How could Jesus have been any more plain in declaring the Eucharist is, in fact, Himself?
Historically (the early church fathers) clearly taught the Real Presence.
The Sacrificial Nature of the Mass
Pope Leo the Great
produced the Tome of Leo, the greatest Christological work ever produced in the Church.
The Lutherans accept the Real Presence, but they deny the sacrificial nature of the Mass.
However, the Church understands the Mass as the one sacrifice of the Mass represented to us in our time, in our space.
If you want to receive the Eucharist well, you must kneel with Mary at the foot of the cross. – St. Padre Pio.
Any spirituality that attempts to bypass the Crucifixion to get to the Resurrection, is a sign of the demonic. – Bishop Fulton Sheen (reference to Matthew 16:21-23)
This is why we must strive for holiness daily … no exceptions whatsoever.
In the holy sacrifice of the Mass we experience not only the real presence of our Lord, but his passion. Then it becomes our passion, we experience what we see and learn, and that powers our transformation, or transformation, or increase in holiness.
Exodus 12 (where the Lord proscribes the original Passover) is the antecedent to the Mass. Note that it was the father who took charge in preparing the Passover.
The husband is the head of the family, and holds the chief place in authority. The wife is the heart of the family, and holds the chief place in love. – Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum Divinae.
We (men) need to take headship in this battle against evil. For example, check out Catechism 2354 we as men have allowed this to happen.
Exodus 12:14, This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution. Exodus 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this rite of yours mean?’ you shall reply, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt; when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.‘”
Check it out: in perpetuity, and absolute reality. This is a type of the Mass.
While we are celebrating Mass, people outside are dying. THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL PASSOVER.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST EVANGELIZE.
The Ordinary Path to Holiness
Sacraments are the ordinary means of our sanctification – that is, how we become holy.
Mark 14 we have the passover connection. Check out Matthew 14:22-26. THIS IS THE MASS.
Almost every scripture scholar now understands that this is a precise fulfillment of the Passover liturgy.
For centuries and centuries, Moms would get the Passover kicked off by lighting a candle – this is a type of Mary, whose assent is what kicked off the whole Incarnation, which enables the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and of course the Eucharist.
Check out B16′s Holy Thursday homily from 2007.
The Fourth Cup
The Passover is not over at the end of the first day. It continues for another seven days, and is then re-enacted every year. Again, a type of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The fourth cup of this original Passover is actually the Crucifixion, beginning with his discourse in Matthew 14:32. As in Hebrews 5:7. He experienced the pain of all our sins for all time at that moment … he became joined to us and our sin to such an extent that he could that he could plead with the Father, “if this be possible let this cup pass, but not my will but your will be done”.
In this Jesus became perfected – through his suffering. Perfected in the sense that he transcended the limits of his humanity, and exploded the grace of the Father throughout the world, through all time and space.
This empowered him to go to the cross, where he prays and fulfills the fourth cup.
We are now in the seven days of unleavened bread … the un-bloody days of sacrifice. At Mass we receive the third cup, the cup of blessing. But since we are in the seven un-bloody days of Passover, each Mass is still a sacrifice, albeit un-bloody.
The fourth cup is at the hour of our death – viaticum – the last sacrament in our lives. We consummate this life in preparation for the next.
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There cannot be two parallel lives in our existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual’ life with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social relationshis, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture … This split between the faith which many of us profess and our daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.
