What Does the Gospel Say About the Eucharist?
What does the Gospel, which is simply Old English for “Good News,” say about the Eucharist? Quite a bit, it turns out. In fact, one of the important realities that the Gospel proclaims is the good news of the Eucharist.
At one of the most critical moments in Jesus’ life, in the few hours before he was to begin his passion which was to lead to his saving death, he had one last meal with his disciples, the sacred Passover meal of the Jews.
The Passover meal commemorated the deliverance from slavery of the Jewish people, who labored in Egypt and who were led out by Moses. As the angel of death passed over the land to kill all the firstborn, only the homes of the Israelites, who had marked their doorposts with the blood of a lamb, were spared the punishment of death. The Fathers of the Church understood the Passover meal and the Passover event itself as a type of what was to reach its fulfillment in Jesus. Just before Jesus offered his life as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death (the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by the shedding of his blood), he instituted a new sacred meal – a meal derived from the Passover, but a sacred meal of the new covenant – to commemorate what he was about to do:
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