 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 Luke 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 miss 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

Channel: sacerdos2006

Views: 66,462

Rating: 4.8433619 out of 5

Keywords: Sacrament, Eucharist, Catholic, Sacrifice, John

Id: LQ3goNXz8Jg

Length: 11min 14sec (674 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2012