My Dear Friends, 

One of the greatest gifts that we have received from Jesus Christ is without a doubt the Last Supper. At the Last Supper we discover that Jesus did something that had been announced 1,850 years before when Melchizedek came and offered a sacrifice of bread and wine. With Melchizedek as in Psalm 110, Malachi chapter 1, or when Jesus fed the multitude and multiplied the loaves, we have different previews of coming attractions. When Jesus Christ gave his famous speech in the synagogue in Capernaum about the bread of life, he was announcing what was going to happen at the Last Supper and on the following day. We know that since the passage of the Red Sea a command was given by God through Moses that every year Jews would celebrate the Passover, because on the night before they left, the angel of the Lord came and passed over every family that had put blood on the door post. This is really the commemoration, and Jesus faithfully celebrated the Passover every year. What happened the day before He died is very important for us to understand. Luke chapter 22 sets the stage; The day had arrived, the day for the unleavened bread, and it was appointed to sacrifice the paschal Lamb. Accordingly Jesus sent Peter and John with the instruction, go and prepare our Passover supper for us. They asked him, where? He said, Just go into the city. You will come upon a man carrying a water jar. Follow him into the house he enters. Say to the owner, the Teacher asks if you have a guest room where He may eat the Passover with His disciples. The man will show you an upstairs room, spacious and furnished; It is there you are to prepare. 

So, this is an amazing word, Jesus knew the future, a person Who was really a prophet. So the disciples left and prepared the room. When the hour arrived Jesus took his place at the table and the Apostles were with Him. This word is very important. In Luke 22:15, Jesus said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” We know that at the Seder Supper the Jews had different cups, different toasts that they would take. In 22:19, we come to the institution of the Eucharist. Then taking the bread and giving thanks, He broke it, gave it to them saying as He did so, do this in remembrance of Me, this is My body to be given for you. Matthew in His Gospel adds He gave His body, this is My body. We need to think about that. Then in the same way with the cup after eating saying as He did so, this cup is the New Covenant in My blood which will be shed for you. Jesus is telling us this cup is the New Covenant, a covenant passed in the blood of Jesus. He prophesies that His blood will be shed. We know that this will take place on the following day. This cup is the new covenant in My blood and Matthew adds, you must all drink from it. When we reflect on the Last Supper, we know what Jesus did, we know that He took bread and he took wine. We know that He relived the sacrifice of Melchizedek, in offering a sacrifice of bread and wine. We must understand two things about a sacrifice. In a sacrifice there’s an offering and a destruction. The bread was offered and the bread was destroyed; It was no longer bread. He said this is My body, He didn’t say, this is bread. This is My body. He took the cup, offered the cup of wine, destroyed the wine. This is not wine anymore, this is My blood, this was a sacrifice. 

If we’re going to understand what happened at the Last Supper, we need to put 3 things together; the Last Supper, Calvary and the Mass. At the Last Supper, Jesus is the priest, He’s the one who says, this is My body to be given for you, take and eat. On the cross, Jesus is the priest who gives His life. Listen to the word of John 10:17, the Father loves Me because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. Now, I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up. He gives His life on Calvary. If we reflected on the episode in the garden of Gethsemane when they came to get Him. He said, who do you want? They said, Jesus. He said, I’m Jesus and they all fell on their back. Remember? Recall how He said, I could call on the Father. He would send Me 12 legions of angels. He gave his life. He was the priest. At Mass, Jesus is the priest. At the Last Supper the victim is Jesus Christ, He gives us His body; we take and eat. On Calvary, He’s the Victim. At Mass, He’s the Victim. Clearly at the Last Supper it’s a real sacrifice, at Calvary, it’s a real sacrifice and in the Mass, it’s a real sacrifice At the Last Supper, no blood is shed, at the Mass, no blood is shed. The Blood was shed on Calvary. John was there and he says, and I saw blood and water flow out His body; I testify to this. John’s testimony is very real. 

This is so true in the thinking of the Catholic Church. On Good Friday we never have a Mass. We have a Communion Service, and we have readings, that’s all. The church tells us on Good Friday to look at Calvary. We have to look then at the Last Supper as a kind of preview to a coming attraction which would happen on the next day, Calvary on the Cross. When we look at the Mass, the Mass is a reliving of what happened on Calvary, a commemoration of what happened on Good Friday. This kind of understanding is very important. This is where we see Jesus Christ coming up with a new sacrifice, another dimension. 

Do you remember that on Good Friday people did not want to enter the praetorium, so as not to be defiled, so they could offer the Passover. It’s very interesting. While Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, he was the new Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. The Jews had been celebrating the lambs’ blood that was put on the door post on the day of the last plague in Egypt. Every year they would celebrate it solemnly. That’s what the Passover was about. Now, on the Good Friday, the Jews who were preparing to celebrate the Passover did not want to enter in the praetorium so as not to be defiled. What we must understand is that on the night before, Jesus celebrated Passover with the disciples. It was the end of that kind of Passover; It was the end of that kind of sacrifice; whereas, on Good Friday others were celebrating the old Passover prescribed by Moses. Jesus was the new Lamb of God who was offered as a sacrifice on the cross not opening his mouth, not resisting those who were putting Him to death as the Lamb brought before the shearers. We need to look more deeply at this particular moment in the life of Jesus Christ, the Last Supper, because what He said is very important. Do this in the memory of me and what He did is crucial. He was a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He offered a sacrifice with bread and wine and that’s what we do at Mass. 

Let us pray, 

Heavenly Father as we think of who Jesus Christ is, we realize that He came into the world to fulfill the plan You had made long ago. We realize that Jesus Christ was announced as the Messiah promised to Israel for centuries. He was announced again and again through the prophets, and we realize that Melchizedek came and offered a sacrifice of bread and wine. When we think that David announced that sacrifice, or offering you wished not, but behold, I come - he was talking about Jesus Christ. When we think that David, a thousand years before Jesus, said you are a priest in the order of Melchizedek, when we think of Malachi announcing a new sacrifice, when we look at Jesus Christ saying, I am the bread of life, when we look at Jesus Christ at the last supper saying, this is my body, this is my blood, we need to understand He is a priest in the line of Melchizedek.