There’s a whole lotta John 6 on the Internet about this time every year. There’s a whole lotta John 6 in  Wednesday Sunday School, too. One of the key John 6 classroom verses reads:

“For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.”  in the Douai-Rheims & KJV;

“For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” in the RSV;

“For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” in the NIV;

and my preferred translation in the NAB, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

I find the word “true” a bit more compelling than “real,” and way more compelling than “indeed”. Truth is simply a more moral, profound and comprehensive concept than the other two. I don’t see how real or indeed add anything to true; but they do take something away. St. Jerome must have agreed: his Vulgate reads, “Caro enim mea vere est cibus; et sanguis meus, vere est potus.” You know: truly. English uses that Latin-French -ver- root in veracity, aver, very, and of course, Jesus’ favorite, verily.

Uh-oh; now I’m curious about verse 55 in French…here we go:

“Car ma chair est vraiment une nourriture, et mon sang est vraiment un breuvage.”  Yep, truly again.

And in Greek, the passage reads, “η γαρ σαρξ μου αληθως εστιν βρωσις και το αιμα μου αληθως εστιν ποσις,” which is Greek to me, but the keyword ἀληθῶς/ alithos also means truly. You know, like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding when they give the Easter greeting: “Χριστός ἀνέστη! Christ is risen!” followed by the response, “Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη/ Alithos anesti/ Truly risen!”

Ἀληθῶς-alithos is the adverb form of ἀλήθεια-alitheia-truth. So for example, when Pilate spoke to Jesus, he asked him, “What is alitheia?” And Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the alitheia, and the life.”

By the way, Alitheia is close to how Spaniards would pronounce Alicia, i.e., they lisp the s sound. Would Alicia/ Alice come from alitheia and mean Truth? Why, yes, it would. Now I wonder about Martha-Marcia…why yes, Martha is Greek from Aramaic (mistress, the feminine of master). See, languages ain’t so tough.

I know this doesn’t have to be the big deal for everyone else that it is to me. But in Catechism class, it’s good to be able to draw parallels among: Pharisees saying Jesus is true; St. John writing that God is true; Jesus saying he’s the Truth; Pilate looking right at the Truth and asking Him what is Truth; and Jesus flatly stating that his flesh is true food, his blood true drink.

Saying real or indeed in the last case takes the simple & straightforward and makes it complicated.

Is that fussy? Well, if your name were Alice, and you were to tell me what your name meant, what would you say?

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continued from Wedding Reception

Mass is almost over now that we have received Communion; in a few minutes the feast will be over. This is a good time to look at how a Catholic church helps the feast take place.

But first, does anyone know who Balaam [on the board] is? No? How about Balaam’s Ass [on the board]? (giggles & snickers) No? OK then: Balaam was a pagan who lived when the Israelites were getting established in the Promised Land after their 40 years of wandering in the desert. He was famous for blessing and cursing people, and making it stick. Well, the Israelites had been whipping their local enemies in battle so thoroughly that Balak, the king of Moab, wanted to pay Balaam to curse the Israelites. He didn’t want to be next on their whipping schedule. Y-H-W-H (don’t say it!) told Balaam not to visit Balak, but the Book of Numbers says, “Balaam rose in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.”(more giggles & snickers)  OK, what’s ‘ass’ mean? Donkey? Yes. Now this is your last chance to act like babies when I say ‘ass’…ready?  Ass. (fewer giggles & snickers) Alright, that was it. No more giggling like 5-year-olds. “But God grew angry because he went; and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary.” An angel blocked the way to Moab. “And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the road, and went into the field; and Balaam struck the ass, to turn her into the road.” [I act all this out] “Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall, and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again.” Poor donkey, she’s doing Balaam a favor! “Then the angel of the LORD went ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam; and in anger Balaam beat the ass with his stick.” Now I love this: “Then the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”  And Balaam said to the ass, “…I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face.” Balaam decided to get himself some humility in a hurry. Trick question: why was Balaam riding the donkey with his eyes closed? His eyes weren’t closed!  No? It says, “the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel.” Doesn’t that mean his eyes were shut? No, it means he couldn’t see the angel until God let him. Oh. But the donkey saw the angel the whole time…how come? No guesses. Tell me, can we see water wash sins off a baby at Baptism? No. Can a saint see it happen? Yes. Why? No guesses? Put it this way: why can’t we see it? ‘Cause we’re sinners! Yes, sin makes us…blind! Yes! So Balaam couldn’t see the angel…’cause he was a sinner! Yes; but Balaam’s ass could see the angel because…animals don’t sin? Maybe so, the story doesn’t say. But remember in one of Isaiah’s Christmas prophecies, he said the people of Israel didn’t know their master, but the the ox and ass did.

Now, back to the feast, listen again to another bit of Isaiah you’ve heard before: “And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.” Are ‘all people’ sitting under a giant blanket? No, it’s not real. So what is covering them, what sort of veil is it? Is it sin? Yes, at Isaiah’s feast the veil of sin will be “destroyed” so people will be able to see God clearly. And if sin is destroyed, where must the feast be? In Heaven. Yes.

Now let’s look at this handout again, you’ve seen it before:

What’s the first plan? Moses’ Meeting Tent. Yes…did Moses design it? No, God did. Yes, God gave instructions about every detail of the Tent: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.” God showed Moses the heavenly pattern of all the stuff that went in the tent, even including little things like the candlesticks. And if God “dwelled” in the tent, then it was…his house? Yes, he lived in a tent because his people, the Israelites, lived in tents.

Somebody tell me, what’s a tavern? Is it like a bar? Yes. Up North, like in Pennsylvania, people will say ‘tavern’ when we say ‘bar’; I think tavern sounds more civilized. Anyway, taberna [on the board] is a Latin word for house. Yes? Why does it have a b? Because b‘s and v‘s sound almost the same in some languages. Somebody digame, como se llama twenty in Español? Somebody say twenty in Spanish.  Veinte [on the board]! Yes. See, it’s spelled with a v, but listen to the sound, please say it again. Veinte. Does it sound like a b or a v? Kind of in between. Yes.

So taberna means house, and a tabernaculum [adding to taberna] is a little house, or a tent or a log cabin. Where an English Bible says ‘tent,’ a Latin Bible will say tabernaculum. What word do we get  from that? Tabernacle. Yes. We have a tabernacle in church! Yes, good, we’re getting to that. The whole meeting tent was the tabernacle, God’s dwelling. Now look at the Holy Spaces where only the priests could go: what separates them? A veil. Yes. Is it a real veil? Yes!  Right, it was a beautiful curtain that prevented everyone from seeing what? The Ark!  Yes. Only one person could go behind the veil…who? The High Priest? Yes. The other priests could tootle around the rest of the Meeting Tent, but they couldn’t go past the veil. So who would offer the most important sacrifices to Y-H-W-H? The High Priest. Yes; he offered sacrifices for the whole nation, all the people of Israel, right in front of God. Was God there physically? Well, God doesn’t have a body. Right; but Y-H-W-H’s presence was right above the Ark, between the cherubim. What’s ark mean? A container! Yes, good. And what was in the Ark? Come on, y’all know this. Umm…the Ten Commandments? Yes, and…the miracle bread…manna!  Yes, a pot of manna; and Aaron’s staff. Are those things God? Ummm, no? Right; God wouldn’t live in a box. God’s stuff is in the box. But the Israelites had super-respect for that box of stuff.

Now look at Solomon’s Temple: it’s bigger and nicer and more permanent than the Meeting Tent; but it has the same pattern as the Tent. Who designed the pattern? God! Yes. Is that a real veil? Yes!  Right; just like in the Tent. And look at the Church: tell me about the pattern. It’s the same! Yes, almost.

In the New Testament there’s an Epistle to the Hebrews…what’s Epistle mean? Letter. Yes, so it’s a letter written to Jews who had become Christians. I think they might’ve been worried about not going to the Temple in Jerusalem every year and sacrificing a Passover Lamb. The Epistle explains to them that it’s not necessary anymore, because “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God…who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man, but by the Lord.” So where is the “true tent”? In Heaven! Yes; tell me, who is the High Priest in the church? Jesus. Yes, and where is the High Priest? In Heaven. Yes, he’s the slain Lamb, a perfect Lamb, who offers himself right in front of the Father’s throne in Heaven, in the true tent. So the Hebrew Christians didn’t need the Temple priests to sacrifice and offer lambs for them anymore. And how long will Jesus be a High Priest? Umm…forever? Yes, at least until the Final Judgment in Revelations. The Epistle says we have “a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the veil, where Jesus [has] become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” What’s the deal with Melchizedek? He offered bread and wine! Yes; like...Jesus! Yes, at…the Last Supper! Yes! Y’all are too smart!

At Mass, can we see Jesus offer himself in Heaven? No. Right; now tell me about the veil on the church plan. It’s not in the church! Right; is it a real veil? No, it’s sin! Yes, sin veiled Balaam’s eyes from seeing the angel, and sin veils us from seeing what’s in Heaven. But if we become saints, and free from sin…then we can see. Yes. So the pattern in a church stops at the veil of sin, and the rest of the offering of the sacrifice takes place beyond that veil, in...Heaven, yes which is the true tent, not an earthly copy.

Now tell me about the Ark in the church plan. There isn’t an Ark, there’s a tabernacle. Yes; what’s the difference? No guesses? What’s ark mean? Container! Yes, in this case, a box. And what goes in a box…people? No, stuff!  Yes. Is Jesus stuff?  No, a person! Yes, and if Jesus wants to dwell with us in church, would you have him live in a box? No!  What do people live in? A house? Yes, so Jesus…has to have a house. Yes, but he doesn’t take up much room under the appearance of bread; he doesn’t need a full-size taberna, but a…tabernacle! Yes, a “little house.”  Why do tabernacles often look like little houses? Because Jesus lives there. Yes, as the Bible might say, Jesus dwells with us in the Tabernacle.

Now in the Tent and the Temple the Jews had great respect for the box of God’s stuff. But what should get more respect: God’s stuff in a box, or God himself in his little house? God in his little house! Yes, so always behave in church with the respect that Jesus deserves.

Now after people eat a feast, what needs to be washed and put away? The dishes? Yes; who does them…the guests? No, the person who invited them. Yes, the host or hostess. Well, after Communion, the priest does the dishes. When he’s done, Jesus is put back into his little house, and we all sit down. Following a short prayer and any announcements, the priests blesses us and says, “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” Somebody digame how to say Mass in Spanish. Misa! Yes [on the board]. It comes from this Latin word: missa [on the board]. At the end of Mass in Latin, the priest says “Ite, missa est” [on the board]. It means “Go, it’s the dismissal.” That’s where we get the word Mass, from the dismissal. And the people say…thanks be to God! Yes. Then what happens? Well, we leave? Yes, the Mass is over.

And our year of 6th grade Wednesday Sunday School is over too, along with all your misery. I do hope y’all learned a thing or two while y’all suffered so dreadfully. And for the rest of your lives, if you have a question about being Catholic, or the Bible, or the Mass, or whatever, get a hold of me and I’ll find you an answer.

Before class is “dismissed” I want to draw one last picture that pulls together a lot of what we learned this year. [I draw] What’s this? The altar. Yes, which is also a...table…yes. It represents…Mass? Yes…and here’s the priest, who stands in for...Jesus. Yes. Now around the Mass I want y’all to name six things we learned that tie into the Mass. The Last Supper! Yes, and? A man who offered bread and wine…Melchizedek! Yes, and…blood on the doorposts…Passover! Yes….miracle bread in the desert...Manna! Yes…miracle bread…Jesus…apostles…Loaves & Fishes! Yes, and last of all…we learned it tonight…wedding…Wedding Feast! of…the Lamb! who is… Jesus! Yes, good children!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and Forever!

Class over!

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After the priest receives the bread and wine, he says the Invitation to Prayer: “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.” And we reply, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands…” What’s the sacrifice? Jesus? Umm, not yet, what just got brought up at the Offertory? Bread and wine. Yes, there’s no change yet…but we’re getting there. Is the bread nice and fluffy? No it’s flat. Why isn’t it fluffy? Because Moses couldn’t wait for fluffy bread. Right, for the first Passover the Israelites made their bread without leavening so they could leave Egypt quickly. So our New Passover meal has flat bread, too.

Next we sing the Sanctus, you know it: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Who remembers in the Gospels when people said ‘hosanna’ to Jesus? He was coming into a town…they were waving palms...Palm Sunday! Yes, when Jesus entered…Nazareth! No…Jerusalem! Yes. People had heard he was the Messiah. Not a meek Messiah, but one like…King David! Yes. But when we say ‘hosanna’ at Mass, we know Jesus isn’t an earthly king…where is he king? In Heaven. Yes. In fact, the first part of the Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory” is mostly said in Heaven, not here on Earth. Let’s look in Revelations to see what goes on in Heaven while we’re at Mass.

In Revelations chapter 4, St. John has a vision of the Heavenly Liturgy: “At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! And…round the throne was a rainbow… Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads.” [I draw & talk] Here’s the throne…who’s sitting on it? God? More specifically, please. Jesus? Good guess, but no. Mary? Well, she’s Jesus’s mom, but no. God the Father?  Yes. And here are the elders, pretend that’s 24 of them….with crowns…there. Who remembers the Greek word for “elder”? Presby-something? Yes, presbyteros; and we shorten it to…priest! Yes; so think of them as priests. And what’s a priest’s job? C’mon, y’all know this. To say Mass?  Partly, but specifically what do priests do? Aztec priests, Catholic priests, Levite priests, they all…sacrifice!Yes, they offer sacrifice.”And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures…the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.” Who might these 4 creatures represent? We have an angel, a bull, a lion, and an eagle…four saints, their pictures always show them writing…MatthewMarkLuke&John! Yes, who are…gospel writers!  Yes, evangelists.

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” We say this at Mass because they’re saying it in heaven. “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever..” When they give thanks they ‘eucharisteo’ in Greek, just like we do with the Eucharist.

Now with all these elders, these presbyters, these…priests, yes, standing around the throne, what should they be doing? Praying? Hmm…tell me again, what’s a priests job? To offer sacrifices? Yes, so they…should….be offering a sacrifice? Yes. So what’s missing? A sacrifice? Yes. What would be a good typical sacrifice? A lamb? Yes! John says, “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.” This Lamb would be...Jesus?  Yes [I add the Lamb]; how about that? It looks like a dog. Please, be charitable. And I need a red marker because the Lamb needs...blood on it!  Yes…now that’s a slain lamb! “…and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints…and they sang a new song, saying, “you were slain and by your blood did redeem men for God.” So we know the Lamb is…Jesus, yes, and the elders are singing, and playing music, and burning incense, and saints are praying, all of which should remind you of…Mass? Yes. The communion of saints on earth and in heaven are doing the same things. And which of those things do we do at Mass? Well…all of them?  Yes. Heaven and earth are connected at Mass.

So in heaven we have the priest-elders, whose job is to…offer sacrifice, yes, and we have a victim, a… lamb, who is…Jesus, yes. But what’s still missing? Do you offer sacrifices on a sofa? No, an altar! Right!

John writes, “And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer” So there is an altar: “and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.” When we burn incense at Mass, remember that our prayers go up to heaven and mingle with the prayers in heaven. [I add incense and the altar]

Now all of this is like Mass because Mass is like a Passover sacrifice in the Meeting Tent or the Temple. When Moses made the first Meeting Tent, did Moses decide how everything would be? No, God told him what to do. Yes, God said the design was based on the pattern in heaven. The Church, Temple and Tent are all patterned on this worship in heaven.

Back to Mass on earth: after the ‘Holy Holy’ what do we do? Kneel down. Yes; this is most important part of Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer. The priest says: “…most merciful Father,we make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord: that you accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices.” And what’s being offered at this moment? Bread and wine. Right, maybe $10 worth of bread and wine. If you were God, would you let that offering atone for our sins? No! Why not? It’s not good enough. That’s right.

The priest then reminds us that all of us saints on earth are praying along with all the saints in heaven: “In communion with…the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse,” that is, Jesus’s…parents. Yes, and “Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude,” who are…apostles. Yes, and “Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus [and] Cornelius”…any idea who these guys are? That’s ok: they’re the first men to be pope after Peter. And then we hear, “Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian” who are some of the first martyrs. The Church doesn’t name all these people to fill up time, but to remind us of all the saints who are praying with us at Mass.

Now, we are still offering bread and wine at this point, but the priest prays, “approve this offering in every respect; make it spiritual and acceptable, so that it may become for us the Body and Blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.” And when did bread & wine first become Body & Blood? At the Last Supper? Yes, so the priest takes the bread, and prays, “On the day before he was to suffer, he took bread in his holy and venerable hands, and with eyes raised to heaven to you, O God, his almighty Father, giving you thanks (eucharisteo!), he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying: take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you.” Of course this is straight out of the Gospels. Then he holds the chalice and says, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it. For this is the chalice of my blood; the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” And what happens? They change into body and blood! Yes. This moment is called the Consecration: when the bread and wine are made sacred, holy.

Then he prays: “look upon these offerings…and…accept them, as once you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.” Tell me quick, Abel offered…a lamb! Yes; Abraham offered...a ram!  Well, before the ram…Isaac, yes, his son. And Melchizedek…bread and wine! Yes, and at Mass do we offer bread and wine? Yes! And a lamb? Yes! And a son? Yes! Good; Mass recalls all those offerings.

Now let’s look at this handout:

What’s that a picture of? Mass. Yes, but it’s also like the story of Manoah and the Angel. Remember Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife, were told by an angel that they were going to have a baby. They were so happy that Manoah made a thanksgiving-in-Greek-Eucharist offering to God.  “So Manoah took a young goat with the cereal offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD, to him who works wonders. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.”

And here’s what the priest says next: “In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty…” What does that sound like? It’s like what Samson’s parents saw! Yes, it’s like the angel taking Manoah’s offering  from the altar on Earth up to heaven. But the picture and the prayer are both from….Mass! Yes! We don’t see the angel who does this, but it’s part of our prayer, we believe it happens. Why can’t we see this? C’mon, we’re blinded by something….oh, sin! Yes, and to believe in something we can’t see we need….faith. Yes. All the saints in heaven can see it, though. And what is the angel taking up? Well, the offering. Yes, but what’s being offered at this point? Umm, bread and wine? No, there’s no more bread and wine. Oh, Jesus is the offering! Yes. That’s Jesus being carried up; not some goat like Manoah offered but a perfect Lamb. And we are offering Jesus to whom? God. More specifically, please…God the Father. That’s it.

“What’s everybody doing in the picture? Well, they’re at Mass. No, I mean their posture, they’re all bowing their heads; why is that? No takers…let’s read the last bit about Manoah again:  ”…the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.” Why’d they fall on the ground? They were scared when the angel took off. Yes, a bit scared I’m sure, but they were in the presence of a miracle, and it made them feel very humble. If I had seen that, I’d have fallen on the ground because I had passed out. People long ago would lie down on the ground in the presence of God, or even a king. Nowadays we just bow our heads, lying on the ground is messy. But notice at Mass, at the Consecration, the altar boys bow way down, their heads almost touch the ground when they bow. They bow like Manoah in the presence of God’s miracle.

And in the picture that’s Jesus on the cross: are we nailing Jesus on the cross at Mass? Umm…no? No, of course not. He was crucified once. But we offer Jesus’s sacrifice at every Mass because Jesus offered himself at the Last Supper. Part of what we “do in memory” of Jesus is offer him when we co-memorate, commemorate, the Last Supper at Mass. That way Jesus’s sacrifice is always present at the altar at Mass, just like the slain Lamb is always present at the altar in heaven.

Then we hear, “that all of us, who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.” Let’s review for a second. At the offertory, what do the people bring up to the priest? Bread and wine. Yes, then does the priest offer the bread and wine to God the Father: here’s ten bucks’ worth of bread and wine, Father, please forgive our sins? Ha, that’s silly! Yes, so the priest offers what? Jesus. That’s right; that’s the perfect sacrifice that atones for our sins. And who turns the bread & wine into Jesus’ body & blood? The priest. Wow, he must have super powers. Let’s remember, Mass isn’t mostly about what people do, it’s about…..what God does, yes, so who made it happen? God. Yes. But Jesus works through the priest, so that was a good guess. Then we see in the picture the angel carries our offering from the altar on Earth up to the altar in Heaven…bye! So how do we “at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood” if it all went to heaven? Well, some got left behind? Sort of…think about it this way:

When my wife puts on Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, she spends a fortune, and does a ton of cooking and preparation. The guests know she worked hard for days. When the guests arrive they usually have something with them, what would that be? A present? What kind of present do you bring to a dinner, a power tool? Ha, no, food! Good guess, and maybe for the adults something…wet? Umm…wine? Yes indeed. Why do guests bring presents? ’cause they are glad you invited them! You got that right! They are not just saying ‘thank you’ but showing it by bring a thanksgiving offering. Now if someone brings my wife a nice bottle of wine, does she say thanks, and put it away for another occasion? No, I bet you drink it right then! Right! She says thank you so much, let’s open it right now….here’s a glass for you, let’s all have some. It’s like Mass: she does all of the important work; the guests show their thanks by offering a small gift; she is gracious and offers them back some of their offering. God does the same thing: we offer bread and wine; God gives us back Jesus. We offer Jesus; God says thank you, y’all have some too. And when we “receive from this altar the sacred body and blood” do we put it in our pocket for later? No, we eat it right then! That’s right! That’s how we show thanks at a feast: we eat it all right then! And remind me: what was that Israelite miracle bread called? Manna!  Yes; could they eat it later? No, they had to eat it when they got it. Yes, just like we do when we get our miracle bread.

New topic: tornadoes. Tell me about tornadoes. They blow around? Yes; where do they start? In the sky. Yes, in the clouds. They are powered by the atmosphere; and what happens? They make a funnel and go down to the ground. And what happens to small things they might run over? They get sucked up! Yes, and plopped back down later.

Look again at the Mass picture, see how it looks swirly toward the top? Yes. Well, I like to think of what happens at Mass as a Holy Tornado: God swirls it from Heaven down to our altar, and it carries the angel and the Body & Blood up to the altar in heaven, zhoop! Then it sends Jesus’s Body and Blood back down for us to eat, phhhhht! How long do tornadoes last? A few minutes? Yes, and like regular tornadoes, a Holy Tornado is over pretty quick, too. But Masses are being celebrated all over the world, 24/7. Imagine thousands of Holy Tornadoes all around the world, zhooop, zhoop, zhoop, connecting heaven and earth for a few seconds each time. Let’s draw that connection [under the drawing of the Heavenly Worship]. This is in church…what’s this big blocky thing? The altar? Yes, like the one in heaven. And an altar is for…sacrifice, yes. And we have this guy…the priest,…yes, the presbyteros, the elder, like in heaven. And altar boys burn… incense, yes, like…in heaven. Yes…there we go. And here’s the Holy Tornado connecting both altars with the same sacrifice, which is…Jesus. Yes. That makes sense because Jesus is both man…and God, yes, so he fits well into both places.

One last bit and we’re done for tonight: this block thing isn’t just an altar. What else is it?  When the priest says, “this is my body, this is my blood, do this in memory of me” what are we doing in memory of Jesus? The Last Supper?  Yes, which was…supper? Yes, a meal. So the altar is also…a table? Yes. And this meal isn’t just any old supper…it’s like Christmas dinner at my house…a feast! Yes. We’ll learn about that next week, which is our last class. Your suffering will soon be over!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and forever!

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continued from the prior post

So, after the sermon what do we stand up and say together? The Creed? Yes, the Nicene Creed; and you can tell it’s a creed because the first words are what? We believe in one God? Yes. Y’all know it already, but let’s look at few of the last lines from the Creed before we start on the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

First: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; and his kingdom will have no end.” A couple of weeks ago we learned all about the Second Coming and the New Jerusalem; what book of the Bible was that? Revelations? Yes. And we also say we believe in the Resurrection of…Jesus! Umm, yes, but wait a second and try again. “We believe in the Resurrection of…the…body! Yes, which also is described in what book? Revelations. Yes.

Next: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” What’s that mean, the Church is “apostolic?” That the apostles started it? Mmm, almost; how do we know the bishop in Charleston is a real bishop? ‘Cause they laid hands on him! Yes, and how far back does laying hands go? Back to the the apostles. Yes, that’s why the Church is apostolic.

Let’s look at one more line, from the Apostle’s Creed. It’s very similar to the Nicene Creed. Sometimes we use the Apostle’s Creed at Mass instead of the Nicene. “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.” What’s the Communion of Saints? Umm….when saints go to communion? Good guess; what’s a union [on the board]? What’s it mean to be united? To be all together? Yes. Well, a co-union, a communion [comm- is added to union], is when a group of people is so like-minded in what they believe that they’re close, like a family. They love each other. So why would we mention the Communion of Saints at Mass? Who are the Cloud of Witnesses? The Saints! Yes, and when we are at Mass…they are too. Yes, we’re ‘surrounded’ by them. So why the Communion of Saints? Is it like the Cloud of Witnesses? Yes, but more. St. Paul calls people who are alive on earth and in God’s grace saints, too, not just souls in heaven. So the Communion of saints might include…us? Yes, we’re part of a huge saint family. We want to get to heaven and the saints there want us in heaven, too. And they’ll pray that God gives us the grace to get there, especially if we ask them to pray for us.

Now the Liturgy of the Eucharist starts. ‘Eucharist’ is the Greek word for ‘thanksgiving.’ We use that word because at the Last Supper, Jesus “took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves…he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In Greek “gave thanks” is eucharisteo [on the board], it’s almost exactly the same as our word Eucharist. So we give thanks, too.

First we have the offertory. What happens? We put money in the basket? Yes, but more important, what do the people bring up to the front of the church? Bread and wine! Yes. Do they bring it up to the altar? No, they give it to the priest. Yes. Why don’t the people take it up to the altar?  ‘Cause they aren’t priests! Yes, they aren’t set apart for that job. But why do altar boys get to tootle around the altar, they aren’t priests either. But they might be priests when they grow up. Yes, or deacons; it’s a training period for them.

Now let’s have a look at this handout.

You’ve seen the first two plans before, Moses’ Meeting Tent and Solomon’s Temple. They’re essentially the same, but the Temple is way bigger and made of stone. It doesn’t look bigger. Yes, the paper is too small to draw the Temple at the same scale as the Tent. This is more a drawing of what happens in these spaces than a drawing of the spaces themselves. Let’s quickly review the Tent and Temple. On the left, the people bring their offering, let’s say a…lamb. Yes. They stop at the front of the altar and the priest takes the offering. He washes his hands before he sacrifices and offers the lamb. Behind him is the Holy Space where God’s presence dwells. Does Y-H-W-H (don’t pronounce it!) have a body? No! Right, so he doesn’t dwell there physically. There’s a bread offering, an incense offering, candles, and a veil so the Levites can’t look right at the Ark. Only the High Priest goes into the very back, where the Ark is guarded by no-nonsense cherubs. What’s in the Ark? The Ten Commandments? Yes, and? The miracle bread…manna! Yes, and Aaron’s staff. None of those things are God, but they are God’s stuff.

Now let’s look at the church plan; it’s very similar to the other two. The people space is bigger because we all come at once, but how it all works is still basically the same. People bring up the offering, which isn’t a lamb…bread and wine! Yes, and who offered bread and wine for Abraham? Melchizedek! Genius, you remember, good. And there are still candles, an incense offering, and a washbasin. Where’s the incense? Good question, you tell me: is there a piece of furniture in church for burning incense? No, the altar boy carries it. Yes, so it’s not on the drawing, but incense is still burned.

After the priest receives the bread and wine, he says:

“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands; it will become for us the bread of life…we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands; it will become our spiritual drink.”

Speaking of humans doing work, ”liturgy” is yet another Greek word. In fact, the Mass is called the ‘Divine Liturgy’ by the Eastern Churches. Liturgy [on the board] (Leitourgia, λειτουργία), means “people-work;” it’s the work the people and the priest do at Mass. What’s ‘energy’ [on the board under liturgy]? Power? Yes, power for what? To make stuff happen? Yes. Energy is the capacity to do work. The -urgy in liturgy is the same as the -ergy in energy; it means work. So let’s look at this people-work; tell me the people-work when you hear it again: ”…we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands- that’s people-work! Yes; and the same for the grapes and the wine.

So we offer bread’n'wine, not wheat’n'grapes. Umm, OK. Well, why not? Because Jesus and Melchizedek used bread and wine? Yes….but maybe there’s more to it. If we produce grapes and wheat we work, but the work doesn’t change anything. Plant a vine, it makes grapes. Plant a wheat seed, it grows into a stalk of wheat. They’re stuff God created. But when we use them to make bread and wine, they stop being wheat and grapes anymore. Human work creates something else in bread and wine: can you get the wheat and grapes back out again? No. Right; it’s a permanent change, and there’s no more wheat or grapes. It’s a bit like the change Jesus will work. So if we first do the people-work, then Jesus can do…the God-work? Yes!

The people’s work transforms the plant stuff into something new: bread & wine. Then Jesus accepts these offerings, and transforms them into something new again. Now, trick question: can Jesus make his Body’n'Blood out of wheat and grapejuice? Well, can’t Jesus do whatever he wants? Yes, of course….but do you think if we brought up wheat and grapejuice at the Offertory, that they’d become the Body and Blood? No, that wouldn’t work. Right. Why not?

OK, last year my younger daughter needed to get an old bike in working order so her boyfriend could ride with her.  I agreed to fix it, but she had to help me the whole 45 minutes or so.  Her help was limited to passing me tools, oilcans, holding the bike steady, turning the crank, paying attention and making observations (e.g., those chainlinks need more oil).  I could’ve done it alone, but she does not value the working bike if she doesn’t contribute to the fixing.  And her contributions, while small, were real.  And would I have fixed the bike if she weren’t willing to help as best she could? No! No indeed.  I wouldn’t do most of the work if she didn’t do a little bit herself. Why not? Because that’s how she shows it really matters to her. Yes. Could she just sit inside and surf the net and tell me the bike’s important? No, she has to do something, she can’t just say it. Yes. If I do the big fixing, she has to do the….ummm, the little fixing? Yes. And at Mass, if Jesus does the big transformation, creating his Body & Blood, we have to do the….little transformation! Yes. First we do our little work by transforming wheat & grapejuice into…..bread & wine! Then Jesus does the big work, changing them into….Body’n'Blood! Yes, like so[on the board]:

Wheat > Bread > Body

Grapes > Wine > Blood

The first steps are up to us, and none of the work is reversible. The Liturgy, the people’s work, makes it possible for Jesus to do his work. It’s like when married people make babies. It’s God’s creative power that flows through the parents; but if they won’t do their part, God can’t do his part. And at Mass, if the people don’t do their work, will Jesus do his? No! That’s right. He depends on us to do our part. If we don’t, nothing will happen. Can you imagine how much Jesus loves us to depend on us? By the way, since Jesus loves us, why does he require us to do something when he’s powerful enough to do it all by himself? It’s just good if we help. Yes, when we help God, it dignifies us. Just like when my wife used to make brownies with my kids: they were dignified by their work, their contribution. You know what happens to kids who get everything from their parents with doing anything themselves? They’re spoiled. Yes. God doesn’t want to spoil his kids. God helps those who help themselves as much as they can, just like a loving parent should.

And this is true for other Sacraments. For example, in Confession God will forgive us, but we have to…..confess out loud to the priest! Yes…but how about Baptism, what does the baby do? Ummm….babies can’t do anything. Right. They can’t even feed themselves….do they starve? No, the parents feed them. So at baptism, if the baby can’t decide it wants to be baptized….? The parents decide for the baby! Yes, the parents act for the baby. But can parents just drop into church after Mass and say, hey we need our baby Baptized quick, or we’ll be late for a movie? No, that’s silly! That’s right, the parents and Godparents have to agree to take charge of the baby’s Christian life, to do the work until it’s old enough to do it itself.”

So y’all see how Catholics first do the People’s work, and in response God does His work. And y’all see how my sons & daughters are required to do work for their own good. It’s like that in class, too. Honorary sons & daughters, in this class can you just sit there in a stupor? No! What work do you have to do? Pay attention! Yes, and? Answer questions! Yes. I want you to use your brain to….think! Yes. When you participate, and do your work, that makes it possible for me to do mine.

Let’s stop here. Praised be Jesus Christ!

Now and Forever!

Class over!

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Last week we got to the end of the Bible. For the next 3 classes we’re going to learn about the Mass.

Tell me, was Jesus a good Jew? Huh? Did Jesus do the things a faithful Jew was supposed to do? Umm…yes? Right: he kept the Sabbath, went to Jerusalem for Passover, obeyed the Commandments. Being a good Jew, what did Jesus do on the Sabbath? Go to church! Well, Jesus hadn’t founded the church yet, so where’d he go instead? A sss-synagogue? Yes, a synagogue. That’s a Greek word, by the way. Now, remember the time Jesus visited Nazareth after he had grown up. What did the men ask him to do at the synagogue? To read? Yes…to read what? The Torah? Yes genius, good, he read from Sacred Scripture, which did not include the New Testament. Why not? It wasn’t written yet? Yes. But that was what Jews did in synagogue on the Sabbath: pray, maybe sing a Psalm, read from Scripture; and then the rabbi, the teacher, would comment on the readings.

After Jesus ascended to heaven, and the apostles were fired up by Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, they went out and began to preach about the Messiah to Jews in Jerusalem. The apostles still considered themselves good Jews; after all, the whole Messiah business was Jewish. So they would tell everyone at the Temple and local synagogues the good news about Jesus. The Book of Acts says “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” We can guess that the Christians would still attend synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath, which was…Saturday, yes, and then “break bread” on Sunday, Resurrection Day. What else did they remember when they “broke bread”? What does ”break bread” mean: to bust up stale bread and watch it fall all over the floor? No it means to eat!  Yeah…a bread snack? No, dinner. Yes, a meal. What meal might they remember when they broke bread? The Last Supper? Yes, Jesus had said “do this in memory of me.” So on Saturday the Christians…read the Bible? Yes, the Old Testament; and on Sunday…they did the Last Supper. Yes.

Unfortunately, like Christ Himself, the Christians were aggravating the scribes and priests and Pharisees. The temple staff thought that the Romans had taken care of their Jesus Problem. But here it is a couple of months after Jesus was crucified, and now there are a dozen apostles getting everyone at the Temple riled up worse than Jesus did!

One day Apostle #1….Peter! yes, and John were at the Temple. “And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody…” The high priest and the Levites told Peter and John to SHUT UP! about Jesus. Did they shut up? No! Right. Even after they were beaten up by the temple guards, “every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

But one day Stephen, one of the first deacons, was taken before the high priest and his council and accused of blasphemy, like Jesus had been. He wouldn’t shut up either. “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against him…Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.” And as y’all heard before, Stephen was the first martyr; and Saul witnessed his death.

So the Christians figured out that the Jewish authorities considered them blasphemers, not good Jews at all. And they began to stay out of the Temple and the synagogues, and read from Scripture on their own. Eventually they observed the new Sabbath, which was…Sunday, yes. They’d pray, listen to readings from the Bible, listen to comments on the readings, sing a Psalm, and then have a Last Supper meal together. What does that sound like? If you were somewhere on Sunday, and you heard Bible readings and then someone talked about the readings, and you sang a Psalm, and then re-enacted the Last Supper where would you be? At church! More specifically, please, what event at church? Oh, Mass!  Yes, at Mass.

Mass still divides into those two main parts: readings from the Bible, and the Last Supper. The first main part is called the Liturgy of the Word [on the board] because…that’s when they read the Bible. Yes, and the second main part is the Liturgy of the Eucharist [on the board], because…that’s when we have Communion. Yes. Let’s look at them in order. I’m going to read from the Missalette to keep us moving along. I’m not going to read every word, just parts. By the way, sometimes I’m going to use a new English translation of the Mass. We’ll start using it in church next Advent (2011).

What happens first at Mass? There’s a song. Yes, a hymn. After the hymn, the priest says, “The Lord be with you,” and we say…and also with you. Yes, it’s a greeting. Then we say the Confiteor, a prayer like an Act of Contrition [time permitting I read it all a bit at a time]:

“I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned”…we are reminding ourselves that we’re all sinners, which is why we’re at Mass. “…in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.” We tend to notice sins of commission more more than sins of omission; what’s a sin of omission? If you don’t take care of your little brother! Yes, that’s a good one. “And I ask the blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints…” This reminds us that at Mass we’re surrounded by St. Paul’s “cloud of witnesses,” who are…angels and saints. Yes. “…and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” So we ask all the faithful in Heaven and Earth to pray for us. How do the saints hear us? Umm…I don’t know. Me neither, but God makes it happen.

Now that we’ve told God we’ve sinned, what do we ask for? For him to forgive us? Yes, to be merciful. We usually sing “Kyrie Eleison” which is Greek for…Lord have mercy, yes, and Christe- Christ have mercy, yes.

Next we sing the Gloria. Who can tell me where the first line comes from: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people of good will.” No guesses, you’ve heard it this year…around Christmas…from Luke’s gospel…someone said it about baby Jesus…the Wise Men! No, close though. The angels said it to the shepherds! Yes, good! When you say it, remember the story.

And who said this line: “Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world…” John the Baptist! Yes, genius, when Jesus came to be baptized in the…Jordan River!  Yes.

After the Gloria, the priest says a short prayer, and we…stand on our heads? We sit down! Yes. Now the Liturgy of the Word begins. At Mass we hear a lot of reading out of the Bible, and maybe even listen to it! What’s the first reading called? The First Reading? Yes [on the board]. Since it’s first, what Testament would the readings come from? The Old? Yes. So we might hear a reading from Genesis or Isaiah.

Trick question: what’s next? The Second Reading! Wrong, I win! The Second Reading doesn’t come next! The next thing isn’t usually read; it’s sung. A person in the choir sings part, and we sing part. What is that? King David wrote most of them…Psalms! [on the board] Yes, and why do we sing them? ’cause they were songs? Yes. We looked at some Psalms a few months ago. If you listen to the words you can usually tell what was on David’s mind when he wrote each one: he was happy, or sad, or thankful, or feeling remorse. What’s remorse? It’s means to feel sad and sorry that you did something wrong. So when you sing a Psalm, imagine King David singing it too. Hey, here’s a bit from Psalm 141 that tells us something about Mass: “I call upon thee, O LORD…Give ear to my voice, when I call to thee! Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice!” What does incense do? Smell good? Yes; what does the smoke do? Go up? Yes; in a spiritual sense, where is it going up to? Heaven? Yes, like our prayers. When you’re at Mass and incense is burned, remember your prayers should rise up to heaven like the incense.

After the Psalm comes…the next reading…The Second Reading! [on the board] Uh-huh. The lector tells you what the reading will be. He might say, “A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans;” so would the Second Reading be from the Gospels? No, the Epistles! Yes, because “Epistle” is Greek for…letter. Yes. And because Paul and the other Epistle-writers usually wrote letters to scold people or correct their mistakes, Epistles aren’t a

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Hey y’all, Lent is over, and last Sunday was Easter. So instead of praying an Act of Contrition for Lent, we have an Easter season prayer, which I will sing because it’s also a hymn to Mary that’s about 900 years old. It tells her to be happy because Jesus isn’t dead anymore:

“O Queen of Heaven, be joyful, alleluia.
For He whom you have humbly borne for us, alleluia.
Has arisen, as He promised, alleluia.
Offer now our Prayer to God, alleluia”

Ok, last week in our Mass class we stopped with the priest saying, “command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty,” and referred to that great image of the angel going up to heaven in the Holy Tornado.

Moving forward in the Mass from there, the priest says, “Remember also, Lord [those] who have gone before us with the sign of faith, and rest in the sleep of peace.” Who are these people? Saints? Yes. And the priest mentions some of them: “graciously grant some share and fellowship with your holy Apostles and Martyrs:” John the Baptist, who y’all know; Stephen, who was the first…? He was stoned to death…the first martyr!  Yes. Matthias, who replaced…the bad apostle…Judas! Yes. Barnabas, who traveled with St. Paul; Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus; Peter, the first…pope! Yes. And now a group of women saints: “Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha; Lucy, who was tortured by…putting her eyes out! Yes, and “Agnes, Cecilia, [and] Anastasia.” These saints were all among the first Christian martyrs. And I like Anastasia because her name comes from Anastasis, which is Greek for…Easter! Yes, it means “resurrection.”

And when the priests asks for “fellowship” with the saints, what’s he mean? To be friends with them? Yes, to be part of the Communion of Saints, who are at Mass with us even if we can’t see them.

Tell me, when we think about our sins, do we want God’s justice? No, we want his mercy! Yes, his forgiveness. That’s why we next hear, “admit us, we beseech you, into their company, not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon…”

During the Eucharistic Prayer we’re kneeling; when it comes to and end, we stand up. When we stand up, what do we pray? C’mon, y’all know this. “At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say”…the Our Father! Yes, which comes to us straight out of Jesus’s mouth in the Gospel of Matthew. And y’all know this line: “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…” Well, right after Jesus finished the prayer, he said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:14) So, if we don’t forgive others…God won’t forgive us. Right. I expect to spend quite some time in Purgatory burning my resentments away in order to forgive everyone. So even though y’all are way younger than me, y’all may beat me to Heaven, even if I die first as expected. When you zoom past me, say, “Bye, Stratopops, I’ll pray for ya!”

Now we get to my favorite part of the Mass. First we say, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” how many times? Three! Yes; and who are we quoting? John the Baptist! Yes, and we kneel again. Then the priest holds the Body up, which looks like…bread, yes, and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” And who first said that? John the Baptist. Yes; about whom? Jesus.Yes, when? When Jesus came to be baptized. Yes; where? In the Jordan River. Yes, good. This reminds us that Jesus is just as physically present at Mass as he was when John spoke those words at the Jordan River. It’s the Lamb of God, it’s Jesus. And what’s the deal with the Passover Lamb? You have to eat it! Right. By the way, what did John eat in the desert? Bugs! Yes, tasty when dipped in honey…right, girls? Ewww! Uh-huh…boys? Cool! Yep.

Then the priest quotes an Angel in Revelations: “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” This reminds us we’re about to share in the Wedding Feast. Let’s look at where this comes from in Revelations, which we already know says a lot about the Heavenly Worship that connects to Mass on Earth. But first let’s read a bit from Isaiah that you heard earlier this year: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines; juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces…” Tell me, is Isaiah describing a snack? No, a feast! Yes, and all peoples are there, not just the Chosen People. And there’s no death or tears, so it must be…in Heaven! Yes.

Revelations adds to Isaiah’s prophecy: “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure.” And the Lamb is…Jesus, yes. And the Bride is…the Church, yes, which is all the nice buildings? No, it’s us!  Yes; and we’ll all live in the Holy City, the…New…Jerusalem! Yes.

So Jesus marries the Church…why? Because he loves Her! Yes. So much that He died for Her. And after a wedding, there’s…a reception! Yes! So it’s a happy feast, but serious, too. And an angel said, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb…On his robe…he has a name inscribed, King of Kings and Lord of Lords… Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called…”Come, gather for the great supper of God…” So when we eat the feast on Earth…they’re eating the feast in heaven?  Yes.

When I was about your age there was a rock band called Genesis. They wrote a song about the Book of Revelations, which is clever: Genesis is the first book in the Bible, and Revelations is…the last one. Yes. The song is called “Supper’s Ready.” Is it about eating leftover pork and beans around the kitchen table? No it’s about the Wedding Feast! Yes! Listen to the last few lines of the song, which ties together all the stuff you’ve learned about Revelations:

“There’s an angel standing in the sun,
And he’s crying with a loud voice:
This is the supper of the Mighty One.
The Lord of Lords, King of Kings,
Has returned to lead His children home,
To take them to the New Jerusalem.”

So when the priest says, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,” use your imaginations.

And then we respond to the priest…you know it: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…but only say the word and my soul shall be healed! Yes. And who said it first? The guy who wanted his servant healed… Yes…who was “this guy”….the popsicle man? No, a soldier. An Imperial Stormtrooper? Ha, no a Roman soldier. Yes, who commanded a hundred men…a centurion! Yes; and he was a pagan; he believed in made-up gods.

I really like the centurion. I always have to pray for faith before Communion because it looks like plain-old flat, dry bread to me. I struggle with doubt even while I believe. But I’m reminded of the faith of the centurion. He believed Jesus could miraculously heal his servant without needing to visit him; and even though he was a Roman officer, the centurion was so humble that he didn’t feel worthy to have Jesus come to his house. If a pagan can have such faith and humility then it’s not beyond my reach.
This is how the Church uses the Bible to prepare us to receive Jesus at Mass. But you have to know what the verses mean, and think about them, for it to matter. Think about John and Jesus at the Jordan, the Wedding Feast, and the believing Roman officer, and why the stories are put together right before Communion.

What’s next? We go up for communion. Yes, and do we go and grab a fistful of communion hosts? No, the priest gives us one!  Yes, just like when Jesus multplied the loaves & fishes: the people didn’t take the miracle food: the apostles distributed it to them. And when we eat the host, we eat…the Lamb! Yes. And we eat…Jesus! Yes. And we eat…no more guesses? We eat God; we’re God-eaters. Why is that good: to eat God? ‘Cause God is good? Yes, like eating broccoli, God is good for you, but more than that…imagine I’m a young hunter in a primitive tribe. If I kill a lion, what part of the lion would I especially want to eat? His toes? His nose?…What was the matter with the lion in the Wizard of Oz? He didn’t have any courage! Yes, which a lion is supposed to have. So what part of a lion would a hunter want to eat? Umm…his heart? Yes, what would he hope to gain from that? To get the lion’s courage? Yes, and maybe his fearsomeness, strength, speed, and hunting skill. People have believed by eating the heart of an enemy or an animal they could gain their power. Does that really work? No. Right. But with communion it’s different: what do we get spiritually by eating God? His goodness? Yes, his holiness. Have you ever heard the saying “you are what you eat”? Yes. Well, when you eat Jesus you become more like Him, more holy. And remember the day after the Loaves and Fishes, Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;” so you’re doing what Jesus expects you to do- truly, truly.

And after you receive communion, how long is Jesus physically in you? Until your stomach digests, umm, the communion? Yes, for about 15 minutes. So when you get back to your pew, don’t daydream: pray while Jesus is in you. I usually thank God for making this little miracle of the Body’n'Blood available to me, but you can pray however you like.

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Remember from last week that Jesus had come to Jerusalem a few days before Passover. Now it’s Thursday evening and Jesus wants to have dinner with his friends the apostles. “Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death …Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the passover lamb had to be sacrificed. The disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.  When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples.”    Tell me please, at the first Passover, what did people eat? A lamb. Yes, and…umm, some bread? Yes, what’s called unleavened bread. Does anyone know what leavening is? No? How about yeast? No? Yeast or leavening is what makes bread fluffy. If you don’t put yeast in bread dough, you get very flat bread. But you can eat sooner, because it can take more than 2 hours for leavened dough to rise and fluff up. At the first Passover, Moses told the Israelites to make unleavened bread and eat quickly, so that when Pharaoh decided to let them leave Egypt, they’d be ready to go. Tell me what pita bread is. It’s flat round bread. Yes, it has just a little yeast and it doesn’t rise for very long before it’s baked. Can anybody think of some other round flat bread? No? How about at Mass? Oh, communion bread!  Yes; it’s unleavened bread, too.

So what do you expect Jesus and the apostles to eat at this dinner? Lamb and bread! Yes, unleavened bread. “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples….” There’s the bread. And Jesus said, “This is my body which is given up for you.” What? Why would Jesus say the bread was his body? So we would have Communion? Yes. But right then the apostles didn’t know that. Remember after Jesus fed the crowds and they wanted more miracle food the next day he said some strange things that upset people…about eating weird stuff…drinking weird stuff…oh, eat my flesh and drink my blood! Yes! Nobody understood Jesus; how could anybody eat Jesus? But then at the Last Supper he says the bread is his body. Would the apostles know how eat Jesus now? Yes, they’d eat the bread! Yes, the bread he turned into his body. Then he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” What did Jesus just do?  Change the bread?  Yes, into...his body.  Yes.  So what should they do to remember Jesus?  Change the bread?  Yes.  How can they do that?  Jesus would work the miracle through them; they would have his authority. When do we still remember this?  At Mass.  Yes.  And listen again: “This is my body which is given up for you.” What’s Jesus mean that his body is given up for them?  If say, soldiers give up, what happens?  They surrender.  Yes. Is Jesus going to surrender himself to anybody soon?  The Roman soldiers?  Yes; and what will happen to Jesus?  He’ll be crucified.  Yes, he’ll be sacrificed for our sins.  So when Jesus says his body is given up for them he’s making a little prophecy, because nobody’s arrested him just yet.  And the apostles don’t know why he’d give his body up for them anyway.  But we know he’ll be sacrificed.  So, did Jesus sacrifice himself?  Yes.  Oh, he killed himself at the Last Supper?  Ha, no! Right; who did kill Jesus?  The soldiers.  Yes.  Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice at the Last Supper, but didn’t do the actual sacrificing, the killing.  That happened the next day, which would be…Good Friday?  Yes.  Why do we say it’s Good?  Because it was good for us.

“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you.”  Y’all and the apostles have already figured out how to eat Jesus’s flesh; how will they drink his blood? By drinking the wine?  Yes, by drinking the wine Jesus changed into…blood. Yes.  Do y’all think at the Last Supper Jesus’s body and blood looked like a hunk of meat and a cup of blood?  No it just looked like bread and wine.  Yes; the apostles still needed faith, just like we do on Sundays.

Now Jesus and his friends were observing Passover, which began with Moses in Egypt; what have they eaten so far?  Bread?  Yes, anything else?  Well they drank some wine.  Yes; what are they supposed to eat at a Passover dinner?  A Lamb!  Yes, sacrificing and eating lambs were signs of the Covenant God made with the Israelites.  Tell me about the sign of the lamb’s blood at the first Passover.  They splashed it on their houses!  Yes.  But Jesus says drinking his blood, not splashing it, is the sign of a new covenant.  And right about now the apostles are thinking: what new covenant?  Isn’t this a Passover meal like people have eaten for centuries?  But maybe the apostles remember one of Jeremiah’s prophecies that we looked at a couple of months ago: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD….”  See how important marriage is?  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  It’s like a romance between God and his people.  Do my wife and I have a bunch of rules on paper?  No.  Why not?  Because if you love somebody you don’t need rules.  Yes.  Boys never answer that question, but the girls always get it right.  Boys, pay attention to what the girls say.  Anyway, I imagine the apostles thinking, “Wow, is Jesus talking about that new covenant that Jeremiah prophesied?  I wonder how that’s gonna work?”  Somebody tell me how it’s gonna work.  No takers…what do we expect the apostles to eat that they haven’t eaten?  A lamb.  Yes.  Tell me what John the Baptist called Jesus…Jesus was coming to be baptized…behold the Banana of God…Behold the Lamb of God! Yes, who takes away…the sins of the world. There ya go! So if Jesus is a Lamb, what kind of Lamb…a Christmas Lamb….Little Bo Peep’s Lamb…a Passover Lamb! Yes. How are the Apostles going to eat this Lamb? What’s the bread? Jesus. What’s the Lamb? Jesus. So if you eat the bread you…eat the Lamb!  Yes.  This is a new covenant meal; but it’s like the old one, too.

Now who was it that made that Passover covenant with God?  Moses.  Yes.  Moses was a very big deal for Jews: he got their ancestors out of Egypt, brought them the 10 Commandments, set up the Ark and Meeting Tent, got them to the Promised Land. So why would anybody dump that covenant and listen to Jesus talk about a new covenant? ’cause Jeremiah said there’d be a new one? Ooh, good guess, but Jeremiah isn’t as big a deal as Moses. He doesn’t outrank Moses.

Now tell me yet again what they have at this Final Din-Din? The Last Supper. Yes…what did they have? Bread and wine. Yes. And thinking way back this year, y’all may remember this guy [on the board] M-e-l-c-h-i-z…Melchizedek! Yes. Tell me. He was a priest? Yes. A king and a priest. What did Melchizedek bring out to Abraham…chips and dip? Umm, bread and wine? Yes. We don’t know exactly how Melchizedek offered up the bread and wine, but Genesis said he was a priest. And Abraham gave him a tenth of the stuff he had just won in a battle. Sort of like the way we give money on Sunday to support the Church. So if Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and then Abraham makes an offering to Melchizedek, who ranks higher? Melchizedek? Yes, why? Well…Abraham had to give him stuff. Yes. And because Melchizedek outranks Abraham, he also outranks Abraham’s descendants, like Isaac and Moses. So when Jesus offers bread and wine like Melchizedek, he’s showing that his new covenant outranks Moses’ covenant.

When Jesus offered the same things that Melchizedek did, I bet the apostles were thinking, “is this like Melchizedek?”  And then “does it matter?” because they didn’t figure things out right away, and Jesus had given them a lot to think about.

After supper was over did they go out bowling?  They went to pray!  Yes, in…a…bowling alley?  Was it the Garden of Eden?  No, good guess; another Garden, the Garden of Gethsemane.  But time’s up, we’ll start here next week.

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Wow, y’all are getting good. Class over!

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