Grassroots Liturgist

We have already considered the connection of both the Passover and the Manna from heaven with the Last Supper and the Eucharist.   Let’s look at one more Old Testament connection. While the Jews were in the desert searching for the promised land, their worship centred on a sanctuary called the Tabernacle - a tent that served as a portable temple. In the Tabernacle were three key symbols: the Ark of the Covenant that contained the Commandments given by God; a golden lampstand with seven branches, each lit, called an Menorah; and a golden table on which was placed the Bread of the Presence or ‘lehem ha pannim’ in Hebrew.   (Exodus 25) Incidentally, Christians can see in these three symbols a representation of the Triune God: the Ark of the invisible God, the tongues of flame and the Bread of the Presence. There were 12 cakes of this bread on the table, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and these were offered by the priests on each Sabbath day; so, the bread was a...

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) This passage, written by Paul, tells us more about the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Jesus than we may at first imagine. We read in Exodus that the Jews were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, and use the blood of that lamb to daub the doorposts and lintel of their house as a sign to the Destroyer not to slay the firstborn of that house.   They were then to roast the lamb and eat it during the Passover meal. In the Last Supper, Jesus renewed and transformed this Passover meal.   He introduced some changes that made it much more than just the Passover with which the apostles were familiar.   The lamb that was sacrificed for the original Passover meal, that delivered their firstborn from death and led to their leaving behind a life of slavery, is replaced by Jesus himself; his body and blood, which Jesus tells us unequivocally is the bread and wine .   Our sin alienates us from God ...

What is a memory? That may seem an elementary question, but I suspect that it may be a deeper question than it first appears. Some memories are trivial with no potency, having little or no effect on us in the here and now.   Yet other memories can be very powerful indeed and, even many years later, affect us viscerally.   The trauma of PTSD is caused by the re-living of a traumatic memory – the sufferer is re-entering the very events that caused their condition.   That memory is alive in the present, re-lived and embodied in the symptoms of PTSD. For a more positive example, I recall watching a film where a couple who were going through marital difficulties attended a wedding ceremony of mutual friends.   As the ceremony progressed, they were both reminded of their own wedding – they re-entered and re-lived their own wedding and the vows that they made.   Unnoticed to others, one reached down to the left hand of the other, and caressed their wedding ring...

Just a few years ago, a study in the USA revealed that about 75% percent of American Catholics believed that the Eucharist is merely a symbol.   That’s really quite shocking.   And would it be much different in the UK? The Church, from its very beginning, has taught that Jesus is really, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist.   So why is it that so many Catholics seem not to have taken this to their heart? We are not the first generation to find this to be a difficult teaching.   When Jesus told the people, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.   Whoever eats this bread will live forever.   This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51) the crowd reacted with confusion, horror and anger.   “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (6:52)   To his Jewish listeners, especially, the idea of drinking ANY blood, let alone the blood of a human, was abhorrent and struck at the heart of t...