ACC ~ Luke 22 v14 - 20

OVERVIEW:

When the hour of this meal comes, Christ’s passion has begun. The three days of suffering, death, burial and resurrection begin with the breaking of the bread (EPHREM THE SYRIAN). The Passover Jesus celebrates with his disciples on this night is a type of the Easter feast to which believers come prepared with reverence. The preparations of the Passover by the disciples of Jesus will make them partakers of the joys of heaven (ATHANASIUS).

Jesus begins the meal by expressing his desire to eat this Passover with the disciples before his passion, for the cross will soon follow this meal (CHRYSOSTOM). The kingdom of God comes with Christ’s resurrection (EPHREM THE SYRIAN). Thus the church’s preaching of the kingdom and eating and drinking of the Supper, from Easter to the parousia, is an act of table fellowship celebrating that the kingdom of God has come (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). After Christ rises from the dead in his new, resurrected flesh, he will drink the new cup (IRENAEUS). The eschatological perspective looks ahead to the communion of the church at the table of the Lord. There his body and blood will be present in the bread and wine. There we receive the spiritual and bodily blessings of this table as we are made partakers of Christ (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). To eat his body and drink his blood is to commemorate the Lord’s obedience unto death (BASIL THE GREAT).

According to Jesus, the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit the bread is his body and the wine is his blood (JOHN OF DAMASCUS).The giving of Christ’s body with the bread is just as real as the giving of his body into death on the cross. Instead of eating the meat from a lamb as in the Passover, we now eat the Word of the Father. The lintels of our heart are smeared with the blood of the new covenant (ATHANASIUS). By eating his body and drinking his blood, we have life in us. The communal meal of Christ’s body and blood in this life-giving Eucharist of bread and wine is Jesus’ new Passover that we now receive in faith as a divine mystery (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

22:14 | The Time of the Meal

THE THREE DAYS OF PASSION BEGIN WITH THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: From the moment when he broke his body for his disciples and gave it [1] to his apostles, three days are numbered during which he was counted among the dead, like Adam. Although Adam lived for many years after having eaten of the fruit of the tree, [2] he was still numbered among the dead for having broken the commandment. God spoke to him, “The day on which you eat of it you shall die.” [3] Scripture also says, “Your descendants will dwell there for four hundred years,” [4] and the years were numbered from the day on which this word was pronounced. The same way of counting applies likewise to our Lord. [5] Alternatively, the sixth day must be counted as two and the sabbath as one. It was because he had given them his body to eat in view of the mystery of his death that he entered their bodies, as afterwards he entered the earth. Our Lord blessed and broke the bread, [6] because Adam had not blessed the fruit at the time when, as a rebel, he gathered it. The bread entered them, making up for the greed by which Adam had rejected God. The three days might also be counted from the descent into hell and the ascent: the sixth day, the sabbath, and the first day of the week. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 19.4. [7]

[1] Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22.

[2] See Gen 5:5.

[3] Gen 2:17.

[4] Gen 15:13.

[5] That is, the three days were counted from the moment when he broke his body and gave it.

[6] Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22.

[7] ECTD 284-85**.

THE PASSOVER A TYPE OF THE EASTER FEAST

ATHANASIUS: Above all, however, I wish to remind you and myself along with you that the Lord does not want us to come irreverently or unprepared to the Easter feast. We must have our doctrine straight, follow the proper liturgy, and do all things properly. The historical record of Israel’s feast tells us, “No foreigner, no slave purchased with money, no uncircumcised man, may eat the Passover.” [1] It is not supposed to be eaten in just any house. There is a proper place. He also commands it to be done in haste, because we were once groaning under the sorrow of our “bondage to Pharaoh” and the “commands of the taskmasters.” In the old days, the children of Israel were considered ready to receive the feast, which was the type, only if they had followed the instructions. That type was the forerunner of our feast, although the feast was not established because of the type.

When the Word of God was ready to establish the feast, which is the fulfillment of all, he told his disciples, “I have longed very much to eat this Passover with you.” The account of how the Passover was to be celebrated, as given to us in the Scriptures, [2] presents a marvelous word picture of what the festivity must have looked like. FESTAL LETTER 11. [3]

[1] Ex 12:43-44.

[2] Ex 12:11-13.

[3] ARL 178-79*.

PREPARED TO EAT THE PASCHA WITH JESUS

ATHANASIUS: On its way to Jerusalem, Israel was purified in the wilderness and was trained to forget the customs of Egypt. Similarly the Word has graciously prescribed for us the holy fast of forty days of Lent. Let us make it a time of purification and purging, so that after the fast we will be prepared to go to the upper room and eat with him, to be partakers of the joys of heaven. There is no other way for us to be prepared to go up to Jerusalem and eat the Passover but to apply ourselves to the forty-day fast. FESTAL LETTER 6. [1]

[1] ARL 109*.

22:15-18 | The Eschatological Perspective

JESUS’ PASSION WILL FOLLOW THE PASCHA

CHRYSOSTOM: Again, in another place Christ said, “I have greatly desired to eat this Pasch with you.” Why then did he say “this Pasch” even though at other times he had observed this feast with them? Why then? Because the cross would follow this Pasch. And again he said, “Father, glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you.” [1] To be sure, in many places we find him foretelling the Passion, [2] desiring that it come to pass [3] and saying that this was the reason he had come into the world. [4] AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 7.46. [5]

[1] Jn 17:1.

[2] Cf. Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; Lk 9:22, 44; 17:25; 18:31; Jn 10:12, 17.

[3] Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34.

[4] Jn 3:16, 17; 6:51; 8:12; 12:47; 13:1; 18:37.

[5] FC 72:203-4.

THE KINGDOM COMES AT JESUS’ RESURRECTION

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: He said, “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the kingdom of my Father,” to show that he foresaw his imminent departure from them. He said, “until the kingdom of my Father,” that is, until his resurrection. Simon Peter revealed in the Acts of the Apostles, “After his resurrection, during a period of forty days, we ate with him and we drank, [1] on this first day of the week. This agrees with what he had said, “They will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God,” [2] and after six days that was accomplished. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 19.5. [3]

[1] Acts 10:41.

[2] Mt 16:28; Mk 9:1; Lk 9:27.

[3] ECTD 285**.

THE KINGDOM COMES IN THE CHURCH’S PREACHING AND EUCHARIST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He says, “I will no longer come near to such a Pascha as this,” one that consisted in the typical eating. A lamb of the flock was killed to be the type of the true Lamb until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God, that is, until the time has appeared in which the kingdom of heaven is preached. This is fulfilled in us, who honor the worship that is superior to the law, even the true Pascha. A lamb of the flock does not sanctify those who are in Christ. Christ sanctifies us. He was made a holy sacrifice for us, by the offering of bloodless offerings and the mystical giving of thanks, in which we are blessed and enlivened. He became for us the living bread that came down from heaven, and he gives life to the world. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 141. [1]

[1] CGSL 566-67**.

JESUS WILL DRINK A NEW CUP

IRENAEUS: When he came to his passion, he wanted to declare to Abraham and those with him the good news of the opening of the inheritance. After he gave thanks while holding the cup and then drank from it … he promised that he would again drink of the produce of the vine with his disciples. Christ thus showed the inheritance of the earth, in which the new produce of the vine is drunk, and the physical resurrection of his disciples. The new flesh that rises again is the same that received the new cup. He cannot be understood as drinking the produce of the vine when established on high with his own, somewhere above the heavens. Those who drink it are not only spirits, because it belongs to flesh and not to spirit to receive the drink of the vine. AGAINST HERESIES 5.33.1. [1]

[1] LCC 1:393*.

SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL BLESSINGS FROM HIS TABLE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ is also within us in another way by means of our partaking in the sacrifice of bloodless offerings, which we celebrate in the churches. We received from him the saving pattern of the rite, as the blessed Evangelist plainly shows us in the passage that has just been read. He tells us that Jesus took a cup, gave thanks and said, “Take this, and divide it with one another.” His giving thanks meant his speaking to God the Father in the manner of prayer. Christ signified to us that he, so to speak, shares and takes part in the Father’s good pleasure in granting us the life-giving blessing that was given to us then. Every grace and every perfect gift comes to us from the Father by the Son in the Holy Spirit. This act, then, was a useful pattern for us of the prayer that should be offered whenever the grace of the mystical and life-giving sacrifice is about to be spread before him by us. Accordingly, we are accustomed to do this. First, offering up our thanksgivings and joining in our praises to God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, we come near to the holy tables. We believe that we receive life and blessing spiritually and physically. We receive in us the Word of the Father, who for our sakes became man and who is life and the giver of life. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 142. [1]

[1] CGSL 568*.

THE LORD’S OBEDIENCE UNTO DEATH

BASIL THE GREAT: We should eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord as a commemoration of the Lord’s obedience unto death. They who live might then no longer live for themselves but to him who died for them and rose again. THE MORALS 21. [1]

[1] FC 9:102**.

22:19 | The Breaking of the Bread and the Words of Institution

THE WORD MAKES BREAD BODY AND WINE BLOOD

JOHN OF DAMASCUS: Receive the communion of the spotless mysteries of Christ, believing in fact that they are the body and blood of Christ our God, which he gave to the faithful for the forgiveness of sins. On the same night when he was betrayed, he ordained a new covenant with his holy disciples and apostles and through them for all that should believe on him. He said, “ ‘Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins.’ In the same way he also took the cup and gave it to them saying, ‘Drink all of this. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.’” He, the Word of God, is quick, powerful and working all things by his might. He makes and transforms the bread and wine of the sacrifice through his divine operation into his own body and blood, by the visitation of the Holy Spirit, for the sanctification and enlightenment of those who eagerly participate in it. BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 19.165-66. [1]

[1] LCL 34:279, 281**.

WE EAT THE WORD OF THE FATHER

ATHANASIUS: Israel ate the meat of a dumb lamb to complete the Passover. Having done so, they smeared their doorposts with blood and laughed at the destroyer. We eat of the Word of the Father, the Son, our Savior. We have the lintels of our hearts sealed with the blood of the new covenant. [1] FESTAL LETTER 4. [2]

[1] Mt 26:28.

[2] ARL 82*.

22:20 | The Cup of the New Testament in Jesus’ Blood

WE HAVE LIFE IN US

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: By uniting flesh that was subject to death to himself, the Word being God and life drove corruption away from it. Christ also made it to be the source of life. The body of him who is the life must be this.

Do not doubt what I have said but rather accept the word in faith, having gathered proofs from a few examples. When you place a piece of bread into wine, oil, or any other liquid, you find that it becomes charged with the quality of that particular thing. When iron is brought into contact with fire, it becomes full of its activity. While it is by nature iron, it exerts the power of fire. The life-giving Word of God, having united himself to his own flesh in a way known to himself, likewise endowed it with the power of giving life. … When we eat the holy flesh of Christ, the Savior of us all, and drink his precious blood, we have life in us. We are made one with him, abide in him, and possess him in us. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 142. [1]

[1] CGSL 570**.

CHRIST’S FLESH AND BLOOD IN THE LIFE-GIVING EUCHARIST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: It was suitable for him to be in us divinely by the Holy Spirit. It was also suitable for him to be mingled with our bodies by his holy flesh and precious blood, which we possess as a life-giving Eucharist, in the form of bread and wine. God feared that seeing actual flesh and blood placed on the holy tables of our churches would terrify us. Humbling himself to our infirmities, God infuses into the things set before us the power of life. He transforms them into the effectiveness of his flesh, that we may have them for a life-giving participation, that the body of life thus might be found in us as a life-producing seed. Do not doubt that this is true. Christ plainly says, “This is my body. This is my blood.” In faith, receive the Savior’s word. Since he is the truth, he cannot lie. You will honor him. The wise John says, “He that receives his witness has set his seal that God is true. For he whom God sent speaks the words of God.” [1] The words of God, of course, are true. In no way whatsoever can they be false. Although we cannot understand how God does that, yet he himself knows the way of his works. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 142. [2]

[1] Jn 3:33-34.

[2] CGSL 571.