273. How did he institute the Eucharist?
(Comp
273) After he had gathered with his apostles in the Cenacle, Jesus took bread
in his hands. He broke it and gave it to them saying, “Take this and eat it,
all of you; this is my Body which will be given up for you”. Then, he took the
cup of wine in his hands and said, “Take this and drink of this, all of you.
This is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It
will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgive. Do this in memory
of me”.
“In
brief”
(CCC 1338)
The three synoptic Gospels and St. Paul have handed on to us the account of the
institution of the Eucharist; St. John, for his part, reports the words of
Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepare for the institution of the
Eucharist: Christ calls himself the bread of life, come down from heaven (Cf.
Jn 6). (CCC 1406) Jesus said: "I am the living bread that came down from
heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever;… he who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and…
abides in me, and I in him" Jn 6:51, 54, 56).
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1339)
Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum:
giving his disciples his Body and his Blood: Then came the day of Unleavened
Bread, on which the passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and
John, saying, "Go and prepare the passover meal for us, that we may eat
it...." They went... and prepared the passover. And when the hour came, he
sat at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, "I have
earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you
I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."....
And 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." and likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This
cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood" (Lk
22:7-20; cf. Mt 26:17-29; Mk 14:12-25; 1 Cor 11:23-26). (CCC 1340) By
celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover
meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus' passing
over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is
anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the
Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory
of the kingdom.
On
reflection
(CCC 1337)
The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing
that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the
course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love
(Cf. Jn 13:1-17; 34-35). In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order
never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he
instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and
commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; "thereby he
constituted them priests of the New Testament" (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740). (CCC
1365) Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a
sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very
words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and
"This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my
blood" (Lk 22:19-20). In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which
he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt 26:28).
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