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“The Eucharist and the Mass”
By Michael A. Kirk
“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread…”[1]
The Eucharist is a sacrifice without blood. It is entirely different from the sin offerings that our Hebrew forebears offered unceasingly, vainly attempting to counterbalance the weight of their sins with quantities of the blood of oxen and goats. The offering of bread and wine is a sacrifice of thanksgiving (eucharistein in Greek) that the Hebrews called ToDaH. This is the sacrifice that is to be offered when we recall the great deeds that God has done for us.
Genesis 14:18 "Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram...”
Hebrews 7:1-2 "This Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High […] His name first means righteous king, and then he is also ‘king of Salem,’ that is, king of peace. Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever."
“Without the Shedding of Blood, There Is No Remission of Sins...”[2]
When the Lord saved his people from the bonds of slavery to men in Egypt, He had them eat the meal of the Passover sacrifice the evening before it was to be accomplished. In the Passover commemoration, the third cup of wine, which corresponds to God’s promise “I will redeem” from Exodus 6:6, is known as the Cup of Blessing, and, at the end of the meal, all participants in the Passover must drink from it. Blood was shed in the mark of circumcision in the covenant of Abraham. Blood marked the doorposts of God’s people at the Passover. And the Lord’s own Blood is offered to us in the Eucharist as the sign of our Redemption.
Exodus 24:7-8 "Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.’ Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of His.’"
Matthew 26:27-28 "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins."
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I...”[3]
The Hebrew people had an understanding that wherever one of the signs of God’s covenant was, the Lord had a special, real presence there. In the Ark of the Covenant, the Hebrews kept Aaron’s staff, the fragments of the Ten Commandments, and some of the manna with which God fed His wandering people in the desert. These signs of God’s providential care for and covenant with them served not only as consolations, but also as points of contact with the Divine. The Eucharist is the new sign of God’s covenant with His people, but rather than merely being present around this sign, He is substantially and personally present in it.
Exodus 25:8 "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst."
Exodus 25:22 "There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you..."
Exodus 25:30 "You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me always."
Matthew 12:1 "At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. [...] [Jesus] said to them, 'Have you not read what David did, when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering (of the presence) [...] I say to you, something greater than the temple is here."
Matthew 28:20 "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
Luke 24:30-31,35 “And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight […] Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread…”
“Salvation comes from our God […] and from the Lamb”[4]
Our Lord Jesus the Christ, the Lamb of God, became man specifically that He might become the final sacrifice to save us from our sin. Abel offered a first-born lamb, and his sacrifice was looked upon with favor. Abraham offered a ram provided by God in place of his first-born son. The Hebrews offered yearling sheep in place of their first-born sons. To accept the redemption offered by each of these sacrifices, the people had to consume the lamb. The Lord God gave His first-born Son to be the lamb of sacrifice to redeem our lives. He did so not only so that by dying in our place, He might free us from our sins, but also so that by taking and eating of His Body, we might have His Divine Life welling up within us.
Genesis 22:8 “‘Son,’ Abraham answered, ‘God Himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.’”
Exodus 12:5-8 “The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”
Leviticus 23:12-13 "You shall offer to the Lord a holocaust an unblemished yearling lamb. Its cereal offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil […] and its libation shall be […] of wine."
John 1:29,34 “‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. […] Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.’”
Luke 22:19 "Then he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.'"
