Passover and redemption

Although John spends more time describing the events of the last supper - including the conversations across five chapters of his Gospel - he doesn't give us the details of the institution of the eucharist. He does give us plenty of details around the event, including ensuring that we know that it all unfolded during the celebration of the Jewish Passover. Of all the gospel writers, John is the most thorough in giving us seasonal time stamps for the events that unfolded in the life and ministry of Jesus - providing us with the feasts that provided the backdrop for the events. If we understand the background of the Passover and what took place during the meal - and all of John's first readers would have had access to that information - we gain many insights into what took place on that incredible night...

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Recorded at St Paul's, 7pm. (7'15")
Mass of the Lord's Supper

Post #200

A new covenant

Taking a friend out for a driving lesson a few weeks ago brought to mind my own experience of learning to drive a car. Growing up on a farm, our first driving experience was with tractors and motorbikes and eventually cars as we made our way around the paddocks. But once I actually received my Learner Plates and attempted to drive out on the roads of Bega, I soon discovered that roads and paddocks are different. All was going along okay, until another car approached in the opposite direction and I freaked out, pulling off the side of the road to allow them to pass. Thankfully as my skills improved, so did my confidence in driving. Now, so many years later, when I go for a drive, I don't have to really think about the mechanics of driving at all - it is now second nature.

It seems that God wants us to have a similar experience with his laws. At first we need to be given the structure and outlines of the law to shape us and guide us as we learn and grow in our knowledge of God and his ways - but the plan is that as we go along we begin to make these laws part of our being and they begin to be our second nature. It is unfortunate that so many people still think of the laws of God and the laws of the Church as merely external structures - which often make little sense - which are imposed upon us. But if I need a law to tell me not to kill the annoying person across the street, or to remind me that I should go to church on Sunday, or not to steal - then the laws have not yet become part of who I am.
The prophet Jeremiah provides us with a stunning insight into the heart of God - as he relates a most incredible promise. In the days to come, he tells us, the law of God will no longer be only written on tablets of stone, but now the Lord will personally write the laws of this new covenant deep within each one of us, so that we may truly know his way of life personally. It seems that even Jeremiah is so overwhelmed by this prophecy that he tells us four times in these verses that 'It is the Lord who speaks.'
In the ministry of Jesus we discover what it looks like for the laws and covenant of God to be written on the heart of a human being - indeed the word becomes flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. What is even more amazing is that Jesus offers to feed us and allow the New Covenant to come to life in every one of us as we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, and his promise to bring this covenant very near becomes actually real when we eat his body and drink his blood and so receive the very life of God within us. Amazing promises and even more amazing fulfillment!

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Recorded at St Paul's (8am) 09'33"

Liturgical Dance

Reality TV shows like MasterChef have reminded us of the art involved in preparing a meal - you need the right equipment, the right techniques and especially the right ingredients in the correct balance to prepare the culinary masterpiece. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ provides an opportunity to reflect on the interplay between the essential ingredients in the celebration of the Eucharist - the priest, the people and the ritual - especially in the light of the introduction of the new translation of the Third edition of the Roman Missal in Australia. Over the history of the church we have seen that too often one of these essential ingredients have been overly emphasised - to the detriment of the others and of the life of the church community.

Does the new translation offer a way forward to finding the correct balance between all three elements in a new spiritual liturgical movement?

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Recorded at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 9'55".
Corpus Christi.

The road from Emmaus

This powerful resurrection story is well known and often repeated. It shows the creative power of Luke's narrative and has intrigued saints and scholars over the centuries. One saint who has a wonderful commentary on the story is St Bede the Venerable, the famous 8th century English historian and doctor of the Church. He brings his analytical insights to the narrative to provide us with the power of this story for our own lives.

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Easter Sunday 3A. Luke 24. 9'36"

A hunger to be fed

Celebration of First Holy Communion (Readings from the feast of Body and Blood of Christ) in St John Vianney Parish. The final of two special Masses.

Like when Jesus gathered with his disciples, we continue to gather to be fed by the Lord in the readings and to be united by him in this meal of new life and new hope. Jesus fed the huge crowd first with his word of life and then with food. When the disciples ask Jesus to feed the crowd, he first asks them to give them something to eat. The disciples forget that Jesus can do anything - he did after all just walk across the water.

This is especially the case as we also are invited to allow the kingdom of God to break into our lives, so that we can be changed by our encounter with the very presence of the Lord.

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Recorded at St John Vianney Church, 12noon (4'44")

Before this Mass (like last week) I asked the Year Three children to suggest a few words that I had to include in the homily that I shared with them. Initially they suggested words like 'Jesus', 'bread', 'wine', 'bible', 'God', 'eucharist', but then their words became a little more left-field, like 'random', 'rubber suit' and 'chocolate'. Hopefully this may explain why there appear to be these slightly random words today and last Sunday ;-)

New life and new hope

Celebration of First Holy Communion (Readings from the feast of Body and Blood of Christ) in St John Vianney Parish at the first of two special Masses. Like when Jesus gathered with his disciples, we continue to gather to be fed by the Lord in the readings and to be united by him in this meal of new life and new hope. This is especially the case as we also are invited to allow the kingdom of God to break into our lives, so that we can be changed by our encounter with the very presence of the Lord.

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Recorded at St John Vianney, 12noon (4'26")

A priest of El Elyon

The first reading from Genesis presents the intriguing character of Melchizedek, king of Salem, and priest of El Elyon (God Most High) who offers Abram a sacrifice of bread and wine. Why is this significant for the celebration of this feast of the Eucharist?

There are two significant points of distinction about the passage from Genesis 14:18-20. The central character, Melchizedek, is only mentioned in this one brief passage, and then again in Psalm 110 (the Responsorial Psalm today) across the whole Old Testament - and yet Melchizedek comes into the theology of the New Testament (through Hebrews 7) and the early Church as a symbol of the priesthood of Jesus and as a model for the ordained ministry.

The name Melchizedek comes from two Hebrew words - Melek meaning king, and sedeq meaning justice or righteousness. So already his name means the King of Righteousness (Heb 7:2). But additionally he is described as the King of Salem - a name that is connected both to the Hebrew word for peace (Shalom) and to the city of Yerushalem / Jerusalem. Genesis 14:17 says that this event takes place in the King's Valley which leads up to the site where Jerusalem was established. Finally, this king of righteousness, and prince of peace is a priest of God Most High (El Elyon) brings a sacrifice (that is what 'kohen' / priests do) of bread and wine. So it is no wonder that the early Church sees in Melchizedek a figure of Christ.

The second point is that when Melchizedek meets Abram (his name has not yet been changed to Abraham) he blesses (baruch) Abram in the name of 'El Elyon'. El is the most generic name for God or divinity in the Semitic languages, including Canaanite. Abram is returning after doing battle with the Canaanite kings to rescue his nephew Lot who had been captured by them. In the Canaanite pantheon, El is also the father of their main god, Ba'al. So perhaps you can understand the reticence of the Hebrews to refer to their God by the most generic name 'El'. Before the revelation of the sacred name of God to Moses, described in Exodus 3, YHWH - which becomes the most common way of calling upon the Lord, and is usually translated in English bibles as LORD - over 6000 occurrences - God was often referred to as Elohim (strictly the plural form of El) or using a descriptive word with El - such as El Elyon in the text here, or in forms like El Shaddai (meaning something like God of the mountains, but the exact meaning of the Hebrew is unclear; it is only when it is translated into Greek in the LXX text that the meaning 'God Almighty' is offered) or El Olam (Everlasting God). But this specific name for God - El Elyon, God Most High - is only used in this passage out of all the Old Testament. And we don't know why.

The descriptive Elyon is found regularly enough across the pages of the OT, but not connected to El as it is in this passage - until you arrive at the New Testament. There, (in Luke 1) when the angel appears to Mary, she is told that she will give birth to the son of the Most High God. Zechariah is told that his son will be a prophet of the Most High. And then right across the ministry of Jesus he clearly sees himself to be the fulfilment of the ministry of Melchizedek - the king of righteousness, the prince of peace, and priest of El Elyon. Paul understands these connections when he describes (20 years before any of the Gospel accounts) the Last Supper, using the language of covenant and sacrifice.

Jesus likewise in the Gospel today first welcomes the crowd and teaches them - as a king and priest was meant to do. Then he invites his disciples to feed the people - but they continue to be thick and miss the prophetic point; all they suggest is to send the people away. Jesus instead reminds them that a king is meant to gather into unity, so he takes what is available (the bread and fish) and says the baruch (blessing) over the gifts and then gives the abundant food to the disciples to distribute.

Although Jesus is the perfect fulfilment of the priest Melchizedek, he also shares this ministry with his disciples, and continues to invite us to be fed and nourished by no less than his very body and blood, so that we in turn can welcome others to share at this feast; as we are transformed by these most precious gifts, so also we are invited to transform all that we bring to the altar of El Elyon.

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Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (11'10")

Hungry to be satisfied

17B – Season of the Year – John 6:1-15

This year we have been reading from the Gospel of Mark. Last week we had the story of Jesus and the disciples crossing over the lake and coming to find a large crowd of people, which he set out to teach at some length. Rather than continuing the story from Mark, we interrupt the story and change to have an extended reading from the Gospel of John, so that we have his unique perspective. John’s gospel was written much later than the other gospels, probably late in the first century. You have this deeply reflective, theological and spiritual understanding of Jesus and the mysteries of the Church. One of the curiosities of John’s Gospel is that when you go to the Last Supper with John, there is no mention of Jesus blessing the bread; of Jesus taking the cup and telling the disciples that this is my blood. We can wonder – why aren’t what we call the Institution Narratives – the story of the institution of the Eucharist mentioned in John’s Gospel? It is because it is here, in this sixth chapter of St John. I invite you as we journey through this magnificent chapter over the next five weeks to take the time to prayerfully and slowly read through the chapter. Take the time to ponder these majestic words and allow them to sink deeply into our spirit.

Here in this Gospel, one of the things we must remember is that nothing ever happens by chance. Every word is carefully chosen to drive home this deep symbolic and rich meaning. The gospel begins with Jesus and his disciples going up a mountain. This should evoke every other mountain in the Scriptures – from Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb to Mount Tabor – all the other mountains in scripture that have that rich sense of those places that you go to be with God; where God will reveal his presence and his power and his majesty. Then it simply says that there Jesus sat down. We probably will miss the significance of this: in the ancient world a master would sit down and his disciples would also sit down at his feet in order that he could teach them. This was the symbol and gesture of teaching. So Jesus sat down to teach and instruct his disciples. It is why when we gather at the Eucharist we sit down to listen to the readings – to hear the word of God – and to allow the readings being proclaimed to nourish and enrich us. Hopefully this will also happen in the preaching of the priest as he tries to expound upon the words of God. John is reminding us that what is happening here in this scene is what happens every time that we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. First we sit down to allow the word of God to nourish us; to allow Jesus to teach us.

But then he says the Feast of Passover was drawing close. What happens at Passover? The Lamb of God is sacrificed. That lamb of God that allowed the people of God, the Hebrew slaves to escape the judgement of God upon the kingdom of Egypt. They remembered this every year as that time when God delivered them from slavery to freedom. This is the signal for John to remind us that we are moving from that time of teaching in the Mass into that time of sacrifice. Then Jesus looks and see this massive crowd of 5000 people approaching up the mountain. He says to the disciples ‘what are we going to do? How are we going to feed this huge crowd?’ Philip speaks the words that are on all their lips – even 200 Denarii or six-month’s wages – would not be enough to buy food to even give them a little bit to eat. Even that much money is not enough – and we don’t even have this much money. Then Andrew recognises at least something that is available. He says, well actually there is this little boy, this child has five loaves; he has a couple of fish. But what is that among so many? Perhaps that is what we sometimes think when we get to the offertory at Mass; when those few scraps of bread, that little jug of wine is brought forward as a sign and symbol of what our offering is; of what you as the people of God bring and what I as the representative of Jesus in this gathering receive on your behalf. Such fragile attempts – mere scraps – and yet we know and we trust that somehow in that the Lord will take it; the Lord will take our lives; the Lord will take what we can offer; he will take and he will receive. Jesus does this – he takes these small and fragile offerings of this young child and he gives thanks. That word, in Greek, is eucharisteo – it is why we call this gathering the Eucharist – because it is here that we give thanks; that we gather to give our return to the Lord – to bless him, to worship him and to offer our thanksgiving for all that he does through us and in us. So Jesus does this; he gives thanks to God – he prays the blessing of God to be upon this fragile offering which is our lives. Then he himself breaks and gives – a sign of those four central actions that are at the heart of every Mass. We take the offering of our lives, we give and bring up the gifts which are blessed in the Eucharistic Prayer; where they are broken at the Lamb of God, and then distributed to each of us so that we can feed.

Here, when Jesus feeds personally each of the people in this crowd – then everyone eats and is full. Everyone is satisfied at this feast. We have so many hungers – don’t we? We want pleasures, we want recognition; we want to be like everyone else; we want to have the thrill of money or of sex or of wealth or of whatever we want... But none of these things every truly satisfies. Even if we have our fill, even if we have the latest gadgets, even if we travel to the four corners of the world, we are never satisfied. But here in this place, when we are allowed to eat of the very life of God, when the Lord himself feeds us, then we can be satisfied; then our hearts and our longings and our desires can be filled and fulfilled in Christ. That is why he feeds us; that is why we gather to give thanks. That is why we bring those fragile offerings of our lives because the Lord always wants to work with us; he always wants to take what we can give and bless that, and multiple that and fulfil those deepest longings in our hearts and spirits.

The final curious detail that is given to us in the Gospel, is that Jesus instructs them to gather all the scraps and fragments together that are left over from the feast. It is the same thing that we do at the Eucharist – that we are very attentive even to the smallest fragment of this precious gift – because we want to gather it, we want to collect it so that others also can share in this gift. It is that sense of unity in being gathered. John tells us that there were twelve baskets full of scraps and fragments at the end of the feast – the twelve as that richly symbolic number representing the 12 tribes of Israel – that fullness of the whole people of God. All of us are called to be gathered in unity as his people; as different and diverse as we are we are called to come together in this place, for this Eucharist we are allowed to be one; we are allowed to be gathered into the great feast of the Lord. Today as we celebrate this Eucharist. As we allow the gifts of our lives to be brought up and to be offered; as I pray that great prayer of thanksgiving on your behalf when I ask the Spirit of God to come and fall upon these gifts to make them into the body and blood of Christ; as we break them and as we share them, know that the Lord himself is feeding our deepest desires and longings. He is bringing them all to be blessed and multiplied and in our turn we are invited to give thanks for this great gift of the Eucharist.

Recorded at St Michael's 9.30am (10'23")

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Body and Blood of Christ - Passover and Eucharist

The Gospel today (Mark 14:12-16) begins with a reminder that the Last Supper occured in the context of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with the sacrifice and eating of the Passover Lamb. To understand this meal, we need to look back through Scripture to the first and most significant meals in human history. In this context, the first meal was when given the whole garden as a gift, Adam and Eve chose instead to grasp and grab the fruit, rather than receiving the gift from the hands of the Lord. When in later centuries the people of God were caught in slavery, the Lord delivered them first by gathering the community for a meal, where the Passover lamb was sacrificed and eaten as a sign of what God was doing within the community. Once we begin to understand the way that God continues to freely offer his life to us, then we can begin to understand what Jesus was doing throughout his life, as he ate and drank with saints and sinners, and as he continues to freely offer himself to us. All we need to do is receive him as the greatest answer to our hunger.

Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (10'36")

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