Studying Jewish history and theology is a marquee-like reminder to Christians that in order to understand why Jesus Christ is our Savior, we must first study our faith through a Jewish lens. Claiming that Jesus is the expected Messiah is not just about connecting Old Testament typology, prophecy, and narrative to Jesus as Savior and the Sacraments we celebrate. It is also about understanding *why* we must connect the dots in the first place. It is about seeing that Christianity is so deeply rooted in Judaism, that Jewish rituals or other Mosaic Law practices cannot be utterly dismissed as, “Well, now that we have salvation through Jesus, who needs tradition?”
Jewish history is also the foundation for understanding the covenants God formed with humankind, which then lead to Jesus’ death and resurrection as the final covenant — eternal salvation from sin. Meaning that God’s desire to have us cooperate with his grace has always been heavy in tradition along with word. The quintessential example of tradition honoring grace is Passover, a salvation story that Jews commemorate each year to honor the Abrahamic covenant fulfilled through the Exodus (Tkacik SLU 2023)
As part of the celebration, the Jews in Jesus’ time participated in a meal fellowship where they re-presented their salvation from bondage; remembered why mutual forgiveness is necessary; and also understood the Passover meal as symbolizing a kind of covenant, where all believers spiritually bound themselves together and vowed not to betray one another. During the meal itself, usually within a family household, the head of the household would hold up a piece of bread and utter the words, “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the world, who brings forth bread from the Earth.” Then, pieces of the bread were distributed to all participants. Lastly, at the end of the meal, a final thanksgiving is spoke; and this same prayer was occasionally said over a cup of wine (Tkacik SLU 2023).
Catholics familiar with the Passover meal will immediately notice its striking similarity to the consecration of the bread and wine during Mass. In other words, the Eucharist mirrors parts of the Passover meal, except now under the final covenant. Several passages in the New Testament explain why, just as with the Passover Meal under the Mosaic Covenant, the Eucharistic meal is necessary as part of honoring Jesus’ death and resurrection as the everlasting covenant.
The Bread of Life Discourse, for instance, is often cited as the primary reason for the Eucharistic celebration (John 6:1-71), though plenty of other passages support why the Apostles understood the Lord’s Supper, including the instruction to carry on this fellowship meal, as central to the liturgy: Jesus himself re-presents the Eucharistic meal after his appearance in Emmaus; the books of Acts mentions the “breaking of bread” during Sunday worship (2:42); Paul explains the parallels between koinonia and sharing the Eucharistic meal as bond with Jesus and with one another (1 Corinthians 10:14-22);and in the eschatological sense, Revelation refers to the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (19:19).
Yet it is important not to overdraw parallels between the Lord’s Supper and the full meaning of the Paschal Seder. While both have memorial components — the salvation story itself, the blessings given, and the actual table ritual — Catholic Christians believe that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is guaranteed present within the Eucharist. In Jewish tradition, on the other hand, Yahweh becomes present in a conditional kind of way, based on the Jews’ keeping to memorial and “in the evocation of the figure of the angel” (Power 519).
Although the Christian understanding of Eucharist was born out Jewish tradition and then taught to converts, beginning in the Apostolic and Patristic Ages, the early Church continued to build out the theology and ecclesiology surrounding the Eucharist. Much of the theology stayed consistent overall, with many of the Church Fathers incorporating Hellenistic philosophy to show the typological connections between the Lord’s Supper in the Gospels and key Old Testament narratives, such as the Paschal Lamb and the manna. Still, the Eucharist as a sign of Christ’ sacrifice and resurrection continued to grow as an integral part of the liturgy and its meaning to believers. From the fourth century and into the early Medieval Era, the Eucharist became a dual sign of remembering Christ’s Pasch and “the heavenly liturgy to which he ascended.” And because the liturgy grew increasingly heavenly in its meaning, Christians proliferated images that reflected Christ’s sacrifice (Power 522, 523).
Also, after Christianity was legalized in the fourth century, and the Catholic Church continued to expand out its hierarchy and the ordained clergy’s role in the liturgy, the increased focus on the priesthood moved the Church from a communal type gatherings overseen by clergy to an even more structured liturgy. This including further focusing on the priesthood as essential to the liturgy and the consecration of the bread and wine into the real presence of Christ (Power 523). By the time the Scholastics had entered the picture, the priesthood was fully central to liturgical rites, while the role of the laity radically faded into the background. As Scholastic theology pointed out, the priest operates in the person of Christ in order to offer the sacrificial meal, along with using the same in persona Christi to forgive sins and deliver other sacraments (Power 526).
Thomas Aquinas, in particular, was a lead contributor to Scholastic theology. Specifically, he helped strike a balance between the literal and symbolic understanding of the real presence. Namely, as over-allegorizing the real presence was considered one extreme, and the other extreme involved the Eucharist having extra-fleshly powers (such as bleeding hosts), Aquinas, with the help of Aristotelian philosophy, was able to main the Eucharist’s metaphysical purpose. This action, in turn, cut out the extreme views — views that could have dramatically diminished the Eucharist’s role as a true sacrament reflecting Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, while also containing the real presence (Power 526; Tkacik SLU 2023).
Now, following one of the discussion questions in this module, “What does it mean to say that the Eucharist affords the real presence of Jesus?” While Church History upholds the Eucharist as being the body and blood of Christ, Vatican II took the definition another big step further by reemphasizing the celebration as a communal act among the entire body of believers, all of whom are considered *the body of Christ*. Therefore, when the faithful participate in the liturgy and receive the Eucharist — as one body of Christ, as a koinonia — they experience the following encounters: a deeply intimate encounter and continually nurtured relationship with Jesus, as well as the desire to be more loving and in accord with others. Tkacik explains this love as two types of communion: a vertical one with God, and a horizontal one among fellow believers and with humankind in general (Tkacik SLU 2023).
Bearing in mind the Eucharist’s role in Christian life, the Eucharist is therefore its lifeblood, its nourishing source. Sadly, as Tkacik points out, the Eucharist has also been a source of division among Christian denominations. Meanwhile, if Christians are to strive to be unified through Jesus’ death and resurrection, that means working towards a unified understanding of the real presence, including the clergy’s role in offering the sacrifice (Tkacik Module 4 AVP). Moreover, because receiving the Eucharist involved the faithful committing themselves to Christ and living by the grace given to them, Catholics must always remember that by Jesus making himself present in the Eucharist, they are to cooperate actively with God’s grace. As Vatican II explains, “The Liturgy (including the Eucharist), is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the found from which all her power flows.” Therefore, the Eucharist bestows grace upon believers and prepares them for the apostolate (Sacrosanctum Concilium #10; Tkacik and McGonigle 32).
To be prepared for the apostolate means the Church is to help the laity have as active a role as possible in the Eucharistic celebration. Having moved away from a post-Tridentine, heavily institutional approach to upholding the liturgy, the Vatican II Council helped the Church refocus on the laity as not only being baptized believers in Christ, but also that baptism empowers them to serve in priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions that represent Jesus’ ministry. “The faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join the offering of the Eucharist” (Lumen Gentium #10; Tkacik and McGonigle 37).
This means that the lay apostolate and the Eucharist are intertwined. In fact, Vatican II further defined the real presence in the Eucharist as having a relationship with the baptized participating in the liturgy. In other words, without full participation from all baptized believers as the body of Christ during the liturgy, the Eucharist’s role becomes flimsy. “In order that the liturgy may be to produce its full effects it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions..the faithful are to take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite and enriched by it.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium #7, 11; Tkacik and McGonigle 38).
Works Cited
Lumen Gentium: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
Power, David N., author. Fiorenza, Francis S., and John P. Galvin, eds. Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011.
Sacrosanctum Concilium: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html
Tkacik, Michael J., and Thomas M. McGonigle, O.P. Pneumatic Correctives: What is the Spirit Saying to the Church of the 21st Century? Lanham: University Press of America, 2007
Tkacik, Michael J. Saint Leo University, 2023.
Tkacik, Michael J. Saint Leo University, 2023.