If there are any Jews who read this blog (I doubt it), Happy Passover.
Passover was an interesting concept for me to grasp in order to understand the catholic doctrine of Eucharistic Sacrifice. An important and oft-neglected doctrine in this day and age.
Jews would slaughter the lamb and partake in it’s flesh as a meal to celebrate the propitiation of sin and to partake in the sacrifice. As St. Paul mentions alludes to in his letter to the Corinthians, our participation in the Lord’s table is our participation in his sacrifice.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18Consider the people of Israel;* are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? 19What do I imply then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” – 1 Corinthians 10: 16-22
Apparently Scott Hahn writes books on this sort of thing, so I’ll stop there until I read some of them.
Shalom / Pax Tecum
Fr. Henri Nouwen offering the Sacrifice of the Mass to God the Father in Persona Christi