THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Last Supper and Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary By Harold Blando

On the Eucharist part 1: When did Christ gave His life? The answer is during the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Everybody agrees that the Crucifixion on Calvary was indeed a sacrifice.

Let ask ourselves the basic question, let us put ourselves in the shoes of the apostles for the moment. Did the apostles really think that the Crucifixion in Calvary was a sacrifice when they witnessed it?

Well, the answer is no. “Yeah Catholics are denying the Crucifixion again”. Where the apostles joyful when Jesus died? Of course not because for them, they witnessed the bloody Roman execution of the Lord in the cross. And after that they were very afraid in fact. How come it became the Sacrifice? Well a sacrifice in the Jewish liturgy entails a priest, a sacrifice and an altar in a temple. Where these present in Calvary? Well, Jesus was, but Jesus never performed any ritual. -get to the point-

Did we say that Jesus is a priest? Did we say Jesus is the Lamb of God? Yes we did! When did Jesus fulfilled his being a priest and a lamb?

We know what a priest is, he offers the sacrifice and we know what the significance of a lamb is, it is the sacrifice. Are you following me? Jesus is both the priest and the sacrificial lamb.

When did Jesus perform his priestly function? Did we say a priest offers a sacrifice, specifically to God? Let us look at the last supper…

—-Luke 22: 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.[a] 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

THIS IS IT: Jesus took the bread and said this is my body! And then Jesus took the cup and Jesus said this is my blood! For those who have eyes, read. Jesus just offered His body and blood when He turned the bread and wine into His flesh and blood then said “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME” or in other words Jesus said “offer this as a memorial sacrifice”. Jesus was saying “As the one high priest I have offered and gave up myself as the sacrificial lamb to you, offer this as a memorial sacrifice”.

St. Paul got it perfectly in “1 Cor : 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Interestingly enough St. Paul did not say whenever you look at the cross, you proclaim the Lord’s death.

***Anamnesis (“remembrance”) has sacrificial overtones. It occurs only eight times in the NT and the Greek OT. All but once (Wisdom 16:6) it is in a sacrificial context (Hebrews 10:3, Leviticus 24:7, Numbers 10:10 and Psalm 38 and 70) The term anamnesis can be translated as “memorial offering,” or “memorial sacrifice.”

What about the one in Calvary? It is the culmination of Jesus being the Lamb of God. Jesus has already gave up His life on holy Thursday and culminated in the Calvary as the one perfect Sacrifice. Only when we acknowledge that Jesus gave up His life on Holy Thursday will we able to accept that the Crucifixion in Calvary was more than a bloody Roman execution but the ultimate sacrifice of all time.