Corpus Christi Blog

Holy Thursday - 4 Cups

04-02-2015HomiliesFr. Chad King

Today begins the Holy Triduum, the holiest and most important 3 days in all of history.  We celebrate Holy Thursday today in which Jesus celebrated the last Passover with his apostles.  Tomorrow, Good Friday on which Jesus is sacrificed, and finally Easter Sunday on which Jesus rises from the dead.  Although celebrated on different days, it is important for us to view everything that happened to Jesus as one event, especially the last supper and crucifixion.  In this homily I will explain exactly how the Church sees these events as eternally connected, and why they are of the most importance to us. 

Today is the night in which Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his apostles, and by doing so instituted the Ministerial Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist.  Holy Thursday, in which we celebrate the Last Supper is much more than just a final meal together, but it was the final celebration of the Passover in which a lamb was sacrificed and eaten.  Toward the end of every Mass, the priest says something strange.  He quotes John the Baptist when he recognized Jesus, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”.  It is an odd thing to say, if we don’t have the ufll understanding of Passover.  On the outside of the Lutheran Church building on 6th Street and Chandler, it says that same verse, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.  Unfortunately, Lutherans don’t  share  the same understanding of that verse as we Catholics do.  They do not have the ministerial priesthood or Holy Eucharist which Christ instituted in this Last Passover, but for us to know the difference,  let’s delve into the  understanding of Passover.

Our 1st reading from Exodus 12 tells us about the Passover.  God commanded Moses, Aaron, and all the Israelites to celebrate the Passover.  To celebrate the Passover, every family must get a male lamb without blemish, take it to the priests in the Temple, and the priest would slaughter it.  More exactly, Rabbis have written that each lamb was sacrificed in the form of a Cross, 1 wooden stake would go through the insides and one stake across to hold the lamb spread out, probably to make it easier to skin and roast.  Then each family must spread some of it blood on the doorposts as a sign that God’s people live there.  It is called the Passover because God said that night the Angel of the Lord will punish the Egyptians for treating God’s people as slaves by killing their first born son, but the Angel will pass over the houses of the Israelites.  Exodus 12 goes on to say, after the lamb is killed and roasted, each family must eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs- the bitter herbs signify the bitter way in which the Israelites were treated by slavery in Egypt, but they must eat as prepared for their journey to the promised land. 

Our 1st reading also says that God commanded that the Passover celebration be a memorial feast that every generation must celebrate perpetually- which means forever.  Exodus 13:8 goes on to tell us that every year at the Passover celebration the oldest child would ask the father, why is this night different than any other night?  And the father would say “because of what the Lord did for me when he brought me out of Egypt”.  Notice that this memorial celebration wasn’t done by re-telling how God saved their ancestors in Egypt, but how God had saved them.  Each generation believed and acted as if God was still saving them.  So it was not just what God did back then, but it was believed that God still saves them through the perpetual Passover they celebrate.   Therefore, Jews truly believed that through sacrificing that lamb, spilling its blood, and eating the lamb, they were saved.  And notice that it was not enough just for the lamb to be killed, but they had to eat the lamb.

One last very important point we need to know about is the structure or flow of how the Passover was celebrated each year.  Rabbis have written that the Passover meal included drinking of wine 4 times.  One at the beginning as the family gathers, in which the father will say “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine”.  Does that sound familiar to something the priest says today?  Then they drink from another cup when the father recalls the saving works of God in Scripture.  A 3rd cup is drunk from during the meal.  Then after the lamb had been eaten with unleavened bread the Jews would sing a couple of thanksgiving psalms, and after they sang the thanksgiving hymn, the Passover would be concluded by the drinking from the final cup.  So in the Passover, there were 4 cups that were drank from- 1 in the introduction, another after the father has re-called in Scripture how God saves them, another cup during the meal, and a final cup after singing a hymn of thanksgiving.

Knowing this structure of the 4 cups during the Passover celebration, when we look at the Passion Narratives in the Gospels in which Jesus celebrated the Last Passover with his apostles, we see a couple striking details.  First, the Gospels only talk about 2 cups being drunk from directly- the introductory cup must have been assumed- one just before the meal which would be the 2nd cup, and one during the meal, which would be the 3rd cup of the Passover.  Then the Gospels say Jesus and his apostles sang a hymn, but instead of drinking from the final 4th cup, Jesus goes out to the Mount of Olives.  There he prays that this cup of suffering might pass from him, but not his will but God’s will be done.  So he references a 4th cup, but doesn’t drink it yet.  It is not until Jesus is upon the Cross, does he say “I thirst”, and a little sour wine is given to him on a sponge as was custom, and after drinking from this cup- Jesus says, “It is finished”.  And Jesus breathed his last, and died.  All the Jews who were anticipating and wondering why Jesus didn’t finish the Passover would have understood that Jesus did finish the Passover- just not in the upper room but when He died up on the Cross. 

Let’s look closely at the celebration of the Last Passover in the upper room, you will notice that Jesus did a couple other different things.  Instead of taking the lamb and eating it with unleavened bread, Jesus took the unleavened bread and said, “Take this all of you and eat of it, this is my body which will be given up for you”.  So instead of the Passover meal being the flesh of the lamb, Jesus makes it his body instead.  And again when Jesus took the cup he said, this is the cup of my blood, it will be shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins, do this in memory of me”.  Clearly Jesus is saying that He is the new Passover Lamb who will be killed and it is his blood, not that of the lamb, that will be shed for the forgiveness of sins.  And Jesus is also clearly instituting this new Passover to his apostles, the old is passed, the new has come, and so they we were to do this, do this new Passover, in memory of him.  And we know that for the Passover to be completed, it is not enough just to have the Lamb sacrificed, but it must be eaten too.   My brothers and sisters, Christ declared himself as the new Passover lamb that was sacrificed, once and for all, and so it is his flesh that He gives us to eat.  And that is what the Catholic Church, beginning with the Apostles, has always believed and receives at every Mass.  May our understanding of the New Passover that Christ gave us open our hearts to a deeper love for God and strengthen us on our journey to the Promised Land of Heaven.

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